Exterro Collaborates with Microsoft on Forensics Platform to Help Law Enforcement Bring Criminals to Justice Faster

Forensic Toolkit (FTK®) Lab running on Microsoft Azure provides faster data insights and enhanced collaboration that accelerate trusted results for digital crime investigations

Portland, Ore., May 17, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) – Legal GRC software provider Exterro Inc. today announced that it has teamed up with Microsoft to deliver a cloud-based digital forensics platform for law enforcement agencies worldwide. Designed to counter rising data volumes, data complexity, and resource constraints, the combination of Exterro’s Forensic Toolkit (FTK®) Lab on Microsoft Azure delivers significantly improved forensic readiness, collaboration, and large-scale data processing to provide faster time to justice. The solution has already been selected by one of the UK’s largest regional police forces.

Without digital forensics, most criminal cases today would struggle to succeed by relying solely on physical evidence such as fingerprints or DNA. The evaluation of digital evidence in crimes ranging from counterterrorism to human trafficking, murder, drug offenses, and firearms violations continues to increase, stretching police resources more than ever. With more digital devices and data sets requiring examination than available police resources, backlogs are increasing and some cases are delayed for months.

“Police forces face mounting challenges arising from explosive growth in evidence data and the increasing sophistication of security threats,” said Bobby Balachandran, CEO of Exterro.

“Inefficiencies such as the inability to integrate all data sources in an investigation, technology that doesn’t scale, and slower processing rates all contribute to higher manpower costs and data backlogs that delay the criminal justice process. The combination of FTK Lab and Microsoft Azure solves these challenges and will significantly reduce forensic investigation backlogs within law enforcement agencies.”

“After rigorous evaluation against these challenges, a large police agency in the UK selected the Exterro solution on Microsoft Azure based on the unprecedented speed and efficiencies achieved during investigations,” Balachandran added. “The platform is fully integrated into the force’s workflows and can be accessed from any device used by law enforcement.”

FTK Lab provides a unique depth of automation, orchestration, ease of use, data diversity, and support for complex environments. It allows multiple evidence sets to be loaded and processed into single or multiple cases simultaneously, with or without human intervention. This includes data from computers, mobile devices, other PDAs, cloud data, or loose files.

The platform also enhances forensic ecosystems by allowing customers to import data from other solutions through report ingestions, load file ingestions, or directly via RESTful APIs. By leveraging Azure services and on-demand auto-scaling, FTK Lab’s distributed processing technology achieves maximum output with a direct positive impact on speed and cost. This results in a significant reduction in evidence backlogs and faster data processing in the future.

Exterro’s FTK product portfolio hosted on Azure reduces the steps, complexities, and costs associated with digital crime investigations from intervention to prosecution. With the FTK Lab solution on Azure, previously cumbersome processes are streamlined, integrated, and automated within existing workflows, improving efficiency through consistent and repeatable forensic processes.

“FTK Lab on Microsoft Azure provides law enforcement agencies with a fundamental shift in approach, offering faster data turnaround times to accelerate investigative processes,” said Kirk Arthur, Senior Director of Business Development, Worldwide Public Safety & Justice at Microsoft. “Together, FTK Lab and Azure enable investigators to ingest, review, and analyze very large volumes of data, helping bring criminals to justice faster.”

The Exterro solution on Azure is designed to address existing data backlogs while ensuring consistent and repeatable processing steps that improve long-term efficiency. Ease of use empowers frontline officers to analyze their own cases. Costs are reduced by lowering the number of steps, travel time, and manpower required from intervention to prosecution. Automated validation within the solution also provides officers with greater confidence in the results of data processing.

Microsoft Azure is a cloud computing platform designed for building and managing applications and services through Microsoft-managed data centers. Used by customers worldwide, Azure ensures security, privacy, and regulatory compliance while protecting sensitive workloads and data.

Exterro is a globally recognized provider of Legal GRC software. Its FTK solution is used worldwide by more than 130,000 clients, including law enforcement agencies, government organizations, corporations, service providers, and law firms, to support their digital investigation and data analysis needs.

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