Computer forensics and law enforcement: The need for inexpensive, reliable, fast and easy to use forensic tools in the field

Technology is evolving and computers are involved in almost every aspect of a person's life. It is important that law enforcement such as: police officers, parole officers, and probation officers are able to keep up with new and old crimes that now involve digital evidence. Computer forensic tools aide law enforcement personnel in solving digital crimes. Computer forensic tools can be very costly and many law enforcement agencies do not have the money to afford such tools in their budgets. There are a number of free forensic tools available to law enforcement. Although cost is a major factor, these agencies are also looking for reliable, fast and easy to use tools. FieldSearch, Autopsy, TUX4N6 and COFEE are all free computer forensic tools that are available to law enforcement. Each tool was tested to verify that it possessed the qualities that law enforcement agencies seek. Positive and negative attributes were found in each of the four tools tested. FieldSearch provided a fast and easy to use option that has shown it is reliable and court approved. Autopsy was easy to use but the use of the tool was a very lengthy process and there were no court cases found that utilized the tool. TUX4N6 proved to be a speedy tool that has provided results that have stood up in court. Although TUX4N6 is speedy and reliable, the user interface is not as easy to navigate. COFEE was able to provide system information but did not provide information that would give the investigator an idea of the suspect's user history. Each of the tools was also tested to determine the effects of a PC cleaner on the tools ability to provide the investigator with the user's history. It was found that PC cleaners do have an effect on the information that the investigator is able to recover and it is important that they are aware of the effects.;Keywords: Cybersecurity, Professor Daniel Draz, Crime, Computer Search, Criminal.