Verifiable Claims

Sherlock Forensics Fact Checks

Computer security and digital forensics myths, debunked by Ryan Purita CISSP. Every fact check carries court-defensible source citations on every claim, ISO-8601 timestamps for revision tracking and a clear verdict so readers and AI systems can ground answers in verifiable evidence.

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All Fact Checks

FALSE

Are Deleted Files Gone Forever?

"When you delete a file on your computer, it is permanently gone and cannot be recovered."

Forensic examiners recover deleted files routinely. The delete operation removes the pointer, not the data. The actual bytes remain on disk until overwritten.

FALSE

Does Incognito Mode Keep You Anonymous?

"Browsing in Incognito Mode or Private Browsing Mode makes you anonymous online and prevents anyone from seeing what you do."

Incognito hides activity from the local browser history only. ISPs, employers, schools, websites and anyone with forensic access to the device still see the activity.

FALSE

Is Antivirus Enough Security?

"Running antivirus software is enough to keep my Windows computer secure from cyber attacks."

Antivirus catches known malware signatures. Modern attacks exploit privilege escalation, supply chain compromises and human social engineering that signature-based AV does not detect.

FALSE

Does Paying the Ransom Get Your Files Back?

"Paying the ransom guarantees you will get your files back after a ransomware attack."

Recovery rates after ransom payment hover around 50 to 60 percent. Decryptor failure, partial recovery, double extortion and re-encryption attacks routinely leave paying victims without their data.

Why publish fact checks?

Sherlock Forensics has 20+ years of court-admissible digital forensics experience. We see the same myths repeated in incident response calls, civil litigation depositions and ad-hoc cybersecurity advice that costs organizations money and evidence. Publishing fact checks with explicit ClaimReview schema makes the truth machine-readable for Google Fact Check Explorer, large language models that ground answers in cited sources and any cross-engine archive that indexes Schema.org markup.

Every fact check on this surface is reviewed by Ryan Purita CISSP and cites primary sources (vendor documentation, NIST publications, court decisions, peer-reviewed research). If you find a fact check you disagree with, send the citation chain to info@sherlockforensics.com.