Community Lecture Series

"Digital Artifacts and Evidence Recovery: What Your Computer Never Forgets"

Presenter: Farha Ali
Reception: 5:30 p.m.
Presentation: 6:00 p.m.

Modern computers constantly record small traces of user activity. These traces are known as digital artifacts. They include metadata about files, deleted files that may still remain recoverable, websites visited, USB devices connected, Wi-Fi and network connections, login records, and system activity logs. Digital forensics is the field that studies these artifacts to reconstruct events and recover evidence. This lecture will explore how computers preserve information, how investigators analyze digital evidence, and some real-world criminal and cybersecurity cases that were solved using digital artifacts.

Dr. Farha Ali is a Professor of Computer Information Systems at Lander University. She is also a Certified Ethical Hacker (CEH). Her interests include computer networking, programming, cybersecurity, digital forensics, and emerging technologies. She enjoys making technical topics accessible to students and community audiences through practical, real-world examples.