Correlating Evidence across Different Sources
Joining scattered pieces into a single coherent narrative
No source of digital evidence tells the whole story on its own: a disk analysis can show which files were accessed, a memory analysis which processes were active, and network logs whom the system communicated with, but only by correlating all those sources with temporal precision does a coherent, defensible narrative of the incident emerge. Correlating evidence means normalizing timestamps between systems that often use different time zones or internal clocks, a technical detail that, if ignored, can lead to wrong conclusions about the real order of events. In practice, this phase usually reveals an investigation's most useful contradictions, such as an access log indicating a user logged in at a time when their mobile device's geolocation evidence places them elsewhere, a finding that can be decisive for proving identity theft or ruling out an initial suspect.