Most people who use disappearing messages believe something that isn't true. They believe that when the message vanishes from the screen, it has vanished from the phone. They believe that when they delete the app, they have deleted what the app knew. Neither belief survives contact with how
Cheap wearable technology has quietly changed how depositions have to be run. The head-and-shoulders webcam shot and the oath given at the start are no longer enough to trust that a witness is answering from their own head. A judge in a recent London High Court proceeding threw out a
Generative AI has outpaced the human ability to reliably verify digital files. Every business whose decisions depend on a photo, a video, a voice recording or a document is now operating on a broken assumption. A new episode of the Berkeley Talks podcast featuring Hany Farid, the UC Berkeley School
You’ve heard of ransomware-as-a-service. Most executives have by now. An attacker buys the malware off the shelf, deploys it, collects a ransom, and splits the proceeds with the developer. The tooling is commoditized and the barrier to entry is gone. That model drove a decade of escalating attacks against
I have sat in courtrooms and watched fabricated media nearly send innocent people to prison. I’ve been brought in to examine digital evidence that looked completely authentic on its face: text messages, screenshots, audio recordings, communication records. The timestamps checked out. The formatting was consistent. The content told a
YouTube just expanded its likeness-detection tool to include politicians, journalists, and government officials. The system works like Content ID for human faces: enrolled individuals submit identity verification, YouTube builds a reference profile, and every new upload is scanned against it. It is the most significant platform-level deepfake defense deployed to
New research from Hiya puts a number on something a lot of people have suspected: one in four Americans received a deepfake voice call in the past twelve months. Seniors are losing an average of $1,298 per incident, three times what younger victims lose. The industry is calling it
Cellebrite’s 2026 Industry Trends Report found that 97% of investigators now identify smartphones as their primary source of digital evidence. The report surveyed 1,200 practitioners in 63 countries. Two years ago that figure was 73%. If you’re an attorney who hasn’t had to grapple with cell
Samsung’s top smartphone executives couldn’t give a straight answer about photo authenticity last week. At a post-Unpacked Q&A session, four senior leaders were pressed on the growing tension between AI-enhanced photography and the deepfake crisis. Their SVP of Mobile Product Management suggested we’d eventually look
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The New York Times recently ran more than 1,000 tests on AI detection tools designed to spot fake images and videos. The results were sobering but predictable: the tools found some fakes, missed others, and flagged authentic content as synthetic often enough to make any serious investigator nervous. For
Unlike paper documents or even desktop computers, cellular devices are in a constant state of change. Location data, application logs, system artifacts, and usage history are routinely overwritten not through intentional deletion, but simply through normal device operation.
A claims adjuster reviews photos of hail damage on a roof. A detective examines cell phone video from a domestic violence case. A family law attorney presents screenshots of threatening text messages in a custody hearing. Each is making a consequential decision based on visual evidence, and none can confirm
A man spent more than five years in prison for a double murder he didn't commit. Not because the evidence was planted. Not because witnesses lied. Because a trial judge looked at pixelated surveillance footage, compared it to photos of the defendant, and decided the blurry figure on
In the hours after a fatal shooting involving Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Minneapolis, a familiar and dangerous pattern reappeared online: AI-generated images claiming to “reveal” information that no camera ever recorded. Social media users circulated synthetic portraits said to show the unmasked face of the shooter, presenting them as
A December 2025 test of AI report-writing tools in Heber City, Utah, produced a police report claiming an officer had shape-shifted into a frog after misinterpreting background audio from the Disney film The Princess and the Frog.
This week, in Commonwealth v. Kurtz, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court upheld the use of a “reverse keyword” request that led police from a pool of Google searches to a suspect in a 2018 kidnapping and rape, concluding that the data fell under the long‑standing “third‑party doctrine.” The opinion
Tens of millions of AT&T customers have just over a week to claim their share of a $177 million settlement stemming from two massive data breaches the telecom giant disclosed last year. The deadline to file is December 18. The settlement, which received preliminary court approval in June
A polite email asking an AI browser to “organize your Drive” can silently wipe your files. No phishing link or suspicious attachment required. Just a friendly request that turns an automated assistant into a destructive tool. Security researcher Amanda Rousseau at Straiker STAR Labs revealed this week that Perplexity’s
A California judge dismissed a housing dispute case in September after discovering that plaintiffs had submitted what appeared to be an AI-generated deepfake of a real witness. The case may be among the first documented instances of fabricated synthetic media being passed off as authentic evidence in an American courtroom
This guide outlines best practices for preserving iPhone (iOS) devices after a collision to protect forensic data. Due to frequent software updates, steps may vary. Consult a cell phone forensic expert for up-to-date guidance. If any step cannot be completed, place the device in a Faraday bag (available online) to
