Exterro Revolutionizes Forensic Investigations with the Launch of FTK 8.0

Global News

25
Sep
2023

Editor

Exterro today announced the debut of Exterro FTK® 8.0, the award-winning, court-cited digital investigations solution built for speed, stability, and ease of use, with the fastest scalable processing engine on the market.

FTK 8.0 delivers powerful time-saving automations to help agencies accelerate forensic workflows in order to close cases faster. By using FTK Connect to automate case creation and evidence processing, law enforcement agencies can eliminate time spent waiting for jobs to be completed and get cases to examiners in half the time.

“FTK was created with forensic investigators in mind – to make their lives easier and enable them to find and understand the relevant evidence faster than ever before,” said Ajith Samuel, Cofounder and Chief Product Officer at Exterro. “This new version of FTK helps forensic investigators with their toughest challenges, offering artifact-based filtering to identify artifacts automatically and narrow the scope of investigation based on examiner needs, and an interactive timeline to allow examiners to compare evidence sets among various devices.” 

Among the new features in this latest version of FTK are automatic artifact categorization, visual filters that help investigators pinpoint where to begin their analysis, and the ability to more easily apply Project VIC and CAID categories during CSAM review. Exterro FTK 8.0 also includes a powerful interactive timeline visualization tool that allows users to compare data from different devices or different time periods and click on those artifacts to dig deeper into the evidence. Timelines are created instantly and automatically surface all relevant artifacts within a specific timeframe – including obscure or unexpected evidence types that may have been missed if an examiner was manually searching and compiling timeline data.  

“With the speed of the new FTK 8.0 processing engine, we can get the data into the hands of [our] expert investigators faster – often on the same day,” said Wayne Mitchell, a former FBI Senior Forensic Examiner currently serving as Vice President of Cyber Risk at Kroll. “The interface is easy to understand, and the artifacts are automatically categorized and organized so you’re able to dive right into the investigation and build the story the evidence is showing. FTK 8.0 cuts out all the time needed to manually find the artifacts and piece it all together.”

Exterro FTK 8.0 offers investigators the following new features:

• New user interface. FTK’s intuitive new interface design makes it easier for both experienced investigators and non-technical users to navigate within the software. It eliminates the hours spent manually digging for specific data types, and pinpoints key evidence faster. Users can now choose between “light mode” and “dark mode” to reduce digital eye strain and improve concentration.
• Artifact-based filter panel. FTK 8.0 offers simpler ways to cull massive data sets to narrow the scope of investigation, eliminating the need to create complex data filters. The FTK Filter Panel automatically categorizes the artifacts investigators typically look for (mobile data, chat apps, emails, pictures, and more) as they begin their review. 
• Highlight Artifacts. This feature presents the most important artifacts upfront, highlighting the most relevant case evidence, such as recently accessed files, connected USB devices, AirDrop activity, and more.
• Super Timeline evidence view. FTK 8.0 helps investigators understand and compare evidence sets by creating a visual representation of case evidence that pieces together timestamps, logs, actions, and other artifacts. An interactive comparison mode allows examiners to compare two different devices to identify anomalies, find correlations, and uncover overlaps in communication, movement, or shared contacts, and click on timeline dates and evidence items to dive deeper. This significantly eliminates the time spent trying to manually run searches and filters to relocate the same information.

“After adding in the new FTK 8.0 interface to our existing distributed processing environment, our review workflow is even easier and is simple enough for users of all skill levels to be instantly productive,” said John Price, Detective Sergeant at West Midlands Police Digital/Cyber Forensics in the UK. “FTK is now the best solution on the market to combine their powerful, scalable backend with a simple, intuitive UI that allows our reviewers to be more efficient and ultimately complete their evidence examinations faster than ever.”

Exterro, Inc. is the preferred provider of Legal GRC software designed specifically for law enforcement agencies as well as in-house legal, privacy, and IT teams at Global 2000 and Am Law 200 organizations. Exterro FTK 8.0 is available now.