Modern investigations often start with Electronic Service Providers (ESPs), such as Google, Microsoft, and Apple, to obtain user account records, login timestamps, IP addresses, and other important metadata. Cyber investigations help to establish timelines, user behavior, and attribution, making it a powerful evidence in criminal, civil, and corporate digital investigations.

Digital forensics is the science of acquiring, preserving, analyzing, and presenting latent digital evidence stored on electronic media, such as computers and mobile devices, to extract layers of user data, system data, and web-based application data. Latent digital evidence can provide the answers to the who, what, where, when and why.

Cell site analysis is the process of identifying cell sites through cellular records to understand their direction, range, and other factors that help approximate the locations of a device on dates and times. Cell site analysis can help include or exclude a device from a location and is especially powerful when combined with other evidence from cyber investigations or digital forensics.