Clifford Ellston

Senior Forensic Consultant

As a former member of ATF’s Digital Evidence Response Team, Mr. Ellston was responsible for assisting investigators and regulatory personnel in the retrieval of electronically stored evidence. He is also a certified computer examiner and has received extensive training in the methods and procedures to properly seize, interrogate and report evidence from computers and other electronic storage media.

Mr. Ellston has participated in numerous enforcement actions resulting in the seizure and examination of a vast number of diverse electronic media. He has examined and/or extracted information from desktop systems, network servers, cell phones and removable media. He is familiar with and/or have examined multiple devices that employ operating systems such as Windows, Linux, Mac, and iOS.

Mr. Ellston is trained and/or has knowledge in the use of forensic software tools such as Guidance-EnCase, AccessData-Forensic Toolkit, ILook, X-Ways Forensics, Net Analysis and ASR-SMART. He also has used MAC OS X tools such as MacQuisition. Also, he has received training and employed forensic cell phone tools such as Cellebrite and XRY by Micro Systemation.

Currently, Mr. Ellston teaches computer forensics on a contract basis through Connecticut E-Discovery, an authorized training center for the International Society of Forensic Computer Examiners (ISFCE). He has taught subject matters such as computer hardware identification, networks, operating/file systems, protocols for electronic media seizures, forensic examination procedures, media geometry, imaging protocols, ethics and digital forensic law.