Tracking the Origin of an Email

Forensic tools exist which can analyze email headers to find the IP address of the computer a message was sent from, and also the geographic location it was sent from. eMailTrackerPro is an example of a tool which performs this task. eMailTrackerPro will help you track the origin of all emails in a particular account.

If you want to check the header of an individual email without software, you can use Google Toolbox's Messageheader, available here: https://toolbox.googleapps.com/apps/messageheader/

Input the header of the email into the toolbox, and click the option to analyze it.

You'll be able to lookup the location of the IP address and the associated ISP provider with online tools such as: https://www.iplocation.net/ip-lookup

Clipboard History a Hot Key Away

The Tip of the Night for June 19, 2019, noted that Windows 10 stores the history of text and photos copied to the clipboard. Don't miss how easy it is to access this clipboard. If you simply prese the Windows key + v, the clipboard will appear at the lower right.

Attorneys will love being able to easily access the multiple quotes they have copied and pasted into a brief from caselaw on Lexis or Westlaw.

It's also a good as a simple forensic tool to check on a user's past activities. The clipboard history tool needs to be activated. Windows 10 apparently does not have it turned on by default.

NIST Guide to Media Sanitization

NIST Special Publication 800-88 sets standards for media sanitization. The concept addresses controlling access to sensitive information. Organizations have to ensure that data cannot be reconstructed from residual data. For a given category of confidentiality, it must not be feasible to retrieve the data for a commensurate level of effort.

1. Information unintentionally stored in media should be accounted for.

2. Media sanitization usually happens when ESI is disposed of.

3. Senior management must be responsible for media sanitization.

4. Different media stora devices should be assigned different levels of confidenetiality.

5. There are three methods of media sanitization:

a. Clear - overwrite data with non-sensitive information.

b. Purge - block erase and cryptographic erase will make it infeasible to recover data.

c. Destroy- the data is physically destroyed through incineration or other techniques.

Appendix A to this NIST guide specifies how different types of media should be sanitized. For example, network routers should be reset to default settings to be cleared; only certain routers have purge capabilities such as block erasing; destroying a router requires a licensed incinerator.