Tuesday, June 20, 2006 Tulsa, OK 

The digital age has completely transformed the way information is collected, shared and stored. Naturally, it has also transformed the way investigations into crime and impropriety are carried out. 

 

Tulsa company recovers information from electronic devices

http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4182/is_20060620/ai_n16509256 

By Matt Cauthron

The Journal Record 7/20/2006

TULSA – The digital age has completely transformed the way information is collected, shared and stored. Naturally, it has also transformed the way investigations into crime and impropriety are carried out.

It’s because of this transformation that Tulsa-based Digital Forensics Professionals Inc. was conceived. DFP serves the business and legal communities, as well as law-enforcement agencies, in Oklahoma and surrounding states in recovering digital information from electronic devices such as computers and cell phones.

Dr. Gavin Manes, president and director of research for DFP, started the company in 2004 with two colleagues from the University of Tulsa. Manes said his company deals mostly with civil litigators and businesses.

Manes said he started DFP to provide digital forensics services to businesses beyond what an ordinary IT staff can provide, as well as to collect digital evidence in a way that can stand up in court. He said courts place strict requirements on how digital evidence is collected, analyzed and stored.

Because of these strict requirements, Manes said his company has carved out a niche in the field of digital forensics because of the steps he takes to ensure the ethical handling of evidence and information. He said each DFP employee is put through an extensive background investigation before their hiring to ensure that evidence collected by DFP is trustworthy.

“This is a lifestyle, not a job,” Manes said. “We’re all computer geeks, but we can’t go home and download illegal music or illegally hack into someone’s computer. We have to maintain a certain level of integrity because we’re dealing with evidence and we’re under a lot of scrutiny.”

Another niche DFP has found, Manes said, is that in addition to providing the requested digital evidence for a client, DFP also provides a report translating its findings from “geek to English.” He said most digital forensics services will provide only the evidence, which could consist only of binary readouts, and expect the client to somehow figure out what it means.

Manes said the cost of DFP’s services depends on a wide variety of factors, including the type of device from which information must be recovered.

In the most basic instance, DFP could recover all the information on a given hard drive for between $1,500 and $2,500, depending on the size of the drive. But it’s not always that easy, Manes said. Sometimes the owner or operator of a hard drive will overwrite the files on the drive several times, or even drill holes in the drive, in an attempt to thwart any recovery of the information it contains. Manes said DFP could still get at the information, but it would take much longer and cost much more.

“The only way to completely erase the contents of a hard drive is to melt it,” Manes said.

When Manes started DFP in 2004, the company operated for a few months out of offices at TU before moving into offices at the Mid-Continent Tower downtown. He described the company’s initial growth as “bootstrap financing.” He and his partners originally funded the company through sales and reinvested everything they made back into the company.

In 2005, Manes sold a patent he developed for software that attempts to curb illegal file-sharing over the Internet. He declined to disclose the terms of the sale, other than to say it was “a big chunk of change,” but said the sale went a long way toward solidifying the company’s future.

He said the biggest challenge in growing the company has been his limited knowledge of business and marketing.

“We don’t even have a business plan,” he said. “From what I can tell, the only reason to have a business plan is if you want someone to give you money, and we don’t. But marketing and public relations are what we’ve been focusing on lately, because we want people to know about what we do.”

Manes said his goal for DFP is to grow the company by soliciting business from surrounding states, because cheaper labor allows him to offer better prices than competitors in other states. But he said the most important goal is to build DFP as a brand name.

“We’ve learned the process the right way,” Manes said. “And my idea is to someday start a Texas DFP and a Florida DFP – using the methodology we’ve developed to build new companies.”

But for now, Manes continues to focus on getting his company’s name, and information about what it does, to the people who may need his services.

“We’re a small business now,” Manes said. “But there’s no shortage of business out there. This is something people need. The struggle is to let people who need us know we’re here.”