OTHER TYPES OF DEVICES
Nearly every electronic consumer good has a computer inside of it. Even refrigerators now come with the ability to watch television, listen to streaming music, make video phone calls, and track information about the food and where it is inside the appliance! Listing all the devices with potential digital evidence would be nearly impossible but there are several that may be of regular interest to the forensic scientist. Motor vehicles are now heavily computerized and electronic control units (ECUs) help to monitor and control systems and subsystems, like traction control and diagnostics for maintenance. ECUs store data for use in diagnostics (miles since last oil change, for example), status inputs (speed, telemetry, systems functions), and malfunctions (unscheduled maintenance). Other types of information stored or controlled by ECUs include:
• vehicle data, such as VIN, odometer reading, fuel levels,
• door and door lock status,
• passenger occupancy (weight in seats to activate air bags),
• data from the entertainment system, for example, muting the audio during telephone calls, etc.
• diagnostics trouble codes to inform the service garage about a nonscheduled problem with the vehicle,
• crash data during accident, ranging from noting that a crash has occurred, to location of the crash, where the vehicle has been damaged (front, rear, side, rollover, etc.), and even severity of the impact. In vehicle accidents, an electronic control unit stores information about the crash that can be accessed for forensic investigation purposes, called an event data recorder which acts like the black box on aeroplanes (Figure 1). It records real-time data from the vehicle, including braking, acceleration, speed, and other data that can provide investigators with objective data about the vehicle and its status.
FIGURE 1 When collecting multiple computers, identify the first computer seized as “Computer A” or “Device #1” and then each cable and connection, including photographs. Subsequent computers can be labeled alphabetically or numerically
