Scientists and engineers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology have highlighted how NIST works to help law enforcement agencies extract data from digital devices, Fedscoop reported Friday.Greg Otto writes the NIST has collaborated with investigators to identify computer files by name, size, manufacturer and cryptologic hashes through the National Software Reference Library database.
Doug White, a computer scientist at NIST, told audiences at the agency’s forensics conference last week the NIST has introduced a “download-only†software and a virtual machine layer into the database, according to the report.
The additions are among the upgrades to NSRL in an effort to help researchers expand their data library and probe the forensics of the software lifecycle, FedScoop reports.
“We can take all disk images and media images that are in the virtual library and spin them up on virtual machines,†White said.
Rick Ayers, a computer forensic scientist at NIST, said the computer forensics tool testing team is also tasked to review mobile forensics tools in the next few months in order to help investigators work with multiple devices across GSM and CDMA networks.
