HDD Shipments

 

Yesterday we showed you the statistics from our lab that shows you the percentage of drives we get from each manufacturer. We decided to look at how many drives some of the biggest manufacturers sell each year. The above pie chart shows the results.

The number of drives we get in the lab from each manufacturer appears to be roughly in line with each of the  manufacturer’s market share.

Pie chart data from: toshiba.co, wdc.com and seagate.com.

 

Some interesting statistics from the recovery lab

While we aren’t saying which brands are best, or worst, we did think these statistics were interesting. We split the data into Hard disk drives by brand and USB sticks by brand.

Hard drive cases seen by our data recovery lab seem to mostly evenly spread among the most well known brands, whereas, with USB sticks, most cases are unknown/generic brands. Sandisk appears a lot, is this a sign of poor manufacturing process, or just because Sandisk is popular? I’d go with Sandisk being more popular than less reliable.

The data recovery statistics can be viewed here

 

Mobile Phone Becomes Tracking Beacon

Apple’s hugely successful mobile phone line, the Apple iPhone, has been revealed to collect location data to such a degree that: “armed with that location data, examiners can draw a Google Map of the route you took and the exact time you were there, down to the second”! It isn’t just the iPhone that is ‘wired’, Apple’s venture into the handheld market with the iPad also contains the same tracking technology.

The data is captured automatically via two sources: local cell towers that the device is in proximity to and wireless networks that the device can associate with.  Due to the amount of data being kept, without the users knowledge, Apple’s line of products are an examiners ‘golden goose’.

The data itself can be extracted by experts using specialist software that can prove invaluable to both civil and criminal proceedings. One such example is the New Orleans Police Department using the iPhone’s tracking capability to snare Julius Dyson who was undertaking an armed robbery in April 2012 (the iPhone belonged to the victim).

The damage that this data collected could wreak is limitless. Cheating spouses could be left with serious embarrassment if there device corroborates accusations if they were supposed to be at work and instead they were having a secret rendezvous at some swanky hotel!

While it is no secret of the amount of data the devices store; and the public’s perception at such invasion of privacy, the concept is starting to grow. Recently a new app has been introduced that uses tracking technology to “find missing kids”. The app is known as ‘Family Tracker’ and while it runs on smart phones, such as iPhone and Android it doesn’t require both ends to be a smart phone. The app can be accessed online to keep track of where children are and at what time they were there! The service was used to find a missing boy in Atlanta, 14. The device also lead to the apprehension of an accused killer out on bail who stole an iPhone which was later tracked through the app ‘Track my Phone’.

So is a device’s ability to track individuals to such extremes a good thing or bad thing? Arguably it depends on which side of the fence you’re on, if you are having a passionate love affair perhaps not, but evidently the tracking capability of such devices clearly have a benefit?

Celebrations

So today is the anniversary of the first official day of trading for Zibit Datalab. It has been a long, tricky and sometimes treacherous year, but above all it has been a successful year.

For those that don’t know the background to Zibit Datalab, the company was started on this day in 2011 by Dominic Nielen-Groen and Christopher Elmore. Both students at Birmingham City University. They started Zibit Datalab with a clear vision to provide services that, met or exceed the competition, while remaining, good value money, transparent and reliable. Judging by what our customers have been telling us, we are definitely doing that.

Also core to Zibit Datalabs ethos was community, particularly the forensic community. To this end Student Forensic Forum was established to provide a platform for students and newbies to the forensic industry to meet, practitioners, share knowledge and get a much closer feel for what the industry is all about. 

Of course we won’t be sitting back on our laurels in the next year.We have many plans and new products and services that we will be launching. Including RecuvAssure, ‘breakdown’ cover for your data! When it comes to the data that we all have stored on a variety of devices, we feel that it is important to protect it. Of course backing up is the best solution and we would always advocate that, but for the added peace of mind, the knowledge that if your hard drive fails, or you drop your mobile phone, you wont find yourself in a situation where you have to pay high recovery fees.

Ressurrected

So some time ago Dominic set up a database of PM absolute addresses used to obtain manual hex dumps of mobile phone. Unfortunately during the setting up of Zibit Datalab and rearrangement of servers etc, the database was taken offline.

Today however we are pleased to announce that the database has be brought back online. The website is exactly as it was when it went offline and all user accounts are still active. So if you were a registered member, your account will still be there for you. The database can be accessed at http://www.zibitforensics.co.uk.

We do plan to spruce up the site at some point, bringing it into line with our main website, however this may take some time to do. The project is and always has been a community led project and so we do invite you to put forward your suggestions for ways to develop the site and its offering to the mobile forensics community.

Onwards and upwards

23 days ago we moved into a new office, put together especially for us. The new office in Wolverhampton caters for our forensic services and some of our recovery services. The bulk of our data recovery is now carried out in our clean lab, based in Birmingham.

Why have we separated our office and lab? Apart from being a little cramped having both together, it means we can increase our capacity and do many more recoveries for our customers.

Recently we also entered into a partnership with Birmingham City University, which gives all forensic students studying at the university the opportunity to get hands on forensic experience and access to some of the tools and applications that we use.

Furthermore we are currently working to implement a fast track recovery service. Once implemented, customers will be able to book their recoveries into our lab without ever having to pick up the phone. This eliminates the need to submit a quote or wait for a phone call. Your recovery will be ready to go, all you’d need to do is send it in to us.

Focus Group

We a looking for approximately 20 people that do not work in the IT sector or an IT related role, to participate in a focus group session.

The session will last no more than an hour and is penned for the 6pm on the 9th of November, however this may change. The focus will be on how computers are used in the home.

We will of course provide some nibbles and refreshment

Please let us know if you are interested in attending.