Gareth Davies, Chairman of F3 (First Forensic Forum), joins the Forensic Focus Podcast to explore how a grassroots, vendor-neutral community has helped shape digital forensics in the UK for three decades. He traces F3's origins in the 1990s, when affordable training and tool-agnostic knowledge-sharing were scarce, and explains why the forum still focuses on byte-level, lab-ready techniques over sales pitches.
Looking ahead, Gareth previews F3's 2025 conference in Warwickshire (Nov 18–20), the not-for-profit pricing model, and upcoming trainings on UAVs, software-defined radio, implants/biomed devices, smartwatch and vehicle forensics, and video authentication/deepfakes. He also discusses international growth (including interest in an Australian chapter) and an open call for volunteers to help run events and keep training affordable.
#DigitalForensics #DFIR #ForensicsTraining #IncidentResponse #VehicleForensics #CryberCrime #DigitalEvidence #DigitalInvestigtion #DigitalEvidence
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00:00 Introducing Gareth Davies
01:09 What is F3?
03:01 Gareth's Journey into Forensics
05:35 PhD and Research Work
06:54 Current Role and Responsibilities
09:08 Interesting Cases and Projects
12:27 Involvement with F3
14:41 F3's Global Reach and Community
20:03 Challenges and Future of F3
22:39 Personal Experiences and Networking
24:47 Becoming Chairman of F3
30:50 Upcoming F3 Event Details
35:28 Digital Forensics Teaching and Research
37:30 Upcoming F3 Training
42:38 Challenges in Digital Forensics
45:28 The Importance of Community and Resources
55:04 Personal Interests and Hobbies
57:46 Conclusion and Final Thoughts
🎥 Video/Transcript – https://www.forensicfocus.com/podcast/inside-f3-building-community-and-sharing-knowledge-in-digital-forensics/
📝 Show Notes F3 – First Forensic Forum website - https://f3.org.uk
F3 – First Forensic Forum LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/company/f3.org.uk/
Spyder Forensics - https://www.spyderforensics.com
Bénédictine - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B%C3%A9n%C3%A9dictine
APOLLO - https://github.com/mac4n6/APOLLO
DFRWS - https://dfrws.org
GCK File Signature Table - https://filesig.search.org
NIST - https://www.nist.gov/itl/ssd/digital-forensics
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