An open source forensic tool to visualize digital evidence

Visualizing digital evidence in an easy and constructive manner is a major problem because of the advanced techniques for hiding, wiping, encrypting and deleting digital data developed during the last few years. Òo tackle this problem, a system for visualizing digital data in 3-dimensional (3D) mode has been developed. XML was used as a common language to allow fine-grained management of digital data with flexibility and ease. The extensibility of the implementation makes it particularly suitable as a research and development platform in the sector of open source computer forensics tools for the future. This article examines real-life problems that benefit from using this tool in a congenial and constructive manner to validate its key underlining concept. The design decisions that have been taken in producing the system architecture, and the features it supports are elaborated upon. To determine the effectiveness of the tool, an actual case study is presented which examines the results of the tool and why it is necessary to go for an open source model as a standard. The paper concludes with performance measurements of the tool and suggests possible extensions to make the tool even smarter.