About email forensic tools…
What are email forensic tools?
Email forensic tools (also known as email analysis software) are digital tools that process, clean, parse, visualise and extract information from emails to provide analysts with the information they need to conduct and solve investigations.
List of Email Forensic Tools
- Sintelix
- Xtraxtor
- Aid4Mail Forensic
- MailXaminer Forensic Email Analysis Software
- MailPro+
- Autopsy
- Advik Email Forensic Wizard
- Stellar data recovery
- Advik MBOX to PDF Converter
- FreeViewer
- eMailTrackerPro
- EmailTracer
- Adcomplain
- AccessData’s FTK
- EnCase Forensic
- FINALeMAIL
- Forensics Investigation Toolkit (FIT)
- MxToolBox Email Software
- Paraben Email Examiner
- OSForensic Software
- Kernel Outlook PST Viewer
- R-Mail by R-tools-technology
Top 6 Email Forensic Tools by category
ETL / Data preparation
- Xtraxtor
- Aid4Mail
Investigations and Analysis
- Sintelix
- MailXaminer
Cyber Forensics
- MailPro+
- Autopsy
Why do we need email forensic tools?
Amongst the turbulent rise and fall of the latest anonymous chat apps, email still remains steady as one of the most prolific means of communication used by today’s cybercriminals.
Email investigations can involve hundreds of suspects, thousands of devices, and complex networks of suspects.
To cope with the vast amount of information and time pressures of today’s investigations, analysts must rely on tools and software to quickly and accurately parse and extract the information from emails that they need to solve investigations quickly and accurately.
Features of email forensic software
- Automatic network and link diagram generation
- Fast email inspection from multiple views
- Advanced keyword search filters
- Report generation
- Deleted email recovery
Today’s email analysis tools can reduce the time required to prepare and analyse email data from weeks to hours.
Review of the Top 3 Best Email Investigation Tools in 2022
Below is an in-depth review of the winners in each of the 3 primary use-case categories:
- Investigations and Analysis
- ETL and data preparation
- Cyber forensics
Sintelix
Text Intelligence Software
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Category
Investigation and analysis
Best used for
- Visualising email data
- Link and network analysis
- Investigation discovery
- Search email and file search
Platforms
Windows, Linux
Description
Sintelix – an advanced text intelligence software used by world-leading intelligence agencies for over a decade – is, without doubt, the most advanced tool for visualisation and network association discovery for email investigations. Sintelix provides a dedicated solution for easy email analysis allowing analysts to import email data (drag and drop) then instantly create visualisations and networks with a few clicks. The newly available Sintelix Online enables analysis at any scale and offers both cloud (SAAS) and on-premise options.
Screenshots
List of features
- Powerful network analysis
- Automatic and customisable entity extraction
- Advanced search (emails, headers, body content, file attachments)
- Drag and drop file import (email backup files, plus 1500 fille types)
- No coding knowledge required
- Search across both e-mails and all other data from a single place
- Email de-duping and processing
Integrations
- i2 Analyst’s Notebook
- API
- Email server
- 200+ more data connectors
Xtractor
Email ETL Software
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Category
ETL and data preparation
Best used for
- Email data preparation, merging and transformation
- Converting email data between various email formats
- Extracting group of file types, such as exporting all attachments as a zip file
Platforms
Windows
Description
An Email ETL tool to extract, convert, migrate & backup emails from a variety of sources including web, desktop clients, email servers & email files
Screenshots
List of features
- Great email ingestion support: 10 email backup file types, connect to email servers, 11 email clients
- Easily convert between email formats (including backup file formats)
- Connect to multiple email accounts for easy backups
- Basic info extraction including Email Addresses, Attachments, Phone Numbers, and photos
Price
starting at $49 USD
Free trial
Yes
Available to try instantly
Yes
Integrations
- Email servers
- Email clients
AId4mail
Email Forensics
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Category
Cyber Forensics
Best used for
- Evidence gathering and reporting
- Low-level file inspection (hex views, file hashes)
- Preserves hidden metadata
Platforms
Windows
Description
Aid4Mail is a fast, accurate, and easy-to-learn email forensics software solution. It features a detailed file inspector allowing quick analysis of suspect emails and attachments.
Screenshots
List of features
- Feature-rich File inspector
- Email de-duping and processing
- File search
- Reporting
Price
starting at $299 USD
Free trial
Yes
Available to try instantly
Yes
Integrations
- Email servers
- Email clients
