Forensic Email Collector logo

Forensic Email Collector

by Metaspike · Since 2017
No reviews yet
ActiveAvailable globallyOn-premise
Quick facts
VendorMetaspike
Year launched2017
StatusActive
Location840 Apollo Street, Suite 100 El Segundo, CA 90245 USA
Countries servedGlobal
Languages1
Integrations1+
Free tier
Free trial
Contact salesYES

About Forensic Email Collector

Forensic Email Collector is a data collection software from Metaspike that specializes in extracting email data for investigative purposes. It provides features such as comprehensive email extraction, support for multiple email formats, and automated collection processes to facilitate efficient forensic investigations. This software is designed to handle various email sources, ensuring that investigators can gather relevant data quickly and accurately. Forensic Email Collector also supports searching and filtering of email content, which helps pinpoint pertinent information during forensic analysis. Key capabilities: email extraction multi-format support automated collection searching and filtering reporting tools Best for: forensic investigators and legal professionals that need to collect and analyze email data for litigation or compliance purposes.

Forensic Email Collector (FEC) by Metaspike is a specialized email preservation tool built for digital forensics, eDiscovery, and investigations where preserving email evidence with integrity and fidelity is critical. Instead of being a generic email client, FEC’s design is focused on acquisitions: it supports a wide range of server types (Exchange via EWS, Office 365 via Graph API, Gmail/G Suite via Gmail API, IMAP/POP3), allows in-place search, supports OAuth and remote authentication, and outputs in multiple forensic-friendly formats with strong hashing and logging. The ability to resume interrupted acquisitions or retry failed items helps maintain evidence completeness and avoids redundant work. For investigators, the detailed exception and acquisition reporting help maintain an audit trail, which is essential for legal or compliance squeamish environments. The user experience is generally smooth for its purpose. Installing on a Windows desktop, the tool isn’t overloaded with unnecessary features; instead, it focuses on reliable email bank preservation. Autodiscovery and built-in profiles reduce friction in connecting to servers.

Pros & Cons

What users like
  • +Very reliable connectivity options (multiple protocols and email server types) so it works in many environments.
  • +Strong evidence-integrity features (hashing, logging, detailed reports) essential for forensics and legal admissibility.
  • +Resume retry functionality helps avoid data loss in unreliable network large mailboxes.
  • +In-place search reduces unnecessary data acquisition and respects privacy, storage/time constraints.
  • +License flexibility (USB dongle, perpetual license) and unlimited mailboxes makes it cost-effective in the long run.
What users flag
  • Windows-only desktop application; no indication of native mobile, macOS version.
  • Requires internet server access; cloud email and API dependencies; could be obstructed in networks with strict firewall or API restrictions.
  • For extremely large or complex mailboxes, performance may degrade; large datasets may take time.
  • The perpetual license is one-machine; to scale to many users or analysts, multiple licenses needed.
  • Some users may find that the setup (server credentials, impersonation, impersonation rights, OAuth configurations) requires administrative privileges or support infrastructure.

Features

Key features

Flexible connectivity — supports Gmail (via Gmail API), Office 365 / Exchange (via EWS and Graph API), and IMAP ,POP3 servers to preserve emails.
In-place server-side search — ability to search the mailbox on the server before downloading, so only relevant items are acquired.
Resume and retry mechanisms — if acquisition is interrupted (network/server error), can resume, retry failed items, and resume past projects.
Output formats & hashing — exports available in multiple formats (EML, MSG, PST) simultaneously with options for MD5, SHA-1, SHA-256 (and more) hashing for evidence integrity.
Detailed acquisition and exception reporting — logs everything (including metadata, exceptions, progress) so that evidence can be documented appropriately.

Additional features

OAuth remote authentication — custodians can authorize via OAuth; remote auth module for user-driven authentication without sharing credentials.
Support for Exchange , Office 365, Gmail ,Google Workspace, IMAP,POP3 — covers many email providers and server types.
Snapshot of mailbox state — records folder structure and which items have been acquired to support resuming and integrity.
Calendar, Contacts, Notes acquisition — in addition to email messages, can preserve events, appointments, contacts from supported systems.
Built-in connection profiles & server autodiscovery — uses MX lookup and Exchange Autodiscover to identify server endpoints; many built-in profiles to ease configuration.

Pricing

Free trial
Free version
Request a quote
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Countries & Languages

Global
Countries served
1
Interface languages
1
Billing currencies

Interface languages

English

Billing currencies

🇺🇸USD

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