As digital forensic examiners, we spend a lot of time sitting at a computer, skipping meals, and often lose sleep to meet project deadlines and in other unfortunate events we lose sleep due to the material that we have to analyze. While doing this, we are also forgetting to take care of ourselves mentally and physically. When it comes down to the wire, self-care and work productivity go hand in hand.
Being productive and alert at work can help you to stay on task, reduce the chance of errors or missing an important artifact, as well as an added bonus of potentially completing your examinations in a timelier manner. Life as a Digital Forensics examiner is more like a marathon than a sprint. Taking a long-term approach, effectively pacing yourself and listening to your body can ensure you are always at your working-best.
Exercise can provide many more benefits than just weight loss. Did you know that physical activity can help to boost productivity at work through alertness? Whenever you work out, you are increasing the flow of blood to the brain, which in-turn sharpens your awareness of your workflow.
Studies have shown that exercise can improve mental health as well. According to an article by LiveStrong, “Regular exercise can help to curb feelings of anxiety or depression. When you exercise, your brain releases serotonin that helps you feel better and improves your state of mind, making the stresses of work easier to handle.”
Digital forensic examiners and investigators are often exposed to digital material that may be destructive to their mental state, while exercise may not cure this type of exposure, it certainly provides an added benefit and certainly helps the release of potentially repressed feelings of anger or acrimony. Even a ten minute walk a day in between cases or examinations would significantly improve your mental and physical state.
Did you know that Belkasoft also provides options within our flagship DFIR product, Belkasoft X, to help investigators and limit their exposure to disturbing and graphic content? Belkasoft X can automatically detect images that are disturbing or pornographic in nature with the help of our image analysis features. The examiner also has the option to blur the pictures that are detected as pornography to prevent constant and recurring exposure to disturbing imagery, when it is not required to view. Even better, there is an option that allows for the faces of the individuals in the pictures detected as pornography, to be unblurred so that we can properly identify who is in the picture without the unnecessary exposure of the entire photo.
This is just one way that Belkasoft helps guard and protect the mental health of examiners. We also have really great features to assist examiners with their physical health! We help to reduce eye strain through a dark mode capability and varying font sizes to improve readability.
Can you think of ways that we could improve our product to better assist examiners with their physical or mental stress reduction? Please share your thoughts with us at sales@belkasoft.com.