Advanced (UAV) Drone Forensic Analysis (Live On-Site – Maryland, USA) Feb 2025

4-day Advanced Level Course

Course Overview

This four-day advanced level course will equip you with the practical skills and competencies required to identify and extract various sources of data recoverable from Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS), also known as Drones, including their associated control devices in line with approved best practices.

Using leading research and development from Spyder Forensics, this course will introduce you to the world of UAV’s and instruct you how to fly a Drone followed by best practices in conducting forensically sound extractions and analysis of UAS data for use as evidence or intelligence gathering. Attendees will learn how to collect data from within the aircraft using non-destructive processes utilizing industry-standard tools to create forensic collections of storage media that include flight logs, aircraft data, photo, and video files without the need to disassemble the aircraft or controller.  Students will then learn procedures in the acquisition of application data found on the mobile device.

Once data has been acquired, attendees will master how to analyze the flight logs and user data using software originally designed to work with these types of structures, gaining knowledge on workflows to connect data between the drone application and the flight data recovered from the aircraft.

This course uses non-destructive processes to extract and analyze the data from all hardware in the UAS including the handheld device, mobile application, and drone. All software used in class can be used in the DFIR lab free of charge and without the need to purchase additional applications to conduct a Drone examination.

The course will follow adult learning principles through training aids such as presentations, diagrams and practical instructor lead examples.  Each artifact covered will be presented in either one or two 50-minute sessions followed by review questions.  Students will be given the opportunity throughout the course to ask questions and discuss objectives covered in more detail.  Throughout each day students will have practical exercises to work on in order to reinforce the topics.

Primary Learning Objectives 

• Drone threat analysis
• Discuss uses in legitimate usage and criminal activities
• Extraction methods of all storage media (nondestructive or invasive techniques via FTP)
• Recognize types of data available from drones, their linked devices, and third-party sources
• Conduct forensic extractions of data from the leading drone devices
• Decrypt encrypted UAV data industry tools
• Analyze extracted data effectively to produce reports fit for use in criminal justice proceedings
• Learn how to produce a forensic report to support the examination of UAV
• Advanced analysis of PixHawk flight data
• Decryption of DJI encrypted logs
• FTP extraction techniques
• Exploitation of bespoke UAV’s
• Practical Skills Assessment

Course Price: $2,595

About the Trainer

Rob has almost 2 decades of experience developing and presenting training on Digital Forensics, Cyber Security, Mobile Forensics and eDiscovery education programmes for the global digital investigations community. As a long term member of the International Association of Computer Investigative Specialists (IACIS), Rob instructs regularly at the association’s annual conferences and is a lead instructor for the Advanced Windows Forensic course as well as regularly presenting at the premier international digital forensics conferences such as High Technology Crime Investigation Association, Department of Defence Cyber Crime, F3 Annual Workshops and Internet Crimes against Children taskforce. Rob has contributed to digital forensic publications and is a subject matter expert to various course for the ATA program managed by the State Department in the USA. Rob continually develops solutions to identify and report on new forensic artifacts on emerging technologies which he shares on open and closed forums.