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Author: Darcey Hilliard

What does the State of Enterprise DFIR look like today? Share your insights in our survey!

October 2, 2025

By Darcey Hilliard

The State of Enterprise DFIR survey is now open until October 31, 2025. DFIR is facing a huge inflection point. Between artificial intelligence, increasing digital endpoints, and other unique challenges, the field is changing at a rapid rate. Those in the industry need to know how to keep up. That’s why we want to hear from you.

That One Artifact: The search history that spoke volumes

October 1, 2025

By Darcey Hilliard

In digital forensics, the fight against technology can sometimes get in the way of the fight for justice. Whether it’s an encrypted phone sitting in a lab queue awaiting support or a crucial lead buried in gigabytes of data, solving a case can sometimes come down to a single update or surfacing a single artifact. And in some cases, that one artifact doesn’t just whisper its significance—it screams.

Making media authentication easier to understand with automated analysis

September 29, 2025

By Darcey Hilliard

Photos, videos, and other media files have become critical to investigations. They establish timelines, corroborate witness statements, and reveal details that would otherwise be overlooked. But media is also one of the easiest forms of evidence to manipulate. Editing tools are widely available and simple to use. Metadata can be easily altered with minimal technical knowledge. Deepfake and AI-generated content continues to evolve, making it harder to distinguish authentic from manipulated media. Attorneys may question whether a file is genuine, and investigators must respond with authoritative answers that can withstand scrutiny.

The rising cost of digital fakes, frauds, and forgeries in the private sector

September 26, 2025

By Darcey Hilliard

What was once an amusing novelty has become a systemic threat to global business. Deepfakes, synthetic media, and AI-generated material have infiltrated private enterprises, and their presence is now being felt across financial services, insurance, retail, human resources, ecommerce, and more.

Turning technical possibility into legal proof

September 25, 2025

By Darcey Hilliard

When I first began trying cases, digital evidence wasn’t even part of the case. It simply didn’t exist in the courtroom. At most, you might see a phone bill or a stray email, but the real drama played out through eyewitnesses, physical evidence, and confessions.

Beyond push-button forensics: The reality of forensic automation

September 24, 2025

By Darcey Hilliard

“Push-button forensics” is often viewed skeptically and criticized as a shortcut or a threat to expert examiners. In reality, digital forensic tools designed for ease of use aren’t about replacing human expertise. Their true purpose is to streamline repetitive, time-consuming steps, enabling forensic examiners to focus on what truly matters: in-depth analysis, context, and human judgment.

The fine balance: How I learned to stop worrying and love the cloud

August 28, 2025

By Darcey Hilliard

Too often, devices sit for weeks while the balance between thorough, defensible work and timely insight gets lost. When I was part of the West Virginia State Police and ICAC Task Force, I had to rethink how to strike that balance.

The digital forensics tightrope act

July 31, 2025

By Darcey Hilliard

I’ve spent my career in digital forensics wrestling with two deceptively simple questions: Where do I start and where do I stop, in an investigation? Both decisions feel like drawing lines on quicksand. You’re flooded with artifacts—timestamps, logs, messages—tempting you to search every byte. But legal deadlines and investigative demands force focus. The real skill isn’t just finding evidence but knowing when to stop.

Why is AI held to a higher standard than I am?

June 26, 2025

By Darcey Hilliard

Years ago, I stood in a Colorado courtroom, arguing for the admissibility of a method I had developed to estimate vehicle speed using dashcam footage. The case was heartbreaking. A father riding a homemade motorcycle had been struck and killed by an impaired driver traveling at 105 mph. The only available evidence? The dashcam video from the offender’s own vehicle.

DFIR and DOGE: Digital Forensics in a new funding environment

May 29, 2025

By Darcey Hilliard

For decades, I’ve seen DFIR lab funding follow a cycle; budget cuts, crisis, then a funding surge. Today I want to share insights from the field and outline how to manage the rising tide of digital evidence amid tighter government budgets.

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