Forensics: Don't Hide Your Dirty Secrets on Your Xbox
A digital forensics expert at Sam Houston State University has developed a forensics toolkit for the Xbox that allows law enforcement agencies to scour the system's HDD to find illicit hidden materials easily. The toolkit was created because some criminals, knowing that a personal computer will certainly be seized by police, look for other electronic devices to hide digital information. This legal Xbox mod is described in the latest International Journal of Electronic Security and Digital Forensics.
e! Science News got access to the journal and reported. Here's an abstract:
Collins' XFT utility can mount an image of the FATX file system used by the XBox, allowing the user to explore in detail the directory structure. Collins points out that unlike the standard FAT32, NTFS, and similar systems used by the hard disks in personal computers, there is little documentation on the proprietary FATX system. However, it is possible nevertheless to acquire an image of a FATX hard disk and to mount it on another device.
Importantly, from the legal perspective, XFT can also record such investigative sessions for playback in a court of law, which protects the defendant from falsified as well as providing more solid evidence for the prosecution.
