The SILENT WITNESS ON YOUR COMPUTER WAITING FOR YOU TO GET INTO TROUBLE. Most people believe that deleting a folder, clearing recent files, or wiping their history is enough to hide their tracks on a computer. What they don’t realize is that Windows quietly keeps a hidden record of the folders they open, even after those folders are deleted or the drive is removed. These records are called Shellbags, and they are one of the most powerful and incriminating artifacts available to forensic investigators. Shellbags appear inside two registry hives NTUSER.DAT and USRCLASS.DAT and they store detailed information about a user’s folder-browsing activity. This includes local folders, USB drives, external hard drives, network shares, and even directories that no longer exist. Each time a user opens a folder in Windows Explorer, the system automatically creates or updates a Shellbag entry. These entries contain timestamps, folder paths, the hierarchy of subfolders, the order in which a folder was accessed, and even the specific view settings used by the user. Because of this, Shellbags reconstruct a user’s exact navigation trail long after the person believes the evidence is gone. What makes Shellbags truly dangerous is the fact that they survive actions that users typically rely on to cover their tracks. Deleting a folder does not delete the Shellbag. Formatting a drive does not delete it. Even privacy tools and cleaners like CCleaner or BleachBit cannot reliably erase Shellbag data, because the information is deeply embedded within registry hives that standard cleaning utilities do not touch. The only way to remove Shellbags is through advanced forensic wiping, and attempting such wiping is, in itself, a sign of suspicious behavior. Forensic examiners rely heavily on Shellbags because they expose the truth even when a suspect tries to lie. If a person denies ever accessing a directory, the Shellbags can show when that folder was opened, how many times it was accessed, and whether it was located on an internal drive, an external USB, or a deleted partition. This makes Shellbags extremely valuable in investigations involving insider threats, data theft, fraud, child exploitation, unauthorized data access, and corporate disputes. In many cases, Shellbags become the deciding factor that disproves a suspect’s story. In the screenshot, the highlighted red section shows three important keys inside the registry. When all of this information is combined, Shellbags become a silent witness that never forgets. They reconstruct a hidden story of user activity that the person cannot deny, overwrite, or talk their way out of. This is why Shellbags remain one of the most feared artifacts for anyone attempting to conceal their actions on a Windows computer. You can delete the folder… but Shellbags still show it existed Even if you format a drive or delete the directory, Windows has already logged: 1. The folder name 2. Its full path 3. When it was opened 4. How many times it was opened 5. The view settings (icon mode, window size) 6. The order in which folders were browsed This means forensic investigators can prove someone accessed: “Secret” directories Hidden folder structures USB drives or removable media Folder paths used for storage of illicit or suspicious Folder paths used for storage of illicit or suspicious data even if the folders are long gone.

The amount of data that can be recovered from a gaming console is honestly quite alarming. A forensic dump of its HDD can reveal user accounts, browsing activity, messages, network information, saved credentials, gameplay history, timestamps, and other valuable digital evidence. Gaming consoles are not just entertainment devices they can be significant sources of forensic evidence.

Funny enough, I once met someone pursuing a master’s degree in Cybersecurity and Digital Forensics. I asked him which forensic tools they had received practical training on, and he mentioned Autopsy. But even with Autopsy, the lecturer only assigned it to them as a presentation topic there was no proper hands-on training😂😂. At that point, I just felt shy on behalf of the institution. How can someone be pursuing a master’s degree in Digital Forensics without practical exposure to the essential tools of the profession? Even the open source ones. Then I asked on Kali Linux, he said he was going to pay someone to setup for him because they were given links to download VMware or virtual box plus the kali. But he’s not the only one with such experience; I’ve come across some people who do these same programmes and Charley kali Linux sef they don’t even know what it is and those who know sef nothing better.

Some training institutions or universities in Ghana charge between GHS 15,000 and GHS 29,000 for MSc Cybersecurity or MSc Information Security programmes, yet many lack properly equipped cybersecurity laboratories and some have no practical labs or centers at all. When institutions collect such substantial fees without investing in the infrastructure required for practical training, students may graduate with impressive certificates but limited real-world competence.

In many African corporate environments, competence and hard work alone may not be enough to get you to the top. You should know how to FANFOOL😂. Office politics, excessive flattery and pleasing the right people often carry more weight than genuine performance. Unfortunately, only a few people rise purely on merit; for many others, success seems to require mastering the art of pretence and bootlicking.

We are going to HOST the BIGGEST DFIR CTF Challenge in the whole of West Africa early next year God willing💪🏻

I am waiting for that tech content creator to post “How to hack WhatsApp in 5 mins”. I have search TikTok saaaa I no dey find anyone😂😂

“You are making the government unpopular“😂😂 This gyimi kasa I hear some keep ooo😂😂

But my students are good ooo. Eiiii Charley how you and Philip @mrphilghana dey do am😂😂🙏🏾

ACTIVE DIRECTORY HACKING BloodHound Never Lies: Exposing Hidden Routes to Domain Admin Attackers don't break in; they log in. And more often than not, they follow a path that was hiding in plain sight all along. In this session, we're diving deep into how adversaries use BloodHound to map hidden routes to Domain Admin, the relationships, permissions, and misconfigurations that quietly hand over the keys to your environment. More importantly, we'll look at how defenders can find and close these paths before an attacker does. Whether you're on the red team mapping attack paths, the blue team hardening Active Directory, or somewhere in between, this one's for you. Saturday, September 26, 2026 8:00 PM – 9:00 PM (GMT) Join here: lnkd.in/d8iWW9tV #BloodHound #ActiveDirectory #CyberSecurity #RedTeam #BlueTeam #DomainAdmin #PrivilegeEscalation #HiveConsult