What's New:

I have plenty of plans for new reviews and articles, as I am doing this alone, these things take time (many months!) and fit around my day job!  Its probably best to subscribe to the newsletter, rather than coming back here and being disappointed that there is nothing new.  I do however update the news page from time to time, so come to this page first each visit!!

22nd May 2023 - Latest Update

Forensic Expo - Exxcel - London

I attended the show and again met a few really decent vendors who were either asking me to review their products, or  admitted that all code has bugs and they welcomed what I was doing to bring issues to their attention.

I was asked to assist with beta testing a cloud based forensics solution, but alas, as much as I'd love to assist - my day job means I can't *sad face*.

On the down side, the show was in my opinion lack-lustre, some of the big names were not present and the show feels like it is getting smaller and smaller each year.

I was disappointed not to be able to hook up with Digital Intelligence (reseller of all things forensic) as I'd like to get my hands on a new TX1 hardware imager (or the replacement that has/is being released) - if you read this, get in touch.  I also noticed that OpenText was not present (there were exhibiting at another show in Sweden from memory).

Foot fall on the first day of the show was really low - I guess that people are actually at work and can't get to the show, perhaps moving this to a weekend would see a massive uptick in that.

I think this show is going to get worse before it gets any better, it seems that the price of entry is sky rocketing (to exhibit) and even larger firms (Such as Belkasoft) had a lemonade stand size booth with nothing on display.  If they are not paying up for real-estate to show of their upcoming products - the show is in trouble !

13th March 2023

Net Analysis - Digital Detective - Review Cancelled

Looks like the NetAnalyis internet history parser review is cancelled, I've just heard from the vendor Craig Wilson over at Digital Detective - he has some personal things going on at the moment and now is not the time for a review for him.

That's a real shame as I was really looking forward to revisiting one of the original Internet History parser tools, that has been around for almost 20 years.

NetAnalysis did perform really well during the new "lite" review testing model, so I have absolutely no plans  or need to forcibly review the software, which is usually what happens when a vendor drops out.

I wish Craig and Digital Detective every success moving forward, and as ever, the door is open should he wish to come back to the meat grinder and throw NetAnalysis in again in the future!

23rd January 2023 - Latest Update

Net Analysis - Digital Detective - Review In The Pipeline

Just had a chat with the legendary Craig Wilson proprietor of Digital Detective, author of the worlds most accurate web-browser history parser "Net-Analysis".

NA will be the first of the newer "lite" reviews that I will be featuring on the site (due to no longer having enough spare time to do the deep dive reviews of the past).

I'll be doing an interview with Craig and you can find out what he is working on both now and in the future, we will also be testing NA against other popular analysis tools to see who comes out on top!  Not one not to miss!!!!

13th December 2022 

CFRO keeps growing in popularity, currently getting around 800 hits a day, which is a massive amount for a very small niche website like this. 

OSF Forensics Review In The Pipeline:

I've been speaking with Geoff over at OSF Forensics again and a review in the future is on the cards as he has agreed to provide a licence for review purposes.

I recall that this was riddled with bugs many years ago when it first came out, and was bit of a laughing stock.  So lets see what the past 10 years or so of development has done to their product.

There are some really interesting features that I can't wait to stick my wooden testing stick of doom into, so subscribe to that newsletter to be notified when the review is released.

Forensics Expo Show @ Olympia - London - May 2023

The Expo show is on again in May, roughly 6 months away, I'd like to have some reviews of products that I saw last year, lets see what is possible.

I'll be there in my CFRO atire - say hello of you see me, I don't bite (unless you are a vendor on my sh*tlist).

The Future of CFRO Website:

Its business as usual, I'm not going anywhere and neither is the site, I have very little time these days due to case work, but as I never comit to when a review will come out, there is no pressure (the last thing I want in life!) to deliver content.

21st  June 2022 -  Latest Update

Wow the Digital Forensics Expo at the Excell centre was a real mixed bag, whilst there was lots to see (albeit in a very small exhibition room) there were hardly any people walking around whilst I was around (the main part of the day).

I've made some new friends at various vendors - and quite a few were really excited about their products and jumped at the chance to go through the CFRO meat grinder process (aka a review!).

There were of course the usual bunch of vendors who have more bugs and issues than the reptile section at your local zoo, who hid under the table whenever I walked past!

Hancom Decline Longterm Review;

A special "Not a nice vendor experience" award goes out to the South Korean firm Hancom who make the MD series of mobile phone analysis products (MD-RED as an example), I spoke with one of their sales representatives at the show and they declined submitting their product for a long-term review.  I'd also spoken to them via email over a year ago - same result.

They would only give me a 30 day licence to examine the product - after I told them I would take months to do a proper review...hmmmmmmm (because I fit the odd half hour of reviewing in between my usual day job and life) - so a licence this short wouldn't be anywhere near enough time to do a proper review and wouldn't meet the criteria of the long term system I have on the site.

So now they have my laser focussed attention, they will undergo a review anyway (think the Macquisition review I did here), so we will have the hood/bonnet up on it and see if they are just scared of a review or if there are some nasty bugs lurking around that they have not told you about.

As with all vendors on this site, its not too late to step up to the plate - the door is always open, get in touch with a serious licence duration and I'll take a look and help you identify issues your testers have missed before going to press.  Can't say fairer than that.  Its better to be on this site than the front page of the Sun or on the news at 10 for some reason or another.

Digital Intelligence - Forensics Hardware & Software Vendor

I had a great chat with Chris Stippich over on the Digital Intelligence booth, they are distributors and manufacturers of various digital forensics hardware and software - a real nice guy and happy to show me all the latest stuff they had.

They are the USA distributor for the Tableau TX1  (review here) and we had a good chuckle over the "we don't have a problem" rhetoric that came out of OpenText (the manufacturer) and then the flurry of fixes that quitely arrived post review.

They also have some new PCIe 4.0 adapters that allow you to hook up all manner of NVME drives to a free slot in your analysis workstation.  Looking forward to having a play with one of those.

Chris was a real nice guy and offered to ship over some items for me to have a play with in the future.  The TX1 replacement anyone ??? :)

Other Reviews;

I'll do another update soon as I have some news about more brave vendors who have joined the queue for a review.

If you subscribe to the newsletter here, that helps me get the latest information to you -  thanks!

8th June 2022 -  Visiting Digital Forensics Expo at Excell in London

I've taken two days off out of my day job to attend the show and see what is new out there - I will be floating around in my CFRO T-Shirt (logo and all!) so you can't miss me!

It will be nice to catch up with the past vendors whose products I've reviewed and also to meet the "queued" vendors whose reviews are in progress.  I'm sure it will be a good experience and don't forget to say hello!

I'll also be seeking out new products from new and existing vendors to add to my list of upcoming reviews.

If you subscribe to the newsletter here, that helps me get the latest information to you -  thanks!

10th January 2021 -  Tableau TX1 - Review Mini Update

My review of the TX1 hardware disk/network imager (here) has been updated (see the end of page 2), Opentext have made some fixes and I have slightly improved their score.

Sadly its not all good news as a walk through some recent firmware change logs published by Opentext reveals that more very serious bugs have been fixed that relate to issues that my review testing did not dig up.

If you use a TX1 you *really* need to check these change-logs each time they are released, as the bugs may have affected previous data you have collected.

If ever there is a need for some form of legislation that forces vendors to contact every customer in writing when a serious issue is discovered, Opentext's TX1 is a prime candidate.

If you subscribe to the newsletter here, that helps me get the latest information to you -  thanks!

29th December 2021 -  Site Update

Managed to find some time to continue my work on the Monolith case management software review, its coming along slowly and will be out at some point !

Remember to sign up here for the newsletter - as you will be notified when a new review comes out, instead of coming back here and seeing no new material !

I wish I had more time for the site, but sadly I don't get anywhere near enough time to spend on it.  

If you subscribe to the newsletter, thanks!

3rd June 2021 -  Nexus (RAM Forensics Solution) - Trufflepig

Well, no rest for the wicked, yet another vendor has been in touch, this time it s Mika Heinio from Trufflepig.  They are a small startup with a big heart, they tell me they have a rather unique product for analysing RAM dumps of devices.

It will be interesting to see how this compares to the other tools in this area of the market (which is becoming crowded!), what with CyberTriage (review coming soon) and various others popping up.

Anyway, go here and subscribe to the newsletter to be notified when this review drops.

1st June 2021 -  MobileEDIT Forensic Express - Compelson - Review Agreed !

I've been speaking with Dwayne Remolado over at Compleson, they make MobilEdit the mobile phone forensics software.  Dwayne has agreed to a long-term CFRO review of their flagship product.  I've warned him that its a bit brutal on this review website - no kid gloves here - and he replied that brutal feedback is often the best - so thats a good vendor attitude from the get-go!

I've used MobileEdit a long long time ago (7 years) and to be honest, the experience was terrible - program stability, reporting, user interface design and language localisation were my biggest gripes back then.  I never renewed my licence and moved on to other tools.

Hopefully things have moved on since then and perhaps this is now a contender to challenge the behmoths such as Cellbrite, Oxygen and XRY in this segment of the market.

Go here and subscribe to the newsletter and you will be notified when this review drops (eventually!).

15th February 2021 -  uWiper -  Difose - Review Agreed !

Sukru Durmaz (CEO) over at Difose have been in touch and I'm going to do a reivew of their wiping hardware unit uWiper product.

Sukru has said the unit is undergoing some further testing and bug fixes at present, but once complete is going to be shipped to CFRO towers, where it will be put through the mangle to see if it is any good.

Watch this space!

11th February 2021 -  Forensic Explorer - Get Data - Revisited

Graham's team over at GetData have been busy fixing issues and adding new features to their Forensic Explorer product.

After checking out the fixes and the new features in V 5.4.2.1238, they have redeemed themselves and receive a coveted CFRO Sizzler award, for a very respectable 9.0 out of 10 score.

The review text (at the end of the second page) has been updated as has the review score table - that now features and "original" and "current" score column.

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5th February 2021 -  OpenText - TX1 - Hardware Imager Review Online!!

I've finally finished the review of the OpenText TX1 hardware imager, you can check it out here.

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2nd-November-2020 -  I am still alive!

I'm glad that no money changes hands or contracts are signed for these reviews, I've not done anything since September on the website !!!

I've been absolutely stacked out with fee earning case work, so until that dies down a little, I won't be posting any reviews.

Everything that is listed on the reviews index page will come out eventually, but the order may change.

Don't waste your time coming back here to check for updates, be smart and SUBSCRIBE to the newsletter, when you will get an E-Mail when a new review is added to the site !

Thanks for all your support and patience - see you in the next review!

21st-October-2020 - Aid4Mail - Fookes Software - Review Arranged!

I've just had a chat with Mark Weaver, head of Marketing over at Fookes Software, purveyors of all sorts of software including the reknown Aid4Mail.

Mark is providing a 12 month licence to the Investigator edition of A4M, so I will put that through the meat grinder here at CFRO and let you know the good and the bad.  This will appear some time in the new year, I hear they are working on a new version which is going to perhaps pinch some of Arman Gungors share of the market with his Forensic Email Extractor product!

Competition is good, lets see how this pans out!

Remember to SUBSCRIBE to the newsletter, when you will get an E-Mail when a new review is added to the site !

8th-August-2020 -  Forensic Tool Kit 7.x (Access Data) - Review Upcoming

Just been in touch with a very polite Holli Hagene at Access Data, they are on-board for a review of Forensic Tool Kit 7.x (FTK).

I'm stoked to be honest as this is another of the "Grandaddy" forensic tools which I have been using (and avoiding at certain times in its lifespan - remember V3.0 hohoho) since I started in the digital forensic field.

Please remember to subscribe to the newsletter to be notified of when this review arrives.

Its getting crazy now the number of vendors who have realised that they get some pretty in depth testing done for free - plus they get exposure on the site when the review is released.  Check the review index to see when this review will come out  here.  Sadly I am only one man, doing this in my spare time (which is limited) so it will be months before this one rolls off the conveyor belt :(

19th-June-2020 -  Elcomsoft Phone Breaker (Elcomsoft) - Review Upcoming

Wow, this is crazy another vendor has agreed a nice comfy, long term voluntary review of their product by CFRO !  Thats about 10 products queued up now !!

This time around we have Vladimir Katalov CEO of Elcomsoft, who wants to go through the CFRO mangle with the forensic edition of Elcomsoft Phone Breaker (EPB).  A 12 months licence has been granted and we are on the road to a review!

Please remember to subscribe to the newsletter to be notified of when this review arrives.

It will be quite some time before this appears on the site, but if the tools I have used from Elcomsoft in the past are a reflection of the quality of EPB - it looks like this might get a decent score!

18th-June-2020 -  Belkasoft Evidence Centre (Belkasoft) - Review Upcoming

Well CFRO has never been so popular, I have just been speaking with Yuri Gubanov over at Belkasoft.  They are now queued for a review of their flagship forensics suite  Belkasoft Evidence Centre 2020  (BEC).

I started a review (that was never published) of BEC three years ago, I found it was an unstable 32-bit mess, that had quite a few serious bugs.

That was a lifetime ago in development time and from what I have heard from others, all of those early issues are now a thing of the past!

I'm looking forward to this one, I remember it has a really nice user interface and has some killer features (relating to Apple forensics and Windows alike).

Please remember to subscribe to the newsletter to be notified of when this review arrives.

It will be many months away, as there is a **huge** queue of vendors - and I am but one man :)

15th-June-2020 -  IREC (Binalyze) - Review Upcoming

I have been speaking with Emre over at Binalyze, they have an incident response evidence collector tool known as Binalyze IREC, they approached CFRO for a review and as such are now part of the queue!!

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10th-June-2020 - Outrider (Magnet Forensics) - Review Upcoming

I have been speaking with Magnet Forensics about reviewing their new triage tool "Outrider"!  Yaaay!

The initial response from Magnet was a train-wreck inducing statement along the lines of "it [Outrider] is not ready to be reviewed, its just out of beta".  Yes folks, people still write things like that to me.

Thankfully the executive team at Magnet got involved and decided that this was not perhaps the best way to show confidence in their product to the community.  So that initial decision has been reversed - I am happy to say they have reconsidered and now a voluntary review is under way.  I'm pretty stoked to be honest - anything that helps out LE is always exciting for me to look at.

There are two versions of Outrider, corporate and LE - the latter having built in functionality to identify IIOC and other LE specific features.  I will be reviewing the corporate version, but fear not LE folk, I will take a look at those additional features.

This review is some way off, but remember how this site works subscribe to the newsletter to be notified of when new content drops! (As updates here are few and far between!)

Kudos to Magnet for stepping up to the plate, you have to have b*lls to voluntarily come on this website for a review.

5th-June-2020 - Monolith Pro (Case Management) - Update

Just had a great chat with Matt Danner over at Monolith Forensics about the upcoming review of his case management software.  Its nice to see another developer who has confidence in his product and is happy to submit it to the CFRO microscope review process.

Good things come from small acorns and this is looking like its going to be something that may be in use in my lab if it does what it says on the tin.

Watch this space as I will be working on this soon.

4th-June-2020 - NIST Announce Large Scale Testing of Forensic Software

The USA's National Institute of Standards and Testing has announced a program which will see mass testing of the accuracy of digital forensic tools.

Wow, did they steal my idea :)

Anyway, that's great news - I've joined their program as a testing affiliate - if you want to read more about it, check out the screenshot below or go here.

2nd-June-2020 - Monolith Pro (Case Management) - Review Coming Soon!!

I've been watching this one for a while, Matt over at Monolith has agreed to a long term test of their Digital Forensics Case Management System.  I may have mentioned it in the site news before, but a slot has been allocated and this is going to be coming most likely towards the end of June.

There is a lot of really bad case management software out there that has been recycled from the emergency services sector and does not fit digital investigations very well - we will take a look at those and I'll tell you all about the fun and games I had a few years ago doing a behind-closed doors

21st-May-2020 - Forensic Explorer -  Review Online (1200 BST)

It is finished, the review of Forensic Explorer is now online and available to view, was it any good ?  Did I like it ?

Find out by reading the review here!

15th-May-2020 - Tableau TX1 Hardware Imager - Review Upcoming

I've been approached by Steve Gregory an old acquaintance of mine from my Police days.  He is part of the furniture at Opentext (aka Guidance Software) and has asked me to review Encase and the Tableau TX1 Hardware Imager.

I've used TD1's and TD2's back in the day, but this one is the newest all singing all dancing model - if I can get one in for a long term 12 month test - I will get a hardware review up here as soon as I can.

Expect the usual mind numbing detail if it happens - I know some of you like that !

16th-Apr-2020 - Forensic Explorer - Upcoming Review

I'm coming to the end of my review of Forensic Explorer from GetData - Graham kindly sent over a 12 month licence for a long term test.

Its been an interesting ride with this underdog, I've spent as usual, waaaaay to much time on this (I should start charging for reviews lol!), but for those of you who like a long read, you won't be disappointed.

Is it a load of rubbish, is it amazing, well, you will have to wait and see!

I expect it to drop in the next week or so.

25th-Mar-2020 - Cyber Triage - Upcoming Review

I've just had confirmation from Chris at Basis Technology - a licence for Cyber Triage is on the cards, so look out for a review!  CT is, simply put, a GUI that sits on top of Volatility and allows you to quickly scan RAM images for malware.  The killer feature in addition to this, is that you can load up a disk image into the software and it can scan event logs, system files and other areas for malicious programs.

I've played with the trial and enjoyed that, so now time to get the big boy pants on here at CFRO and have a deep dive into it.

Expect this to drop end of late April, early May.

12th-Feb-2020 - Forensic Explorer - Get Data - Upcoming Review

I've just had confirmation from Graham over at GetData - a licence for Forensic Explorer is on its way over - so I can put this product through the CFRO mangle and see how it gets on.

I've not looked at this for a while, but I do know its half the price of most other forensic suites and has some cool built in image booting features (allowing you to boot a suspect machine directly from the image file, to see the desktop etc).

Expect this to drop end of March beginning of April, so;

10th-Feb-2020 - Mac Imaging & Triage on a £1500 Budget - Article Online!

I've been cooking this one up for a while - as Apple forensics is not nearly as main-stream as its Windows counterpart - this article goes into the depths of how you can kit out your lab with a budget build and climb aboard the Apple forensics bandwagon.

The article covers;

7-Feb-2020 - Black Bag - Macquisition - Review Online!

Its here, I've finished my Macquisition review - its online here.

Its more of a journey than a review, if you want to know the ins and outs of imaging (not analysing) Apple machines, then this review will give you a good grounding and help you avoid some common Gotchas!  Enjoy!

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20/12/19 - Black Bag - Macquisition - Review under way!

Well folks, I have my Macquisition dongle and I also have a nice shiny T2 equipped Apple Macbook, so I will be doing some physical imaging of its internal drive over the holiday period !!  The whole lots has cost me about £190 for the rental, out of my own pocket of course - www.cfro.co.uk is broke - but hey, stuff on a shoestring is always better than the commercial stuff :)

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9/12/19 - Black Bag - Macquisition - Licence Secured for Review!

I have managed to obtain a licence for BlackBag's Macquisition, sadly not from them [they don't want it reviewed], but I have my ways!  I'm renting a T2 equipped Mac for the review, so we are good to go!

Look out for a full review soon, I will be taking you on a deep dive into the apparent "Physical" disk images that Maquisition creates and assess the real world usefulness of such a feature. 

In other words, is it going to give you much more than the other products out there?.

I don't know, we will see, either way, its going to be exciting to get the hood up and have a look inside!

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2/12/19 - New Vendor Interview - Armon Gungor - Metaspike 

We get Arman Gungor of Metaspike, creator of Forensic Email Extractor in the interview chair here at CFRO towers to spill the beans on the development of FEC and what we can expect from his outfit in the future!

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27/11/19 -  Black Bag - Macquisition Train Wreck Continues

Update from Black Bags marketing team, they don't want me to review it, makes me wonder what is wrong with the product - CFRO is a fair place for a review, otherwise why else would other vendors queue up to get a review ?? very strange indeed... full story here.

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26/11/19 - Review "No Show" Online - Macquisition !

Check out what happened when I approached Black Bag to review their Apple imaging tool here.

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20/11/19 - Case Management Software Review Upcoming!

Monolith forensics recently announced that they are working on a Case Management tool designed for forensic practicioners, its FREE while in beta, and I will be breaking my own rules and reviewing a piece of beta software on the site!

To be notified of when this review drops subscribe to the newsletter!

12/11/19 - Forensic Explorer V3 Review Upcoming!

A forensic suite for less than half the price of EnCase or FTK ?

I've just been in contact with Graham Henley from GetData.  He has agreed to a long term review of FE in the new year (around February) to be notified of when this review drops subscribe to the newsletter!

11/11/19 - Macquisition Review may be on the Cards!

I've just been contacted by Tim Thorne over at Black Bag Technologies about my last Recon Imager review.  I am hoping that Tim will submit Macquisition (their Apple imaging tool) for a long term review and we can have a good look at how this alternative product works.  Stay tuned.... Like, share and subscribe please!

6/11/19 - New Review Online - KeyGrabber USB Air  - by Jon Munsey

We go all secret squirrel and test out this £20/$20/€18 hardware key logging device in this in-depth review.  Like, share and subscribe please!

1/11/19 - New Review Online - Recon Imager V4.05 - by Jon Munsey

We take this Apple Mac disk and memory imaging tool out for a spin, in this in-depth review.  Like, share and subscribe!

25/10/19 - Upcoming Reviews!

Sumuri Recon Imager V4.05 - How do you image Apple computers ? Not with a linux boot disk anymore, thats for sure.  This review is almost complete and I'm hoping to have this online over the weekend, subscribe to be notified of all new reviews!

KeyDemon Wifi Key Logger - An interesting little device to help with covert capturing of a targets keystrokes.  Is it any good ?  No idea, not taken it out of the packet yet, but rest assured, it will get a grilling in the near future, subscribe to be notified of new reviews!

20/10/19 - Upcoming Reviews!

FTK Imager V4 (Access Data) -  One of the oldest imaging programs in computer forensics software gets a well deserved review, come along for the ride and find out some interesting features and quirks that you may not know about.  

18/10/19 - New Review Online - Forensic Email Collector V3.10 - by Jon Munsey

Pick up a pointy stick and come with me to poke FEC about, in this in-depth review of Metaspikes all-in-one mailbox collection tool.

18/10/19 - Calling All Vendors - We Need Your Advertisements & Products!

Whilst I have a raft of forensic software that I own an use on a daily basis, I need fresh tools and products to review, if you want your product reviewed in a fair and independant manner, then please visit our submit product for review page.

If you wish to advertise on our site - please visit the advertise with us page.  This site is small acorns at present, so get in whilst it is new and the prices are super low.  The only people realistically reading this site are potential customers and decision makers!

If you product is of good quality, you will receive a positive review, just like Metaspike did for their Forensic Email Collector (click to see their review).

18/10/19 - Computer Forensics Reviews Online is LIVE !!!!

Launched the site today, have lots of reviews lined up and am hoping that you guys and girls will support me by signing up to the newsletter, so you can be notified when any new content is added!  It has been a long time in the making, but it is finally here - spread the word and share please - I need as much exposure as I can get!