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Getting Started

Forensic Witness Guide

by Michael Post October 29, 2019November 22, 2019

Forensic Witness is a unique forensic file transfer system for criminal and civil investigations!

Built to allow investigators to collect video’s, pictures and other vital electronic files from a witnesses’ smartphone or computer.
Simple and quick for both investigators and witnesses alike.
Designed to collect evidence in a forensic manner suitable for court disclosure.

Try the live demo & see how easy it is!

How It Works

Forensic Witness works by:

Sending an SMS or Email (one-use-only) to your witness’s device.
Witness clicks on a link contained in the SMS or Email.
The file upload page is displayed to the Witness.
Witness selects files they are willing to share and upload.
Files are uploaded and forensically analyzed.
Two (2) PDF documents are generated, Digitally Signed and Timestamped. This documents the uploaded files for exhibit continuity and disclosure purposes.

Why Trust Forensic Notes?

Have questions about our security or storing sensitive information online?
Read our comprehensive FAQ on why you can Trust Forensic Notes.

(IMPORTANT) The witness does NOT need to install any applications on their device or give up possession of their device to the investigator. This is essential for obtaining evidence from reluctant witnesses who are often the ones with the most vital evidence.

Witnesses are concerned about their privacy. Forensic Witness is the only solution that allows witnesses to remain in control of the information they are willing to share.

Let’s see how easy it is for the investigator and witness to use FORENSIC WITNESS:

INVESTIGATOR:

For investigators, open your Forensic Notes app and follow these 5 simple steps!

WITNESS:

As a witness, you will either receive an SMS or Email link from the investigator.
Once received, simply follow these 5 quick steps!

Want to see how easy Forensic Witness is for yourself (or your agency). Visit our live web demo today.

To learn more about Forensic Witness and to see how our solution compares to existing methods for obtain evidence from witness smartphones visit our Forensic Witness main page..

Overview of Application Interface

by BlogAccess BA November 28, 2018December 20, 2018

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As you can see in the above overview of the application, a selection in the “All Notebooks” panel changes the view in the “Selected Notebook” panel.

A selection in the “Selected Notebook” panel then changes the current note being viewed.

Now let us look at each panel section in more detail.

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Multi-Factor Authentication MFA

by robAdmin October 26, 2018December 20, 2018

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Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) further secures your account from un-authorized access should someone obtain your username and password.

We highly recommend that you use your cellphone number and ensure you always have access to this device when logging into the application.

With MFA, you have two (2) options:

Send Code (via text message)
Call Me

Send Code (via text message)

MFA via Text Message is the most common way that users authenticate, but this does require you to manually enter the code provided within the login form after viewing it on your cellphone.

Call Me

We recommend that you use the “Call Me” feature as it is often the faster method.

Call Me

MFA via “Call Me” simply requires that you acknowledge the login by pressing the “#” (pound key) upon answering a call from Microsoft Azure on your authentication device (cellphone).

Upon granting access, the application will log into Forensic Notes.

Azure B2C MFA

Setting Up Account

by robAdmin October 26, 2018October 2, 2019

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After you create your account, you will be logged into the Forensic Notes application.

Terms & Conditions

The applications Terms and Conditions will be presented to you upon login.

Please check (and read) each term and then click the “I Accept” button.

Accept Terms for Forensic Notes

Select Time Zone

Selecting the appropriate Time Zone will allow all date/times to be displayed in your local time in the application and any PDF reports.

Set Timezone

Time Zone

All times are stored in UTC within the system which will allow you to change the time zone later if required.

All Notebooks Panel

by robAdmin October 26, 2018December 20, 2018

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Within the “All Notebooks” panel, you have several options as shown in the image below.

All Notebooks Panel Explained

We will now break down each option in more detail.

Create New Notebook

Forensic Notes Professional accounts offer three (3) different types of notebooks:

General Notebook
Forensic Notebook
Forensic Notebook (w/ edits)

All Notebooks - Create Notebook

Starter Accounts

Starter accounts are limited to “General Notebooks” only.

To determine which notebook you should use, refer to “Types of Notebooks” section.

As you can see in the image, you can also create Folders so that you can organize your Notebooks to suit you or your organization’s needs.

Arranging Notebooks & Folders

Only Administrators will be able to re-arrange notes and create folders within the “All Notebooks” section.

By default, the user who created the account will be set as an Administrator.

For more information on managing users within Team accounts, click here.

Team Accounts:

By default, all Starter and Professional accounts are setup to invite other Team Members.

Delete Notebook

This option will allow you to delete the currently selected notebook if no Forensic Notes exist within that notebook.

Audit Logs

Audit Logs in this section show a history of activities that have occurred in your account including, but not limited to:

Creating Forensic Notebooks
Creating Forensic Notes
Viewing Forensic Notes
Downloading a Forensic Notebook
Downloading a Forensic Note

Audit Logs are only generated for actions involving Forensic Notebooks and Forensic Notes.

Actions involving Non-Timestamped Notes and General Notebooks are not captured.

Audit Logs – Admins Only!

This option is only available to Administrators of your account.

Team Members will not be able to see the audit logs.

For more information on managing Team Members, click here.

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Selected Notebook Panel

by robAdmin October 26, 2018December 20, 2018

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Within the “Selected Notebook” panel, you have several options as shown in the image below.

Selected Notebook Panel Explained

Create New Note

This option will allow you to either create a new note or folder.

Folders are solely for helping to organize your notes within the Forensic Notes application.

Folders do not affect the final Notebook when it is generated as a PDF.

Download

This option will allow you to download either a single Timestamped Note (Forensic Note) or a Notebook depending on if you have the root node (Notebook) or an individual Forensic Note selected.

Delete Note

This option will allow you to delete a non-Timestamped Forensic Notes.

See below for information on “Mark Forensic Notes as Deleted” option.

Deleting Forensic Notes – “Mark Forensic Note as Deleted”

Mark Forensic Note as Deleted

Forensic Notes cannot be deleted once they are timestamped.

Similar to the idea that you cannot permanently remove or cover up a note written in pen in a paper notebook, you can’t permanently delete a timestamped note in your electronic notebook.

Instead, we allow you mark the note as deleted which still allows the note to be readable, but crossed out to indicate that a mistake was made.

You are also able to provide a reason for the deletion which will be included in your Forensic Notebook PDFs.

For further information on how to Mark Forensic Notes as Deleted, refer to the
“FAQ – How Do I?” section.

Audit Logs

Audit Logs within this section only show actions taken against the currently selected Forensic Notebook.

Audit Logs are only generated for actions involving Forensic Notebooks and Forensic Notes. Actions against Non-Timestamped Notes and General Notebooks are not captured.

Audit Logs – Admins Only!

This option is only available to Administrators of your account.

Regular users will not be able to see the audit logs.

For more information on managing Team Members, click here.

View All Timestamped Notes (Forensic Notes)

This option is only available for:

General Notebooks
Forensic Notebooks (w/ edits)

This option allows you to view all timestamped notes associated with your Forensic Notebook including older versions.

Both General and Forensic Notebooks (w/ edits) allow you to edit existing notes and re-timestamp as required.

When you choose to edit a timestamped note, the system will make a copy of your original timestamped note to edit. The original timestamped note (Forensic Note) will remain un-altered and available if required.

To switch back to viewing “Active Documents”, click the Notebook icon as shown in the image below.

Selected Notebook - View Active Documents

Editor Overview

Forensic Notes - Editor Overview

Editor Features

The Note Editor contains many features, for further details refer to our “FAQs – Editor Features” section.

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Types of Notebooks

by robAdmin October 26, 2018December 20, 2018

Which Notebook is Right for You?

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Forensic Notes offers three (3) different types of Notebooks to meet your specific needs.

Forensic Notebook *
Forensic Notebook (w/ edits) *
General Notebook

_{* Professional account required}

Forensic Notebooks

Forensic Notebooks are the purest form of contemporaneous notes.

If full-disclosure is a legal requirement you need to abide by, then a Forensic Notebook is what you need.

Forensic Notebook

This is the closest replication of a bound paper notebook and pen in electronic form.

Like pen and paper, once you write a note (and timestamp it), the note will remain as written.

No edits or modifications allowed.

Any notes that are marked as ‘deleted’ will be crossed out.

Date & Time associated with an individual note is obtained from the timestamp certificate issued upon completion of a note.

Main Advantage:

Full-Disclosure
Each note is Digitally Signed, Timestamped and saved as a Forensic Note

Write-Once, Read-Many (WORM)

Forensic Notebooks that don’t allow edits are also referred to as a WORM Notebook (Write-Once, Read-Many).

Forensic Notebook (w/ edits)

This is for those that need a Forensic Notebook for documenting actions, but still want the ability to edit notes afterwards.

This notebook is ideal for making the following types of ‘tidying up’ corrections:

Spelling
Grammatical
Date & Time*
Clarifying information

Editing of notes is not intended to:

Remove notes you no longer want to disclose
Change a theory or step previously taken

This is because the above changes would be disclosed within the downloaded Forensic Notebook PDF.

Every previous version of a note, generated when a new version is timestamped, is included at the back of the downloaded PDF.

Create a professional version of your notes while still adhering to full-disclosure rules.

Main Advantage:

Full-Disclosure
Each note is Digitally Signed, Timestamped and saved as a Forensic Note
Ability to ‘tidy up’ notes

Full-Disclosure Note:
The note will display the timestamped Date & Time of every previous note. Previous versions of the note with the original timestamp can be used to confirm when you made your original note and if its ‘true meaning’ has changed since that time.

General Notebook

This is for general note-taking, offering all the same features as a Forensic Notebook without full-disclosure.

Not For Legal Purposes

This notebook is not meant for legal purposes. But, individual notes can be timestamped creating a Forensic Note.

Forensic Notes can be used in legal situations.

General Notebooks do not limit your ability to edit or delete existing notes. You are in full control.

Main Advantage:

Downloaded PDF Notebook only includes the notes you want to disclose (deleted notes are not included).

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Adding a New Notebook & Notes

by robAdmin October 26, 2018December 20, 2018

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Once you have decided what type of Notebook you want to create, you can create the type of notebook you need within the “All Notebooks” panel.

Add New Notebook - Animated GIF

Changing Notebook Name:

In the video above, the user double-clicks on the notebook name to go into edit mode so that the Notebook name can be changed.

Edit Note Name

Double-clicking Notebook and Note name to go into edit mode works on both desktop and mobile devices.

The new Notebook will automatically show up within the “Selected Notebook” panel when it is created.

A new note within the Notebook can now be created by clicking the “New” button.

Add New Note

A new non-timestamped note will then be created.

New Note - Icons Explained

Editor Overview

The advanced editor has many features including an auto-save feature to ensure you do not lose your notes.

Auto-Save Feature

Editor Auto-Save - Animated GIF

Auto-Save – Date & Time Displayed

The editor will display the last time a note was saved in the lower right corner.

Auto-Save - Date & Time Displayed

Additional Editor Features

The editor also has the following features:

Spell correction
Adding images into your notes
Editing images
Adding hand-written notes and diagrams
And many more…

Editor Features – FAQ

For information on how to complete the above tasks and many more, refer to our Editor FAQ page.

Timestamping A Note

When you are ready to Timestamp your note, click the “Timestamp” button below the editor.

Timestamp a Note (Time Stamp)

This will:

Generate a PDF of your note
Digitally sign your PDF with an electronic signature and add a timestamp from an independent timestamping authority. (This process generates a Forensic Note)
A second timestamp is then obtained for the Forensic Note (PDF)

Generating a Forensic Note is like carving your note in solid granite.

Forensic Notes Logo carved into granite rock

Once you generate a Forensic Note, you will not be able to change that note.

Editable copies of your Forensic Note can be created but the original Forensic Note will remain un-altered.

Timestamping – Further Information

If you are interested in the technical details of timestamping a note, please refer to our detailed article “Timestamping Authority (TSA)“.

Editing Notes

To edit a note, click the “Edit Note” button as shown below.

Editor Save Now - Animated GIF

As shown in the above video, you do not have to re-timestamp the new note until you are ready.

Editing a Forensic Note – Actually You are Creating a Copy to Edit!

Each time you edit a timestamped note (Forensic Note), you create a copy of the original and edit the new copy.

The original Forensic Note (Timestamped Note) remains un-altered.

Although you can change the date and time of the note entry, this does not affect the actual timestamp which can be used to show when you saved the note.

As a result, editing Forensic Notes should only occur to correct minor mistakes such as spelling, grammar or to further clarify existing information.

Attempting to change a notes original meaning or removing information you no longer want disclosed can be discovered by the opposing party.

This is because the original note will be part of the Forensic Notebook you download for legal disclosure.

Instead of removing information, you should instead Redact the information as you normally would.

Forensic Notes increases your credibility because you can prove that you are providing all information you have related to an incident.

As discussed within the “Types of Notebooks” section, only the following notebooks allow editing of Forensic Notes:

General Notebooks
Forensic Notebooks (w/ edits)

Note Version Displayed in Tree

As shown in the image above, you can view All Timestamped Notes (Forensic Notes) by clicking on the icon indicated which will result in the following view.

Note Version - All Forensic Notes

As you can see above, the original Timestamped note (Forensic Note) is still visible and available for download.

All versions of a Forensic Note will be displayed in this view with each version clearly identified.

Full Disclosure – Editing Notes

When you download a Forensic Notebook, it will include all previous versions of Forensic Notes to provide full disclosure.

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Downloading Printing & Validation

by robAdmin October 26, 2018December 20, 2018

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Once you are ready to download a Forensic Note or Forensic Notebook, refer to the Download FAQ section.

Information on how to validate your files is also discussed.

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Getting Started Guide Forensic Notes

by robAdmin October 26, 2018December 20, 2018

The following guide will walk you through the process of setting up an account with Forensic Notes.

Skip to any section of the guide by using the links to the right (desktop) or links located below the current article on mobile devices.

Signup

Signing up for a Forensic Notes account is easy, safe, and very secure.

Forensic Notes uses Microsoft Azure B2C Active Directory to manage and store all user credentials.

What this means for you, is that your username and password are safely stored and secured by a leader in web security.

On the Pricing page, you can select either Starter or Professional account.

Pricing Page Options

Upon selection, you will be redirected to the Azure Signup Page at:
https://login.microsoftonline.com/forensicnotes….

As you can see below, you have a couple options:

Signup with a Social account (LinkedIn, Facebook or Google)
Signup with a Local account

Azure Signup or Sign In Page

If you decide to use Social Login, you will not be required to create a new password, as your Social account will provide authorization to access our app.

Unlike many other application, Forensic Notes only requires minimal access to your Social account to obtain your email and name.

Our application does NOT request access to read your emails, messages or contacts like many other services.

If you would rather use a local account, click the “Sign up now” link.

Why Trust Forensic Notes?

If you have questions about our security or storing your sensitive information online, please read our comprehensive FAQ on why you can and should Trust Forensic Notes.

When signing up for a Local account, you will need to verify the email address you provide.

Verifying your email address ensures that you can reset your password or confirm that you are the owner of the account if required in the future. As shown below, you will need to click “Send verification code” and then check your email to enter the correct code.

Azure B2C Local Account Signup

Validation Email

This validation email is normally received within a few seconds, but can take up to 5 minutes.

If you do not see the email, please check your SPAM folder.

Once you successfully enter the code and press the “Verify Code” button, you will be able to submit this form by clicking the “Create” button at the bottom of the page.

With both Social and Local accounts, you will be required to use Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA).