digital forensics essay

65 Computer Forensics Essay Topic Ideas & Examples

🏆 best computer forensics topic ideas & essay examples, 🥇 most interesting computer forensics topics to write about, 📌 simple & easy computer forensics essay titles.

• Sources of Digital Forensic Data With live system data, the aim of the investigator is to capture information concerning volatile data that may disappear when a device powers off or it is disconnected from the network.
• Digital Forensic Analysis of Fitbit The comparison of the results and the analyses of the data as a result of the research gave the authors of the article a conclusion in regards to the methodology that has evidence-based results in […]
• Preparing a Computer Forensics Investigation Plan However, if the information is thought to be contained in the permanent storage, then a computer has to be shut down before transporting it to a laboratory for forensic analysis. The first step in the […]
• Digital Footprints and Forensic Investigations The death investigation allows law enforcement workers to find answers to many of the questions posed by the crime that has taken place.
• Digital Forensics Tools and Software One of the most famous software programs for digital forensics is Autopsy, a toolkit that examines the images present on a device’s hard drive.
• Digital Forensic Examination, DVR Another application would be to determine the network’s or a user’s IP and track their online activity. The information can be used to determine an unknown individual’s location and possibly identity, or for a known […]
• Computer Forensic Incident All evidence should be collected in the presence of experts in order to avoid losing data as well as violating privacy rights.N.
• Computer Forensics and Audio Data Retrieval Advanced technology in the modern society has contributed to the increase in computer and computer supported criminal activities due to the soaring increases in the number of internet users across the world and computerization of […]
• Computer Forensics: Data Acquisition Data acquisition is a branch of computer forensics concerned with the retrieval of data originally located on a suspect medium such as a hard drive.
• Computer Forensic Timeline Visualization Tool The necessity to save time in computer forensic investigations is the basis of the tool that Olssen and Boldt came up with.
• Research Tools Used by Computer Forensic Teams Computer Forensics is a branch of digital forensics which is used in “identifying, preserving, recovering, analyzing and presenting facts and opinions about the information”.
• Quality Control of Digital Forensics The quality control over computer forensic products is necessary because of the growth of the Internet services. Thus, the investigator and the lab are challenged not only with solving a case but also providing the […]
• Computer Forensics in Criminal Investigation In this section, this paper will address the components of a computer to photograph during forensic photography, the most emergent action an investigating officer should take upon arriving at a cyber-crime scene, the value of […]
• Computer Forensics and Cyber Crime Due to age characteristics, the insufficient educational activity of parents, the provision of unlimited opportunities in the online environment, and also due to the low media literacy of the population, people can become victims of […]
• Computer Forensics: Identity Theft The forensics process that is maintained in the framework of computer-related technologies provides professionals with the opportunity to gather, analyze, and report on the information.
• Digital Forensics: Open Source Tools The National Software Reference Library is a project at the National Institute of Standards and Technology, the primary goals of which are to store all existing software, file profiles, and file signatures and to provide […]
• Digital Forensic Methodology In the event that sufficient information is available, the required system configuration should be developed by ensuring that the forensic software and hardware are established and validated.
• Computer and Digital Forensics and Cybercrimes This has greatly affected the success of computer forensics and it is the main drawback in this area. The world is now safer due to the increasing usage of computer forensics in court cases.
• Cybercrime, Digital Evidence, Computer Forensics The website “howstuffworks” carries an article discussing the basics of computer forensics, this is a good example of a website that is useful in explaining or understanding the reality of cybercrime and digital evidence. Not […]
• Computer Forensics and Digital Evidence When electronic data has been collected to identify the kind of the incident and introduce evidence of the crime, it is important to organize a meeting with the witness who can provide details of the […]
• Information Security Fundamentals: Computer Forensics In addition, the paper provides an overview of the techniques used in obtaining evidence from the internet and web resources, the types of evidence that can be recovered from electronic and computer resources, and the […]
• The Role of Computer Forensics in Criminology In fact, since the development of the virtual machine monitors, the live-state analysis in digital forensics has become common and easy to understand.
• Computer Forensics and Investigations It is crucial in the investigation of crimes that are related to the manipulation of computer systems. For digital evidence to be admissible in court, investigations should be conducted in a manner that adopts the […]
• Basic Operations of Computer Forensic Laboratories All computer forensic laboratories in the US have to adhere to the national standards before they could be certified. Standard computer forensic equipment is used to support standard procedures and conditions in the laboratories.
• Bank Secrecy Laws and Tax Havens: Expanding Areas and Possible Roles for Computer Forensics Accounting
• Computer Forensics and Their Impact on the Business Climate
• Steganography and Visual Cryptography Usage in Computer Forensics and Computer Science
• A Comparative Study of Forensic Science and Computer Forensics
• Computer Forensics Laboratory Environmental Requirements Analysis
• Computer Forensics and Electronic Discovery: The New Management Challenge
• Language and Gender Author Cohort Analysis of E-mail for Computer Forensics
• Analysis of Secured Video Steganography Using Computer Forensics Technique for Enhance Data Security
• Database Administration and Computer Forensics Dependence
• Computer Forensics and Its Impact on the Criminal Justice Field
• The Future of Computer Forensics: A Needs Analysis
• An Efficient Piecewise Hashing Method for Computer Forensics
• Typical Phases of Computer Forensics Investigation Models
• Artificial Intelligence Application in Computer Forensics
• Computer Forensics: Digital Forensic Analysis Methodology
• MD5 Collisions and the Impact on Computer Forensics
• How Are Computer Forensics Used in Police Investigations?
• Computer Forensics Programs in Higher Education: A Preliminary Study
• Computer Forensics: Past, Present, and Future
• Automatic Timeline Construction and Analysis for Computer Forensics Purposes
• Computer Forensics Has Changed the Way Many Criminals Are Being Tried in Courts Today
• The Nist Computer Forensics Tool Testing Program Analysis
• Computer Forensics: A Critical Need in Computer Science Programs
• Rich Event Representation for Computer Forensics
• Integrated Computer Forensics Investigation Process Model (ICFIPM) For Computer Crime Investigations
• Computer Forensics: State-Of-The-Art, Tools, Techniques, Challenges, and Future Directions
• Computer Forensics: The Need for Standardization and Certification
• The Role of Criminal Profiling in the Computer Forensics Process
• Computer Forensics: Solving Crime Mysteries With Consistency
• Foundations of Computer Forensics: A Technology for the Fight Against Computer Crime
• Computer Forensics Tools and Resources for HJC Corporation
• Computer Forensics Investigators and Obtaining Information From Mobile Devices for Use in Criminal Investigations
• Computer Forensics and Their Uses of Live Box and Dead Box
• The Importance of Web Activities for Computer Forensics
• Computer Forensics: An Essential Ingredient for Cyber Security
• Identification of Legal Issues for Computer Forensics
• Computer Forensics: Evidence Collection and Management
• A Common Process Model for Incident Response and Computer Forensics
• Computer Forensics: Incident Response Essentials
• Security and Privacy in the Computer Forensics Context
• Hacking Essay Topics
• Criminal Justice Essay Topics
• Internet Privacy Essay Topics
• CyberCrime Topics
• Forensic Science Essay Topics
• Cyber Security Topics
• Organized Crime Titles
• Crime Ideas
• Chicago (A-D)
• Chicago (N-B)

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What is Digital Forensics

How well do you know digital forensics, steps of digital forensics, 1. identification, 2. preservation.

Next, isolate, secure, and preserve the data. This includes preventing people from possibly tampering with the evidence.

3. Analysis

4. documentation, when is digital forensics used in a business setting, 5. presentation.

For businesses, Digital Forensics is an important part of the Incident Response process. Forensic Investigators identify and record details of a criminal incident as evidence to be used for law enforcement. Rules and regulations surrounding this process are often instrumental in proving innocence or guilt in a court of law.

Learn How Important Cyber Forensics Is for a Business

Who is a digital forensics investigator.

A Digital Forensics Investigator is someone who has a desire to follow the evidence and solve a crime virtually. Imagine a security breach happens at a company, resulting in stolen data. In this situation, a computer forensic analyst would come in and determine how attackers gained access to the network, where they traversed the network, and what they did on the network, whether they took information or planted malware. Under those circumstances,  a digital forensic investigator’s role  is to recover data like documents, photos, and emails from computer hard drives and other data storage devices, such as zip and flash drives, with deleted, damaged, or otherwise manipulated.

History of Digital Forensics

How is digital forensics used in an investigation.

Digital footprint is the information about a person on the system, such as the webpages they have visited, when they were active, and what device they were using. By following the digital footprints, the investigator will retrieve the data critical to solving the crime case. To name a few –Matt Baker, in 2010, Krenar Lusha, in 2009, and more cases were solved with the help of digital forensics.

Cyber forensic investigators are experts in investigating encrypted data using various types of software and tools. There are many upcoming techniques that investigators use depending on the type of cybercrime they are dealing with. Cyber investigators’ tasks include recovering deleted files, cracking passwords, and finding the source of the security breach. Once collected, the evidence is then stored and translated to make it presentable before the court of law or for police to examine further. The role of cyber forensics in criminal offenses can be understood with a case study: cold cases and cyber forensics

Recent Case Study –

Thousands of digital devices that have been seized by police as evidence for alleged crimes, including terrorism and sexual offenses, are sitting in storage in a growing backlog that investigators are struggling to tackle.

In the lack of efficient resources to analyze the evidence, the PA news agency has found that 12,122 devices (includes phones, tablets, and computers) are awaiting examination across 32 forces. Unlikely, the backlog has remained the same previous year resulting in hampering prosecutors in criminal cases. In another case, a  Times investigation  from the last year confirmed awaiting examination of 12,667 devices from 33 police forces. The long-pending investigations show how overwhelmed a digital forensic team is due to the sheer volume of digital evidence collected.

Phases of Digital Forensics

What are digital forensics tools.

The Sleuth Kit

The Sleuth Kit (earlier known as TSK) is a collection of Unix- and Windows-based utilities that extract data from computer systems. It is an open-source software that analyzes disk images created by “dd” and recovers data from them. With this software, professionals can gather data during incident response or from live systems. Professionals can integrate TSK with more extensive forensics tools.

FTK Imager is an acquisition and imaging tool responsible for data preview that allows the user to assess the device in question quickly. The tool can also create forensic images (copies) of the device without damaging the original evidence.

Xplico is a network forensic analysis tool (NFAT) that helps reconstruct the data acquired using other packet sniffing tools like Wireshark. It is free and open-source software that uses Port Independent Protocol Identification (PIPI) to recognize network protocols. The tool is built on four key components: Decoder Manager, IP Decoder, Data Manipulators, and Visualization System.

Here are a few more tools used for Digital Investigation

Digital Forensics Job Profiles

If you have good analytical skills, you can forge a successful career as a forensic computer analyst, tracing the steps of cybercrime

The role of a forensic computer analyst is to investigate criminal incidents and data breaches. These forensic analysts often work for the police, law enforcement agencies, government, private, or other forensic companies. They use specialized tools and techniques to retrieve, analyze, and store data linked to criminal activity like a breach, fraud, network intrusions, illegal usage, unauthorized access, or terrorist communication.

Key Job Roles of a Digital Forensic Investigator

• Cyber Forensic Investigator
• Forensic Analyst, Senior
• Digital Forensics Analyst-Mid-Level
• Senior Digital Forensics and Incident Response
• Senior Consultant, Digital Forensics
• Security Analyst (Blue Team) – Forensic investigation
• Cybersecurity Forensics Consultant
• Senior Associate-Forensic Services-Forensic Technology Solutions
• Computer Forensic Technician
• Digital Forensics Analyst
• Senior Principle, Digital Forensics
• Security Forensics Analyst (SOC)
• Digital Forensics Analyst, Senior
• Forensics Engineer

Skills Required to Become a Digital Forensic Investigator

Employers look for certified forensic investigators with key digital forensic skills, including: are as follows:

• Defeating anti-forensic techniques
• Understanding hard disks and file systems
• Operating system forensics
• Cloud forensic in a cloud environment
• Investigating email crimes
• Mobile device forensics

The Average Salary of a Digital Forensics Investigator

Is digital forensics a good career.

As per  Payscale , the average salary of a Digital Forensic Computer Analyst is $72,929

Requirements to Become a Forensic Expert

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science or Engineering
• Bachelor of Science in Cyber Security (preferred)
• Master of Science in Cyber Security with Digital Forensic specialization (preferred)
• For Internship – No experience required
• For Entry-level Forensic Analysts – 1 to 2 years of experience is required
• For Senior Forensic Analyst – 2 to 3 years of experience is the norm
• For Managerial level – more than 5 years of experience
• Knowledge of computer networks – network protocols, topologies, etc.
• Knowledge of various operating systems – Unix, Linux, Windows, etc.
• Familiarity with different computer programming languages – Java, Python, etc.
• Understanding of computer hardware and software systems
• Expertise in digital forensic tools – Xplico, EnCase, FTK Imager, and hundreds of others
• Cloud computing

Forensic experts must have  report writing skills  and  critical thinking .

The Life of a Digital Forensic Investigator

Challenges a computer forensic analyst faces.

The most notable challenge digital forensic investigators face today is the cloud environment. While cloud computing is incredibly beneficial to an organization, they are also challenging for forensics investigators. The basic principle that the cloud is somebody else’s computer holds some truth, but huge server farms host most data. Since the cloud is scalable, information can be hosted in different locations, even in different countries. This makes it extremely difficult to gather accurate and trusted evidence in a case because establishing a proper chain of custody becomes nearly impossible. In addition, the  jurisdiction of the data  must be considered since different laws apply to depend on where it is located.

How Can CHFI Help You Become a Skilled Cyber Forensic Investigation Analyst?

The rising significance of digital forensics is creating an increased demand for computer forensic talent. As the role requires a specific set of skills that can be acquired via formal education and practice, EC-Council has the  Computer Hacking and Forensic Investigator (CHFI)  program to offer to those aspiring to become cyber professionals. The CHFI certification will fortify the application knowledge of law enforcement personnel, security officers, network administrators, legal professionals, and anyone concerned about the integrity of the network infrastructure. EC-Council’s CHFI is a vendor-neutral comprehensive program that encapsulates the professional with required digital forensics knowledge.

10 Reasons Why the CHFI Is Your Go-to for All Things Digital Forensics

1. methodological approach.

CHFI presents a methodological approach to computer forensics, including searching and seizing digital evidence and acquisition, storage, analysis, and reporting of that evidence to serve as a valid piece of information during the investigation. A CHFI can use different methods to discover data from a computer system, cloud service, mobile phone, or other digital devices.

2. Comprehensive Online Learning

It is a comprehensive program that comprises 14 modules and 39 lab sessions. The program can be taken completely online with a duration of 40 hours, during which you will be trained on the computer forensics and investigation process. CHFI also helps you understand the law enforcement process and rules that guide you through the legal process of investigation.

3. Include Real-Time Forensic Investigation Scenarios

CHFI includes major real-time forensic investigation cases that were solved through computer forensics. The study enables students to acquire hands-on experience in different forensic investigation techniques that were adopted from real-life scenarios.

4. Pre-Requisite

5. ansi accreditation.

EC-Council is one of the few organizations that specialize in information security (IS) to achieve ANSI 17024 accreditation. American National Standards Institute (ANSI) is a private non-profit organization that ensures the integrity of the standards as defined by them.

6. Mapped to NICE

CHFI is 100% mapped to the “Protect and Defend” Workforce Framework of NICE (National Institute of Cybersecurity Education), which categorizes and describes cybersecurity job roles.

7. Updated Timely

8. equipped with detailed labs.

The program has detailed labs making up almost 40% of the total training time. CHFI also comes with cloud-based virtual labs that allow the candidate to practice investigation techniques that mirror real-life situations in a simulated environment.

9. White Papers and Students Kit

For additional reading, the program comes loaded with many white papers. The student kit also contains various forensic investigation templates for evidence collection, chain-of-custody, investigation reports, and more.

10. Report Writing and Presentation

CHFI has a module dedicated to writing a report and presentation that enhances your skills in presenting the authenticity of the evidence collected and analyzed, explaining its significance in solving the case.

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AutoProfile: Towards Automated Profile Generation for Memory Analysis

Despite a considerable number of approaches that have been proposed to protect computer systems, cyber-criminal activities are on the rise and forensic analysis of compromised machines and seized devices is becoming essential in computer security. This article focuses on memory forensics, a branch of digital forensics that extract artifacts from the volatile memory. In particular, this article looks at a key ingredient required by memory forensics frameworks: a precise model of the OS kernel under analysis, also known as profile . By using the information stored in the profile, memory forensics tools are able to bridge the semantic gap and interpret raw bytes to extract evidences from a memory dump. A big problem with profile-based solutions is that custom profiles must be created for each and every system under analysis. This is especially problematic for Linux systems, because profiles are not generic : they are strictly tied to a specific kernel version and to the configuration used to build the kernel. Failing to create a valid profile means that an analyst cannot unleash the true power of memory forensics and is limited to primitive carving strategies. For this reason, in this article we present a novel approach that combines source code and binary analysis techniques to automatically generate a profile from a memory dump, without relying on any non-public information. Our experiments show that this is a viable solution and that profiles reconstructed by our framework can be used to run many plugins, which are essential for a successful forensics investigation.

Cyber Security and Digital Forensics

An insight into digital forensics: history, frameworks, types and tools, digital forensics, digital forensics as a service: analysis for forensic knowledge, roadmap of digital forensics investigation process with discovery of tools, wake up digital forensics' community and help combating ransomware, privacy of web browsers: a challenge in digital forensics, the analysis and implication of data deduplication in digital forensics, digital forensics investigation on xiaomi smart router using sni iso/iec 27037:2014 and nist sp 800-86 framework, export citation format, share document.

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The art of digital sleuthing: How digital forensics unlocks the truth

Learn how the cyber variety of CSI works, from sizing up the crime scene and hunting for clues to piecing together the story that the data has to tell

Mario Micucci

14 Feb 2024  •  , 6 min. read

The burgeoning field of digital forensics plays a crucial role in investigating a wide range of cybercrimes and cybersecurity incidents. Indeed, in our technology-centric world, even investigations of ‘traditional’ crimes often include an element of digital evidence that is waiting to be retrieved and analyzed.

This art of uncovering, analyzing and interpreting digital evidence has seen substantial growth particularly in investigations involving various kinds of fraud and cybercrime, tax evasion, stalking, child exploitation, intellectual property theft, and even terrorism. Additionally, digital forensics techniques also help organizations understand the scope and impact of data breaches , as well as help prevent further damage from these incidents.

With that in mind, digital forensics has a role to play in various contexts, including crime investigations, incident response, divorce and other legal proceedings, employee misconduct probes, counterterrorism efforts, fraud detection and data recovery.

Let’s now dissect how exactly digital forensics investigators size up the digital crime scene, hunt for clues and piece together the story that the data has to tell

1. Collection of evidence

First things first, it’s time get your our hands on the evidence. This step involves identifying and gathering sources of digital evidence, as well as creating exact copies of information that could be linked to the incident. In fact, it’s important to avoid modifying the original data and, with the help of appropriate tools and devices , create their bit-for-bit copies.

RELATED READING: IT forensic tools: How to find the right one for each incident

Analysts are then able to recover deleted files or hidden disk partitions, ultimately generating an image equal in size to the disk. Labeled with date, time and time zone, the samples should be isolated in containers that shield them from the elements and prevent deterioration or deliberate tampering. Photos and notes documenting the physical state of the devices and their electronic components often help provide additional context and aid in understanding the conditions under which the evidence was collected.

Throughout the process, it’s important to stick to strict measures such as the use of gloves, antistatic bags, and Faraday cages. Faraday cages (boxes or bags) are especially useful with devices that are susceptible to electromagnetic waves, such as mobile phones, in order to ensure the integrity and credibility of the evidence and prevent data corruption or tampering.

In keeping with the order of volatility, the acquisition of samples follows a systematic approach – from the most volatile to the least volatile. As also laid out in the RFC3227 guidelines of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), the initial step involves collecting potential evidence, from data relevant to memory and cache contents and continues all the way to data on archival media.

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The Evolution of Digital Forensics

What is digital forensics? With people relying on computer systems to exchange information more than ever, digital forensics is increasingly vital from a cybersecurity and information security perspective.

Digital forensics is a part of cybersecurity that focuses on retrieving, analyzing, and examining digital evidence, usually in criminal or legal proceedings. If you are considering a career in digital or computer forensics, it is necessary to understand the history of digital forensics, current principles, and the complicated legal issues surrounding it. This will enable you to make a more informed decision about whether this career path is right for you.

Tracing the Origins of Digital Forensics

The history of digital forensics dates back to the 1980s—making it a relatively new field in the grand scheme of things. Despite its comparatively recent beginnings, the field has come quite a long way.

Emergence in the 1980s and 1990s

Early forms of digital data first emerged in the late 1970s, but it wasn't until the 1980s that the digital forensics field gained traction. During this time, more people began to purchase personal computers, and computer-related crimes started to occur. In its earliest stages, digital forensics strategies were used to analyze computer systems and collect evidence for criminal investigations.

By the 1990s, the field established foundational techniques and formal methodologies for collecting evidence and investigating crimes. Later in the decade, Internet use became more widespread, resulting in a need for more robust digital forensic methods to address growing issues like identity theft and hacking.

Standardization Efforts in the 2000s

By the early 2000s, more people were using the web globally, resulting in widespread cybercrime. In response, the digital forensics field began working toward standardizing its processes. During this time, the International Association of Computer Investigative Specialists (IACIS) and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) were founded and began guiding best practices.

Through the remainder of the early 2000s, digital forensic investigators worked to refine these strategies while adapting to the changing digital landscape.

The Evolution of Digital Forensic Tools

Forensic tools have evolved over the years, aiding in investigations as the scope and ubiquity of technology has changed. One of the earlier tools still in use today is the hard-drive duplicator, a piece of hardware that can copy all files from one device onto a clean drive for more accessible investigation and research.

Decryption tools have also come a long way, especially when cracking device passwords for analysis and investigation. Today, password recovery devices use algorithms like brute force and even dictionary attacks to access password-protected devices. Some examples of other digital forensics tools commonly used today include:

• File viewers and file analysis tools
• Database and network forensics tools
• Registry analysis tools

Understanding the Digital Forensic Process

The digital forensic process can vary depending on the type of investigation being conducted or the type of crime being analyzed. In general, however, a basic series of steps are followed during a digital forensic investigation to yield the best results.

In the initial stage of the process, the specific digital media is seized, usually by law enforcement agencies. Then, a hard drive duplicator or a similar tool is employed to generate a forensic replica of the data in question. This allows the original device to be returned safely to storage while files and other digital evidence are analyzed.

During the analysis or investigation portion of the process, files are scrutinized for evidence. Specific evidence collected may include emails, chat logs, and browsing history and files. From there, the findings from the investigation are documented in a report. Law enforcement and relevant agencies may continue to be involved in this investigation aspect.

Exploring the Application of Digital Forensics

With so many digital devices and forms of digital data, the potential applications of digital forensics are seemingly endless. Some common examples of applications include:

• Computer crime investigation
• Intellectual property theft
• Data and security breaches
• Uncovering evidence of fraud or unauthorized access
• Civil litigation in court proceedings
• Incident response during or after a cybersecurity incident
• Malware analysis
• Investigation of unauthorized traffic and network traffic in a web attack

Practical Limitations in Real-World Scenarios

Industry professionals still face practical challenges despite significant advancements in digital forensics over the past few decades. Data encryption is a challenge that makes it difficult to decode passwords and analyze data in criminal and civil investigations. Encryption involves converting the text or data into an unreadable code that can be interpreted only with a decryption code. The text or data can only be interpreted with a decryption code. Over the years, hackers and other cybercriminals have become more advanced in encrypting their data, requiring digital forensics investigators to step up their decryption game.

Likewise, as cloud computing and the use of mobile devices become more widespread, the field of digital forensics has struggled to keep up with these evolving technologies.

Legal Aspects Surrounding Digital Forensics

In addition to practical limitations surrounding the field of digital forensics, professionals working in this field must also consider the many legal aspects that come into play. This is especially true regarding the use of digital evidence in courts and the integrity and authenticity of data.

The Use of Digital Evidence in Courts

In the United States, many laws limit members of law enforcement and digital investigators regarding what kind of evidence can be admitted and used in court.

For example, the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA) makes obtaining search warrants for transmitted communication (such as VOIP data) more difficult than stored communication.

Meanwhile, even when digital evidence can be used in court, requirements over the chain of custody and audit trails make it extremely challenging for computer forensics professionals to submit authentic evidence in every case. Those working in this field must understand the ins and outs of these laws and follow best practices for maintaining data integrity.

The Role of Investigative Tools in Legal Cases

Investigative tools have come a long way in digital forensics and continue to play an important role in criminal and civil cases. Tools and methods such as forensic imaging, forensic analysis, data analysis, and forensic testing make it possible for experts to gather evidence and conduct meaningful data analysis that can crack a case wide open.

Diversified Branches of Digital Forensics

Within the field of digital forensics, various branches focus on different areas of expertise. From computer forensics and mobile device forensics to digital image and database forensics, there's bound to be a niche that suits your interests.

Exploring Computer Forensics

This branch of digital forensics concerns data found on computers and in digital storage media. Computer forensics practices tend to be used most in civil and criminal cases involving computers, using common methods like data recovery and following a clear chain of custody to ensure the strongest case.

Unveiling Mobile Device Forensics

In recent years, the branch of mobile device forensics has grown significantly as more people use mobile devices (such as smartphones and tablets) to generate and share data worldwide. The branch of mobile device forensics focuses on any type of device with communication abilities and some form of internal memory. Examples include cell phones, tablets, GPS (global positioning system), and PDA (personal digital assistant) devices.

Understanding Network Forensics

Another aspect of digital forensics to consider is network forensics, which focuses on monitoring and analyzing network traffic for legal evidence or intrusion detection. Network forensics is generally used when law enforcement agencies need to capture network traffic as part of a criminal investigation or when a network is being monitored for unauthorized traffic and other intrusions. Network forensics investigations work can be challenging, especially since network traffic is constantly changing and thus can be difficult to study.

The World of Forensic Data Analysis

Forensic data analysis (FDA) examines structured data, often related to financial crime. Someone working in forensic data analysis may be looking to uncover a pattern that indicates fraudulent activities on a device or account. Such data can come from specific software devices, apps, or even email communication—and analyzing this type of data requires a great deal of expertise.

Grasping Digital Image Forensics

Digital image forensics (or digital media forensics) is another growing branch of digital forensics that has emerged in recent years. This field focuses on multimedia files, including audio recordings, images, and videos. Often, investigators look for signs of tampering or manipulation, but this can vary from one investigation to the next.

An Insight Into Database Forensics

Another complex niche in the broader field of digital forensics is database forensics, which involves investigating and analyzing individual databases to uncover signs of crime. Crimes committed on a database can include unauthorized access and data tampering. Such investigations are often necessary after a significant data breach or when suspicions of a more extensive and ongoing crime occur.

Learning About IoT Forensics

In recent years, the use of Internet of Things (IoT) devices has grown significantly across the globe. These devices (from smart assistants to Wi-Fi-connected doorbells) aim to make our lives easier—unfortunately, they can also lead to security breaches and cybercrime. Specifically, hackers use IoT devices to carry out larger-scale attacks (such as botnet attacks).

In response, a new branch of digital forensics known as IoT forensics has been born out of necessity. This niche is focused on investigating and analyzing smart devices, other IoT technologies, and the data generated by these devices. While this branch of the field is still relatively nascent, it has already successfully provided digital evidence useful for cases related to privacy and data breaches.

The Significance of Digital Forensics in Today's World

There's no overstating how digital forensics solves and even prevents cybercrime in today's always-connected world. The field itself has come a long way since its beginnings in the 1980s—and it will continue to evolve and meet the world's changing needs as new technological innovations emerge.

If you're interested in joining the fight against cybercrime and making a positive difference in the digital world, then a career in digital forensic science may be right for you.

Not sure where to begin? If you already have a bachelor's degree, Champlain College Online offers an online graduate certificate program in digital forensics and incident response . Our program is offered 100 percent online and can be completed in as little as three terms. Request more information or get started with your online application today.

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Published: 16 February 2024 Contributors: Annie Badman, Amber Forrest

Digital forensics is the process of collecting and analyzing digital evidence in a way that maintains its integrity and admissibility in court.

Digital forensics is a field of forensic science. It is used to investigate cybercrimes but can also help with criminal and civil investigations. For instance, cybersecurity teams may use digital forensics to identify the cybercriminals behind a  malware  attack, while law enforcement agencies may use it to analyze data from the devices of a murder suspect.

Digital forensics has broad applications because it treats digital evidence like any other form of evidence. Just as officials use specific processes to gather physical evidence from a crime scene, digital forensics investigators follow a strict forensics process (also known as a chain of custody) when handling digital evidence to avoid tampering.

Digital forensics and  computer forensics  are often referred to interchangeably. However, digital forensics technically involves gathering evidence from  any  digital device, whereas computer forensics involves gathering evidence specifically from computing devices, such as computers, tablets, mobile phones and devices with a CPU.

Digital forensics and incident response (DFIR)  is an emerging cybersecurity discipline that integrates computer forensics and incident response activities to accelerate the remediation of cyber threats while ensuring that any related digital evidence is not compromised.

Digital forensics, or digital forensic science, first surfaced in the early 1980s with the rise of personal computers and gained prominence in the 1990s.

However, it wasn’t until the early 21st century that countries like the United States formalized their digital forensics policies. The shift toward standardization resulted from the rise of computer crimes in the 2000s and the nationwide decentralization of law enforcement agencies. 

With more crimes involving digital devices—and more individuals involved in prosecuting those crimes—officials needed procedures to ensure criminal investigations dealt with digital evidence in a way that was admissible in a court of law.

Today, digital forensics is only becoming more relevant. To understand why, consider the overwhelming amount of digital data available on practically everyone and everything.

As society continues to rely more on computer systems and cloud computing technologies, individuals continue to conduct more of their lives online across an ever-increasing number of devices, including mobile phones, tablets, IoT devices, connected devices, and more.

The result is more data—from more sources in more formats than ever before—that investigators can use as digital evidence to analyze and understand a growing range of criminal activity, including cyberattacks, data breaches, and criminal and civil investigations. 

Additionally, like all evidence, physical or digital, investigators and law enforcement agencies must collect, handle, analyze and store it correctly. Otherwise, data may be lost, tampered with or rendered inadmissible in court.

Forensics experts are responsible for performing digital forensics investigations, and as demand for the field grows, so do the job opportunities. The Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates computer forensics job openings will increase 31 percent through 2029 (link resides outside ibm.com).

The  National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)  (link resides outside ibm.com) outlines four steps in the digital forensic analysis process.

Those steps include:

Identify the digital devices or storage media containing data, metadata or other digital information relevant to the digital forensics investigation.

For criminal cases, law enforcement agencies will seize the evidence from a potential crime scene to ensure a strict chain of custody.

To preserve evidence integrity, forensics teams make a forensic duplicate of the data using a hard drive duplicator or forensic imaging tool.

After the duplication process, they secure the original data and conduct the rest of the investigation on the copies to avoid tampering.

Investigators comb through data and metadata for signs of cybercriminal activity. 

Forensic examiners can recover digital data from various sources, including web browser histories, chat logs, remote storage devices, deleted space, accessible disk spaces, operating system caches and virtually any other part of a computerized system.

Forensic analysts use different methodologies and digital forensic tools to extract data and insights from digital evidence.

For instance, to uncover "hidden" data or metadata, they might use specialized forensic techniques, like  live analysis , which evaluates still-running systems for volatile data, or  reverse steganography , which exposes data hidden using steganography (a method for concealing sensitive information within ordinary-looking messages).

Investigators may also reference proprietary and open-source tools to link findings to specific threat actors.

Once the investigation is over, forensic experts create a formal report that outlines their analysis, including what happened and who may be responsible. 

Reports vary by case. For cyber crimes, they might have recommendations for fixing vulnerabilities to prevent future cyberattacks. Reports are also frequently used to present digital evidence in a court of law and shared with law enforcement agencies, insurers, regulators and other authorities. 

When digital forensics emerged in the early 1980s, there were few formal digital forensics tools. Most forensics teams relied on live analysis, a notoriously tricky practice that posed a significant risk of tampering.

By the late 1990s, the increased demand for digital evidence prompted the development of more sophisticated tools like EnCase and FTK, which allowed forensic analysts to examine copies of digital media without resorting to live forensics.

Today, forensic experts employ a wide range of digital forensics tools. These tools can be hardware or software-based and analyze data sources without tampering with the data. Common examples include file analysis tools, which extract and analyze individual files, and registry tools, which gather information from Windows-based computing systems that catalog user activity in registries.

Certain providers also offer dedicated open-source tools for specific forensic purposes—with commercial platforms, like Encase and CAINE, offering comprehensive functions and reporting capabilities. CAINE, specifically, boasts an entire Linux distribution tailored to the needs of forensic teams.

Digital forensics contains discrete branches based on the different sources of forensic data.

Some of the most popular branches of digital forensics include:

• Computer forensics  (or cyber forensics ): Combining computer science and legal forensics to gather digital evidence from computing devices.
• Mobile device forensics : Investigating and evaluating digital evidence on smartphones, tablets, and other mobile devices.
• Database forensics : Examining and analyzing databases and their related metadata to uncover evidence of cybercrimes or data breaches.
• Network forensics:  Monitoring and analyzing data found in computer network traffic, including web browsing and communications between devices.
• File system forensics:  Examining data found in files and folders stored on endpoint devices like desktops, laptops, mobile phones, and servers.
• Memory forensics:  Analyzing digital data found in a device's random access memory (RAM).

When computer forensics and incident response —the detection and mitigation of cyberattacks in progress—are conducted independently, they can interfere with each other and negatively impact an organization. 

Incident response teams can alter or destroy digital evidence while removing a threat from the network. Forensic investigators can delay threat resolution while they hunt down and capture evidence.

Digital forensics and incident response, or DFIR, combines computer forensics and incident response into an integrated workflow that can help information security teams stop cyber threats faster while also preserving digital evidence that might be lost in the urgency of threat mitigation.

2 major benefits of DFIR include :

• Forensic data collection happening alongside threat mitigation:  Incident responders use computer forensic techniques to collect and preserve data while they’re containing and eradicating the threat, ensuring the proper chain of custody is followed and that valuable evidence isn’t altered or destroyed.
• Post-incident review including examination of digital evidence:  In addition to preserving evidence for legal action, DFIR teams use it to reconstruct cybersecurity incidents from start to finish to learn what happened, how it happened, the extent of the damage and how similar attacks can be avoided.

DFIR can lead to faster threat mitigation, more robust threat recovery, and improved evidence for investigating criminal cases, cybercrimes, insurance claims and other security incidents.

Experience up to a 55% improvement in alert investigation and triage with IBM innovations.

DFIR combines two cybersecurity fields to streamline threat response while preserving evidence against cybercriminals.

Computer forensics involves gathering digital evidence from computing devices to ensure its admissibility in court.

IBM cybersecurity services deliver advisory, integration and managed security services and offensive and defensive capabilities. We combine a global team of experts with proprietary and partner technology to co-create tailored security programs that manage risk.

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The Basics of Digital Forensics—What is Digital Forensics

Digital forensics receives more attention today than at any time in recent memory. From the efforts of law enforcement investigators working to solve crimes based on the digital footprint perpetrators leave behind to private professionals working to understand how to prevent cyberattacks from hackers and ransomware gangs, digital forensics professionals appear both in the news and in books, television shows, and movies.

But digital forensics remains a mystery to many. How can they reconstruct a crime from deleted files on a smartphone or computer? What is the goal of the digital forensic process? What sort of tools do they use?

Download the first chapter of the basics of digital forensics to learn:

• Why digital forensics is important to private enterprise and law enforcement
• What are the differences between digital forensics and e-discovery
• What types of jobs are available in the digital forensics field

Home » Articles » Digital Forensics Research Update: May 2022

Digital Forensics Research Update: May 2022

Research published last month covered a wide range of issues in digital forensics, from limitations and challenges to new tools and techniques and lessons for those in higher education.

Digital forensic techniques, now and in the future

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) published its draft “ Digital Investigation Techniques: A NIST Scientific Foundation Review .” This in-depth review of a wide range of descriptions of digital investigation techniques comes at a time when the field continues to evolve, and techniques based on established computer science methods can be limited.

According to the report, these limitations consist of:

• Not always discovering all the evidence.
• Having to parse “extraneous material” associated with the recovery of deleted data.
• Changing significance of digital artifacts created by ever-changing software, including both operating systems and applications.
• The possibility that “two examiners may find different information, and both can be correct” as a result of the availability of multiple ways to search data.

However, the report noted, although digital forensic methods may not be formally peer reviewed, “trustworthiness is established by members of the digital forensic community trying out proposed methods, testing, and updates circulated within the community. This process strengthens an examiner’s awareness of the capabilities and limitations of their techniques.”

The draft is open for public comment through July 11, 2022. Please send comments to [email protected].

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On the other side of digital forensic methodology is the interpretation of artifacts, or traces, left on a given digital system. “Erroneously interpreted data that is communicated to a client and subsequently relied upon can have far-reaching consequences for all those involved in the investigative process,” writes Cranfield University’s Graeme Horsman in “ Forming an investigative opinion in digital forensics .”

Cautioning that investigative opinions may not always be appropriate, and are also different to expert evaluative opinions, Horsman offers a three-step process flowchart of actions to take throughout three stages: case processing and hypothesis formation, testing and evaluation, and opinion formation and communication.

The complexity of digital forensic investigations is compounded when cases are multinational. “ SoK: Cross-border Criminal Investigations and Digital Evidence ” is a literature review examining current protocols for collaboration, with an eye toward “enabling practitioners and stakeholders to leverage horizontal strategies to fill in the identified gaps timely and accurately.”

The authors concluded: “…the current mechanisms used for cross-border collaboration are solving partial issues and challenges, but there is no panacea.” Moreover, efforts to solve these issues and challenges actually introduced new ones. The paper laid the groundwork for future research, in particular the use of blockchain technology for chain of custody and evidence exchanges.

Structuring inferences in digital and other forensic sciences

Encouraging hypothesis formation – and using a standard practice to do so – as part of digital forensic science continues in “ Likelihood ratio method for the interpretation of iPhone health app data in digital forensics ,” authored by a team of researchers at the Netherlands Forensic Institute.

Their method focused on the use of a numerical likelihood probability ratio applied to walking distances. Acknowledging that the method’s performance is “highly case-dependent,” the authors stressed, “the method and validation procedure are straightforward and can therefore easily be repeated for different data… within and outside the field of digital forensics.”

More broadly in forensic science, whether data science and machine learning could help human practitioners with likelihood ratios and other structured evaluation methods was the topic of a set of papers in May, including:

• “ A strawman with machine learning for a brain: A response to Biedermann (2022) the strange persistence of (source) “identification” claims in forensic literature ” arguing in support of the use of machine learning for forensic inference.
• “ Machine learning enthusiasts should stick to the facts. Response to Morrison et al. (2022) ” refutes this response.
• “ Advancing a paradigm shift in evaluation of forensic evidence: The rise of forensic data science ,” a written version of a keynote presentation given at the European Academy of Forensic Science 2022 conference.

Although these papers focus on forensic sciences like fingerprint, toolmarks, footwear and tire tread pattern comparison analysis, they are more broadly written about the same quantitative and statistical ways to overcome cognitive bias being discussed in digital forensics.

Technical papers

South Korean researchers contributed “ A study on data acquisition based on the Huawei smartphone backup protocol ,” exploring a workaround to digital device extraction. By reverse engineering Huawei’s data backup protocol program, HiSuite, the researchers “experimentally verified” the ability to use a HiSuite replacement tool obtain backup data from Huawei smartphones.

In “ Cloud Evidence Tracing System: An integrated forensics investigation system for large-scale public cloud platform ,” Chinese researchers developed a tool that uses service providers’ existing APIs to forensically acquire, preserve, and emulate data, as well as analyze and manage it.

The CETS methodology is designed to collect data consistently, across multiple providers’ virtual machines, and to track all the files created during their workflow. As of publication, the authors wrote, “CETS has collected data exceeding 2 PB, rerun more than 2000 virtual hosts, including servers and databases, supported more than 300 investigation cases related to cloud platforms.”

In India, researchers discussed “ Security and privacy issues in fog computing environment .” Designed to overcome the challenges posed by a future internet to existing cloud computing paradigms, fog computing “has extended the cloud computing standards to the edge of the network.” The researchers thus examine characteristics, applications and associated technologies of fog computing towards understanding its own unique challenges.

Researchers in Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, and the United Kingdom offered an overview of methods for “ Digital forensic analysis for source video identification: A survey .” Compression, stabilization, scaling, cropping, and differences between frame types can all make it difficult to identify source videos for authentication

These limitations have had the results that 1) most authentication techniques are focused on source camera identification and 2) few large standard digital video databases, or updated databases with new devices based on new technologies, exist. The researchers sought to describe some of the databases that are available, along with existing identification techniques.

Researchers from India’s Vellore Institute of Technology discussed the “ Implementation of high speed and lightweight symmetric key encryption algorithm-based authentication protocol for resource constrained devices .” Their algorithm combines AES with SHA mechanisms “to achieve a high degree of data protection.”

Lessons for educators and students in higher learning

The literature around pivots to remote learning in pandemic-stricken institutions continued in May with “ Lockdown labs: Pivoting to remote learning in forensic science higher education .” There, researchers at Scotland’s University of Strathclyde, Centre for Forensic Science offered a case study of its one-year MSc Forensic Science programme.

The paper discusses innovative teaching practices, including the online, practical, and interactive resources and activities that helped remote learners to understand the material they would need to advance. Both long-term teaching practices and temporary pandemic responses are covered.

In England, Staffordshire University’s Rachel S.Bolton-King explored “ Student mentoring to enhance graduates’ employability potential .” Conducted over three years, the “subject-specific, classroom-based, voluntary extra-curricular” mentoring scheme saw almost 400 first-year undergraduate students mentored by 26 more advanced undergrads, including via remote means during the COVID-19 pandemic. The research supports a framework enabling mentors to identify skills alignment with prospective employers’ requirements.

Finally, the Leahy Center for Digital Forensics & Cybersecurity ran a series on various career fields relevant and adjacent to digital forensics:

• Erik Biedrzycki wrote about working as an IT technician .
• Mohammed Hussein discussed building a cyber range .
• Colin Westgate described creating a new ticket system for the center.
• Ryan Harvey wrote about learning Elastic .
• Internships were the focus of blogs by Damion Lyman , Jacob Mayotte , Reece Cristea , and Michael Coyne .

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Digital Forensics and Privacy Concerns Essay Sample

Introduction

Nowadays, victims, suspects, and witnesses usually own several smart devices. Therefore, police departments have to deal with the constantly increasing amount of data that is personally sensitive probative ones, being continuously created, accessed, and altered. It is primarily related to automation that enables to produce data persistent and invariable in nature. It allows wearable devices to provide investigators with the means of establishing causation for conducting their investigations. Currently, more than 80% of all court cases have some type of digital evidence. The evidence also includes smartwatch wearable data that is applied to deny or agree with the uphold witness statements. Hence, smartwatch wearable devices provide a number of investigation-related benefits, and can effectively interact with multiple media sources through the possibility of using different connection modes. This makes these devices play a key role in the arena of the Internet of Things (IoT). Hence, the collection and further analysis of the smartwatch wearable deices has gained its importance, increasing the need for the investigation and examination of their computing capabilities and connection modes. The fields of computer forensics and privacy protection are the areas in computer security that conflict with each other. The tools of computer forensics are developed to contribute to the discovery and extraction of digital evidence associated with a specific crime. At the same time, the techniques of privacy protection seek to protect the privacy of data owners. Consequently, finding the right balance between the computer forensics and privacy protection fields is a considerable challenge. The currently existing solutions of privacy-preserving computer forensics take into account all data of data owners as private ones. Consequently, these solutions gain the possibility of collecting and encrypting the entire data. However , this contributes to the investigation cost in terms of resources and time, implying that that there is growing need for acquiring privacy levels for computer forensics to ensure the collection of only relevant data. It will result in the encryption of merely private relevant data. The current research proposes different privacy levels for computer forensics. Hence, it begins with the classification of forensic data and the analysis of all possibilities of data access in the field of computer forensics. Moreover, it defines several privacy levels, considering the access possibilities. The defined levels of privacy lead to the opportunity to develop more efficient and effective solutions in terms of computer forensics that aims at preserving privacy.

The digital forensic investigators and researchers express increased interest in the IoT. It relates to the fact that the networks created by these interconnected wearable smart devices constitute huge information repositories, capable of producing digital evidence of a much broader depth and scope compared to physical evidence (7). Smartwatch wearable devices primarily perform the function of a mini computer stuffed with a variety of physiological and mechanical sensors, providing users with a number of communication functionalities. Therefore, the storage capabilities of these devices require further investigation (8). Prior research indicates that there is a possibility to get access to such data as health and fitness information, events, e-mails, messages, contact, and notifications from datasets received from various paired smartwatch wearable devices. It highlights the forensic value and worthiness of investigating these devices (9). The current study is imperative as it makes an attempt to solve a couple of digital forensics issues. The first one is a limited research base that relates to the smartwatch wearable device emanation, while the second one is a heavy workload that affects the work of digital forensic investigators. It has been found that only some of these studies address the acquisition of smartwatch wearable data. In addition, they have been conducted using limited methods which are either forensically unsound and incomplete or time-consuming (6, 9). The studies conducted in this sphere are manual reviews of the information stored electronically in the devices, using its native interface. However, it restricts the acquisition to what the examiner gets from the screen. Also, one of the studies discussed a physical extraction that allows reading the information from the flash memory of the device. Moreover, it enables to access the deleted data. However, it is necessary to root the device before physical extraction and it is often referred to as a less forensically strong approach due to modifications of the system and possible user data (3, 10). Hence, there is a need for a forensically sound methodology that is most suitable for the advanced data acquisition directly from a smartwatch wearable device. Finally, it is critical to triage items for the analysis within the case because of the fact that the current backlogs which result from the time required to analyze data from various devices in combination with the rate of technology evolution and update.

Digital Forensics in the United States

In terms of the law-enforcement operations, there is an essential distinction between the investigation with and without a search warrant. Hence, the investigation with a warrant implies that there are limitations on what the government can do as the search targets should be taken into consideration with the warrant. For example, in the case the government has a warrant to search for the drug laundering evidence in financial records on a PC, they are unable to look for the cases that deal with child pornography. Inconsistencies that exist in the standards between different jurisdictions imply that some warrants have been improperly justified (Losavio and Keeling, 2014). At the same time, investigation without a warrant indicate the need for the ‘probable cause’ of criminal activity to a standard similar to the one that allows entering a house to search it. This shows that most devices, including computers, cannot be searched by the government without a warrant.

There are several exceptions to the general privacy protections of digital devices and computers. Hence, if a device or a computer is not a ‘closed container’ analogue in one’s home, there are no obstacles to freely search it. This refers to the devices owned by the government, public terminals, and information provided to a third party, including a business, or the data received during a lawful arrest. In addition, here belongs voluntarily revealed information, and information in ‘plain view’ or easily visible during a search. This may also include the storage services shared remotely, for example, servers. However, it may be argued that these are often used as backup for the secondary storage of privately owned devices and computers, being protected from random searches.

It has been found that the US government has recently claimed an exception to the protection of general in regard to data that describes other data, metadata, including phone numbers called by users. However, as metadata can be sensitive information it remains unclear whether this claimed exception will remain valid (Schneier, 2015). Other directions also address the ability of law enforcement to execute warrants in the cases when freedom of expression, relating to medical, journalism, and legal records. Thus, it is necessary to get additional approvals before continuing the search.

Privacy Concerns in Digital Forensics

Considering the previous discussion, digital forensics provides some essential challenges to traditional individual privacy notions.

• Data centralization presupposes the use of forensic methods to get the ability to see all the digital data on a device or computer. This allures the investigators to violate the privacy right of a user as they may find many interesting items not originally authorized during the search (Hong et al., 2013). In addition, there analogous non-digital limits in the USA that indicate what police officers can search for in certain situations, for instance, traffic stops if they find things that do not relate to driving (Shipler,  2011).
• Data misjudgment is a related issue, implying that forensic investigators often have a limited insight into the digital contents and formats. Therefore, they may misclassify data and violate legitimate privacy of users. For example, they may experience difficulties telling whether an individual in a photo is under the age of 18 and it is a significant problem in the case of child pornography. Other difficulties may relate to the inability to tell whether a meeting is an email-documented one between suspects conspiracy part. In addition, there may be a misunderstanding in terms of the financial-transaction documents due to the inability to indicate an alleged Ponzi scheme. Hence, investigators may open a variety of files if they seek to find something related and see things far beyond their authorization bounds.
• The issue of violating privacy of third parties indicates the investigation of a shared resource, for example, could site, a server computer, or a family computer to have a look at the data owned by different individuals. If only one person become the subject of the investigation, then, it is necessary to avoid the analysis of other data during investigation (van Staden, 2013). A big danger with server forensics is unjustified for the US government to search the local servers to find any terrorism clues, for example, terrorism-related users are extremely rare and the searching benefits are tiny compared to the privacy risks.
• Surreptitious searches constitute a key problem in digital forensics. It implies that the data owner may not be aware of what is being searched. However, in the case of a house search in the USA, it is necessary to inform about the target of a search and serve a warrant. It is possible to seize and carry off a drive for investigation. In addition, it is possible to investigate the case remotely with the right protocols. It is also possible that the drive owner is watching an investigation, but fails to understand what will happen in the near future. Hence, they are unable to tell whether there is a violation of their privacy. 
• Unwarranted reporting of forensic findings occurs due to the difficulty of judging data. It relates to the fact that investigators are allowed to report private data irrelevant to the investigation to other authorities. For example, it is usually difficult to ascertain a child abuse by looking at photographs. However, the forensic investigator’s reports that regain the suspicion of a child abuse in the US has a number of consequences, including a loss of parental access to a child, subsequent permanent harm to a child until the case of abuse is proved, and others.
• Selling of private forensic data is another challenge. As the private user data have monetary value, there is some temptation for an unscrupulous investigator to sell those data to the many Internet user information brokers that are ready to pay much for it. This can significantly extend the damage of a privacy violation. Governments are often unlikely to do this, but businesses and individuals have fewer restrictions.
• The criminal use of digital forensics implies that unscrupulous investigators can use private data they find directly. It means that they may use bank-card numbers they find to further use them for stealing from bank accounts, using passwords they found with the aim to break into systems, or apply the baffling private information they find for blackmail. It has been found that the Chinese government endeavors to steal technology secrets from the US corporate computer systems (Surowiecki, 2014). At the same time, similar techniques can be applied against people.
• Difficulty of assessing damage to privacy occurs in the case it is difficult to assess the data damage. It relates to the fact that digital forensics covers a variety of digital data. Hence, it implies that a single user may experience difficulties suing for damages in a civil court in the USA. However, there is a possibility of class-action lawsuits in the case of large data breaches.
• Lack of privacy management support by forensic tool vendors is one more challenge. The major forensic tools are FTK, the SleuthKit, and EnCase and all of them do not provide any support for keeping privacy issue track during a forensic investigation. Although they could indicate the way to mark sensitive data for further avoidance, they fail to do it.

Privacy Levels

The privacy levels are usually implemented to explain the privacy protection levels that should be provided by the data collector. The analysis of the recent studies on computer forensics implies that researchers consider all owners’ data as private. Therefore, they encrypt the entire data. However, the consideration of all the forensic data to be private needs protection of these data (for instance, encrypting). It is evident that this requires more time to encrypt and decrypt data. In general, the definition of privacy levels requires the classification of the targeted data (for example, forensic data) into several groups. It is possible to apply them to determine all data access possibilities that results in the definition of the required privacy levels. The data classification may be performed considering several factors such as relevancy, privacy, and others. In digital forensics, a conflict occurs because the data owner can prevent the investigator from obtaining his private data. In addition, the data owner can make a decision whether his data are private and can ask for privacy protection under any policy or privacy act used in the area where the computer crime was committed. At the same time, the investigator can collect any data (both private and non-private) relevant to the crime. Thus, the forensic data classification is the task that requires cooperation between the data owner and an investigator.  It is necessary to take the following steps to define privacy levels for computer forensics:

• the classification of the forensic data into groups, considering privacy and relevancy;
• the analysis of all data access possibilities of the classified data groups;
• the privacy level definition.

Existing Solutions

Two branches may be identified while classifying the existing solutions such as cryptographic and policy-based approaches. Hence, the cryptographic approaches protect the private data of data owners during the process of investigation, encrypting both relevant and irrelevant data (either they are private or not) through the use of some cryptographic techniques, for instance, a searchable encryption technique. All data of a data owner are referred as relevant and private, indicating the collection and encryption of the entire data. This contributes to the investigation cost in terms of resources and time. Therefore, it is necessary to collect only relevant data and encrypt only private relevant data. The policy-based approaches may undergo a further classification and be divided into policy statements and privacy policies. The primary aim of implementing the policy-based approaches is to inform the data owner about the collection, use, and disclosure of private data.

Police departments are now finding that victims tend to ownup to three smart devices, as do suspects and witnesses, leadingto greater amounts of personally sensitive probative data beingcreated, modified, and accessed (2). A large part of this is dueto automation, which may produce data that are persistent andinvariable, allowing wearables to provide investigators the meansto establish causation for investigations (3). Approximately 80%or more of current court cases contain some type of digital evi-dence, including those where smartwatch wearable data havebeen used to uphold or refute witness statements (4). In additionto these investigational advances, smartwatch wearable devicesare also capable of interacting with multiple media sourcesthrough various modes of connection, making them big playersin the Internet of Things (IoT) arena (2,5). Therefore, the collec-tion and subsequent analysis of these devices is becomingincreasingly more important, as is the study of their computingcapabilities and modes of connection (6).

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Home — Essay Samples — Law, Crime & Punishment — Cyber Crimes — The role of digital forensic in solving cyber-crimes

The Role of Digital Forensic in Solving Cyber-crimes

• Categories: Cyber Crimes Forensic Science

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Published: Dec 18, 2018

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• Crimes in which the computing device is the target, for example, to gain network access.
• Crimes in which the computer is used as a weapon, for example, to launch a denial of service (DoS) attack.
• Crimes in which the computer is used as an accessory to a crime, for example, using a computer to store illegally-obtained data.

2017 IC3 Internet Crime Report: Demographic Highlights

• What is the cyber-crime?
• Crime types
• Legal background of cyber-crime.
• What is a computer forensics investigation?
• Types of cyber-crime investigators.
• Computer Forensics Tools and Tasking
• How to solve cyber-crimes?
• How to protect yourself from cyber-crime?

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Digital Evidence and Forensics

Computers are used for committing crime, and, thanks to the burgeoning science of digital evidence forensics, law enforcement now uses computers to fight crime.

Digital evidence is information stored or transmitted in binary form that may be relied on in court. It can be found on a computer hard drive, a mobile phone, among other place s. Digital evidence is commonly associated with electronic crime, or e-crime, such as child pornography or credit card fraud. However, digital evidence is now used to prosecute all types of crimes, not just e-crime. For example, suspects' e-mail or mobile phone files might contain critical evidence regarding their intent, their whereabouts at the time of a crime and their relationship with other suspects. In 2005, for example, a floppy disk led investigators to the BTK serial killer who had eluded police capture since 1974 and claimed the lives of at least 10 victims.

In an effort to fight e-crime and to collect relevant digital evidence for all crimes, law enforcement agencies are incorporating the collection and analysis of digital evidence, also known as computer forensics, into their infrastructure. Law enforcement agencies are challenged by the need to train officers to collect digital evidence and keep up with rapidly evolving technologies such as computer operating systems.

On this page, find links to articles, awards, events, publications, and multimedia related to digital evidence and forensics.

• Improving the Collection of Digital Evidence
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• Sexual Assault Cases: Exploring the Importance of Non-DNA Forensic Evidence

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• Just Science Podcast: Just Building Partnerships to Advance Forensic Technology
• Just Science Podcast: Just Collecting Fingerprints Without Contact
• Just Science Podcast: Just Forensics in the Digital Age
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Digital Forensics Techniques: Theory, Methods and Applications

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A special issue of Electronics (ISSN 2079-9292). This special issue belongs to the section " Computer Science & Engineering ".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 December 2021) | Viewed by 6668

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Special issue editor.

Dear Colleagues,

The changing paradigm has become an inevitable aspect of modern digital forensics. New types of hardware, software, and services are frequently being introduced, meaning that examiners always need to have new methods and tools against emerging challenges in digital forensics. Therefore, there is a need for advanced forensic techniques to support efficient cybercrime investigations and incident response, which requires novel approaches for automated and integrated analysis on digital traces from multiple different types of sources.

This Special Issue invites submissions related to theoretical approaches or practical applications of all aspects of digital forensics, including but not limited to the following topics of specific interest:

• Artificial intelligence/machine learning applied to digital forensics
• Automated tool development for digital forensics
• Blockchain technologies in digital forensics
• Case studies involving digital evidence
• Cloud data acquisition
• Cyber threat intelligence
• Cyberphysical system analysis
• Darknet investigation
• Data fragment forensics
• Data recovery and reassembly
• Data visualization in digital forensics
• Dataset development for research, training, education, and tool testing
• Electronic document analysis
• Event correlation mining
• Event reconstruction and user behavior analysis
• Infotainment forensics
• Internet-of-Things forensics
• Malware detection and analysis
• Maritime digital forensics
• Memory acquision and analysis
• Mobile and embedded device forensics
• Multimedia analysis
• New versions of operating systems and applications
• Social network mining
• Standardized representation of digital forensic information
• Storage device, partition, volume and filesystem forensics
• Text data mining (e.g., topic modeling)
• Tool testing methodology

Prof. Dr. Sangjin Lee Guest Editor

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What Is Digital Forensics? A Closer Examination of the Field

By Dr. Andre Slonopas   |  03/22/2024

"What is digital forensics?” is a question that I’m often asked. Digital forensics, an integral part of current criminal and corporate investigations, uses many data interpretation methodologies.

In an investigation involving digital forensic science, digital evidence is meticulously acquired, preserved, assessed, and documented. Criminal and civil processes require the collection of digital evidence from mobile phones, laptop computers, and other digital devices.

During an investigation, cyber forensic scientists search Mac® and Windows® operating systems, electronic data, and encrypted data for vital information. Data validity and legal evidence validation rely on their expertise.

Cyber forensics helps police combat cybercrimes. The methods that cyber forensic scientists might use include recovering missing data and monitoring complex network user activities.

There are also investigators who handle electronic forensics at crime scenes in order to provide courtroom evidence. This method requires a knowledge of computer forensics to protect and preserve data.

Law enforcement, companies, and governments employ cyber forensic experts with various skills in network, database, mobile, and cloud forensics. People with this type of expertise might include certified forensic analysts who investigate computers, mobile devices, and data carriers.

The purpose behind digital forensics is to preserve original evidence for identifying and analyzing digital data. For instance, the data stored on mobile devices, cloud computing servers, and networks are a vital part of digital forensics.

Ideally, law enforcement officers, cybercrime detectives, and corporate security personnel should have a knowledge of digital forensics to protect public safety and corporate security .

The Historical Background and Evolution of Digital Forensics

The increasing use of personal computers and law enforcement's need to extract and store digital data from increasingly sophisticated electronic devices inspired digital forensics in the early 1980s. Developments in technology broadened computer forensics beyond computer crime. Smartphones, the internet, and cloud platforms have further expanded digital forensics.

In the early days, cyber forensics was crude, but better data extraction, analysis, and documentation tools expanded this discipline. More cybercrime laws created by authorities also necessitated the collection of digital evidence .

How Data from Digital Forensics Is Used

Digital investigators can reconstruct data from the operating systems of different computers, mobile devices, and cloud servers. A methodical incident response process helps law enforcement officers to ensure evidence integrity and the dependability of digital devices, digital media gathering, investigation, analysis, and reporting.

Preserving digital evidence in the right way is key to forensic investigative credibility. But as technology advances, forensic instruments and methodologies will change.

However, digital forensics is not limited to law enforcement. For instance, commercial and criminal investigations need digital forensics. Private businesses use cyber forensics for audits, compliance, and investigation, which is crucial in a data-driven business world.

Digital forensics can also be improved by a competent computer forensic analyst. This type of person can speed up data recovery through organized analysis and encryption examination.

Network forensics analyzes network traffic, and mobile device forensics gathers phone and tablet data. Digital investigations professionals must learn about obsolete computer media and cloud settings as gadgets improve.

What Is Computer Forensics?

Computer forensics involves the retrieval and analysis of digital information from computers and storage devices. Police and corporate investigations of digital fraud and internal policy breaches rely on computer forensics professional to gather evidence when crimes occur. In this area of digital forensics, data from network and hard disk forensics are provided for examination by law enforcement personnel, business executives and courts.

Investigative Techniques

Data forensic investigators utilize several methods to extract data from hardware systems, recover lost data, and assess digital device user behavior. While software can recover data from storage media, hardware and software solutions can copy evidence without damage.

The fundamental techniques in digital forensics include:

• Decrypting and recovering deleted files, encrypted, or corrupted data – Because of their effectiveness, forensic tools like EnCase® and FTK® are preferred for this demanding work. These tools assist forensic crime scene investigators in solving challenging digital cases by finding key evidence from seemingly inaccessible digital sources.
• Examining database data and metadata – This type of examination is essential for sophisticated database and computer analysis and hidden pattern discovery. Modern technology lets forensic crime investigators assess database structure, content, modifications, unauthorized access, and deleted files. Databases record user interactions, transactions, and computer system activity, so database forensics may help solve crimes and pinpoint security breaches. For this type of work, digital investigators need a knowledge of database structure and querying languages.
• Investigating network communications – Network communications must be analyzed by security personnel to detect, prevent, and investigate criminal breaches. For instance, network traffic, including data packets and logs, can be checked for signs of intrusion or malicious destruction. With the right tools, cyberattacks against infrastructure and digital communications can be detected and minimized.
• Checking mobile devices – Data can be stored on – and quickly deleted from – mobile phones. Mobile operating systems and devices may be examined by investigators, who might view phone logs, text messages, and emails for communication patterns, connections, and conversations that can aid a forensic investigation. However, the data must be recovered and interpreted to build case narratives from digital evidence.
• Inspecting hard disks – Hard disk copying, which involves the copying of data sector-by-sector on a hard disk, provides reliable digital evidence for investigators. This method of data collection allows law enforcement agencies to study an identical clone of the hard disk without compromising the original. This type of cyber evidence must be carefully reproduced to ensure data validity and dependability.

Case Studies of Digital Forensics

Digital forensics can be used for a variety of investigations. Here are some examples:

• Corporate embezzlement investigation – A cyber forensics expert examined a suspect's PC. That digital forensics investigator identified erased files and chats indicating criminal financial activities,  which ultimately led to a conviction for the employee .
• Cybercrime – Using digital forensics, police discovered a network of criminals distributing illicit content on their laptops . Through digital evidence, digital forensics practitioners were able to arrest and prosecute the criminals.
• Intellectual property (IP) theft – Software businesses use electronic forensics to retrieve stolen IP from unauthorized users . Certified forensic investigators were able to extract encrypted mobile and cloud storage data from digital assets.

Digital Evidence Comes in Different Forms

Digital documentation is a valuable part of computer forensics and criminal investigations. Data stored electronically on computers, mobile phones, and other storage devices collected using well-defined forensic methods can provide convincing proof for digital forensics investigations. Emails, papers, databases, audio/video recordings, cloud software, and metadata can also be useful forms of digital evidence if they are suspected digital assets.

The Process of Collecting, Preserving, and Analyzing Digital Evidence

Collecting digital evidence is not a simple process. Many processes are required to manage digital evidence:

• Identification – Forensic law enforcement agencies carefully find and classify electronic evidence. This vital stage includes the collection of data from many digital sources, including desktop computers, mobile devices, and network servers. Investigators repeatedly scan platforms for pertinent data, guaranteeing a complete and comprehensive evidence collection process.
• Collection – Electronic evidence is collected from its source through the seizure of an electronic product or by remotely accessing storage media. Maintaining evidence integrity using well-defined forensic methodologies is crucial in this step.
• Preservation – Data duplication or data imaging helps forensic detectives preserve digital evidence. These approaches replicate the original data, preserving evidentiary integrity and security. Keeping proof from being altered, damaged, or lost throughout the investigation is essential.
• Analysis – Investigators come to various conclusions and recommendations by analyzing forensic data. A digital forensic investigator uses multiple specialized tools and many approaches to examine digital media, retrieve data, and recreate occurrences.
• Documentation – Cyber forensics evidence must be handled carefully by digital forensics experts and recorded from collection to processing. Every action, decision, and method must be documented by investigators, which ensures evidence integrity by providing a clear and chronological trail. It is also a crucial reference for judicial processes and audits.
• Presentation – The digital forensic investigation's final report must be court-admissible. Results must be correctly reported to support legal arguments and survive judicial inquiry.

Network forensic techniques need digital forensics investigators to apply advanced methods. One of an investigator's main jobs is operating system (OS) analysis – checking Windows or Linux® for user activity, system changes, and file transfers.

The investigator must also find lost, encrypted, or corrupted data on digital storage devices, a complicated process that demands advanced software and hardware. Hard disks, solid-state drives (SSDs), and external storage devices can all be carefully examined to recover and preserve digital data, which ensures a thorough inquiry and evidence integrity.

The Legal Considerations and Processes of Collecting Digital Evidence

There are various challenges that arise with the collection and preservation of digital evidence. Court admissibility relies on data quality and collection/analysis procedures, which includes the need to follow correct procedures during the search and seizure phase and maintain high forensic examination standards.

Forensic data handling concerns include decrypting, retrieving, and ensuring data integrity. Also, investigators checking cloud computing servers and mobile devices may need help with data volume and diversity.

Law enforcement and investigators must keep up with research and technology to combat and investigate digital crimes. This growth demands rigorous training, high forensic standards, and a legal and technological knowledge of cyber forensic analysis.

Digital forensic techniques strictly enforce evidence integrity and admissibility. The core processes include:

• Incident response – A digital forensic investigation begins with preparing, detecting, containing, eliminating, and recovering from digital security incidents. This work requires the use of a specialized team.
• File recovery and analysis – To recover encrypted, damaged, or lost data, data restoration and analysis is needed. Investigators can examine digital storage devices and recover crucial evidence for an inquiry using contemporary digital forensics tools. Data storage device byte-for-byte copying is also essential to forensic imaging; this method preserves data for analysis and allows forensic technicians to safely assess data without risking loss or contamination.
• Network forensics – Digital investigators can analyze network traffic to investigate network crimes, scanning network data packets for suspicious activities, illegal invasions, and policy breaches. This area of forensics can be challenging because technology rapidly changes, requiring new tools and approaches to investigations. Forensic tools must be updated to enable them to be used to identify and assess digital crimes.
• Database and mobile device forensics – Database and mobile device forensics are becoming more important as mobile and database technologies spread. Current systems can be used to analyze device and database data using digital forensics. As technologies become more complicated and diverse, thorough investigations need particular forensic procedures for collecting and processing data, and the fast-changing digital environment requires forensic methodologies to evolve.
• Operating system forensics – OS forensics helps digital forensics analyze Windows and Linux user and system behavior. Understanding user/system interactions and functions require this approach. This area of forensics uses OS-specific computer forensics to detect human and system irregularities. For instance, a hardware system analysis may reveal hidden or deleted data and track activities that could be important to forensic inquiry.

The Role of Digital Forensic Scientists

Digital forensic investigators may collaborate with others to solve crimes. Forensic investigators identify, capture, and analyze cyber evidence at a crime scene using forensic equipment. For instance, they may retrieve erased data from a suspect's computer or examine user accounts and structured data for criminal activity.

Investigators can also collect company data through internal investigations and digital forensic tools. In addition, testing and calibration labs can verify digital forensic tool accuracy. But as fresh information emerges, digital investigators might need to repeat the various steps of digital forensics.

Digital gadgets saturate our contemporary life, making cyber forensics essential. Computers and cloud technologies are evolving quickly, so forensic law enforcement personnel must adapt to technological changes to solve crimes.

Current Trends in Digital Forensics

Rapid technical advances and more complicated internet crimes have changed digital forensics. Technological developments will provide new challenges for computer forensics investigators, so they must be familiar with cloud resources and the Internet of Things (IoT) while fighting complex cybercrimes.

Fraudsters have become ever more sophisticated. As a result, digital forensics practitioners must continually learn to fight digital crime and recover critical electronic evidence.

Digital forensics comes in various formats, including:

• Cloud forensics – Cloud forensics involves the access of cloud data, which involves mining sophisticated cloud networks and faraway workstations for data.
• Mobile device forensics – Digital forensic investigations need to be familiar with mobile device forensics due to regular mobile phone usage by the public. A modern digital forensics investigator must comprehend mobile data storage and extract evidence from several mobile operating systems.
• IoT forensics – Forensic investigators can collect IoT data from digital devices because more residential and industrial equipment is internet-connected. Researchers may look at smart home gadgets and industrial control systems to conduct digital forensic research and find critical data. Analyzing data from different sources requires innovative forensic methods and technical knowledge. Consequently, IoT has broadened database forensics and required new digital forensic tools and procedures for fast-changing digital forensic science environments.
• Big data and advanced analytics – Big data and advanced analytics provide opportunities and challenges with digital forensics. Advanced data analysis helps law enforcement and computer crime department evaluate massive data collections during an investigation. Digital investigators may use specialized software, technology, and forensic data analysis techniques.

The Challenges of Digital Forensics

Digital forensics comes with its own challenges, including:

• Encryption – Better encryption makes data retrieval more challenging for forensic investigators conducting digital forensics research.
• Data volume and complexity – Digital forensic investigators need time and resources to search gigabytes of data. Data types and architectures, from traditional computer media to complicated database systems and cloud storage, complicate investigations.
• Rapid technological changes – Technology changes quickly, and digital forensic tools and methodologies must adapt to those changes. Digital investigations require frequent OS, software, and device updates for successfully extracting data. Ideally, investigators must invest in cutting-edge forensic methods and technology and participate in continuous learning.
• Legal and ethical considerations – The database forensics framework operates within strict ethical and regulated boundaries. Officers and certified forensic practitioners must be familiar with national computer crime laws and privacy legislation. When legislation changes, practitioners might face search and seizure and data privacy issues and need to change their methods.
• Remote and decentralized data locations – Accessing digital forensic data in remote locations can be difficult because of cloud platforms and decentralized data storage servers. As a result, investigators need exceptional data imaging, data recovery, and remote data security and analysis skills.

Advances in technology makes digital forensics more crucial. Digital forensic consultants and practitioners must adapt to each trend and difficulty, as well as change their ways to keep up with crime and technology. Our increasingly linked world requires digital forensics for criminal investigations and ensure digital security.

The Future of Digital Forensics

Technical advances and the ever-changing world of digital offenses have led to several cybercrime forensics forecasts.

Artificial intelligence (AI), the cloud, and IoT devices will transform digital forensics. AI will increase data analysis in digital forensic investigations, particularly for investigations involving significant data volumes. Cloud infrastructure will require novel methods of data extraction to exploit forensic information and create forensic analysis issues.

Digital forensics may move beyond phones and PCs. As the field of electronic evidence analysis grows, the use of database, network, and mobile device forensics will increase.

The Impact of Technological Advancements

Technological advances will affect the gear and tactics of a digital forensic investigator. Digital investigation tools must be able to handle encrypted, complicated, and destroyed data. Data retrieval and forensic imaging must evolve for the examination of digital media and smart devices.

Police and cyber forensic professionals must train well and equip their teams with modern gear. This strategy entails keeping up with national e-crime regulations and ensuring that new digital misconduct event response and forensic investigation technologies work.

Forging a Future in Academic Excellence

The digital forensics concentration of APU’s online bachelor of science in cybersecurity is designed to prepares students for the challenges of digital forensics, including digital forensic analysis. APU courses are intended to train students in the retrieval of data, network forensics, and forensic data analysis.

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Digital Forensics Essays

Genworth financial cyber-attack, digital forensics & malware analysis, challenges and proposed solutions in digital forensics, research paper: application of blockchain technology in digital forensics and threat hunting, case study: digital forensic, cloud forensics: overview of cloud computing, popular essay topics.

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Kaspersky introduces a new online cybersecurity training ‘Windows digital forensics’

Kaspersky has added a new cybersecurity course on digital forensics to its ever-expanding Expert Training portfolio. InfoSec professionals can now master the techniques of identifying, processing and analyzing digital evidence with experienced Kaspersky experts.

In 2023, more than one-fifth of cyberattacks persisted for over a month, prompting businesses to stress the need for shorter “detection-to-resolution” times. One of the challenges that hinders swift, and efficient incident management is ongoing skills shortage. To address this issue, Kaspersky has developed a training course that covers one of the important parts of incident response process, helping professionals gain the necessary skills.

The ‘Windows Digital Forensics’ course is designed to provide trainees with a fundamental understanding of digital forensics, offering them valuable insights and hands-on experience. The ability to detect digital traces of an attack’s development is one of the most valuable skills for cybersecurity professionals, as attacks can occur even if all prevention measures are in place.

In this course participants will learn the methods of obtaining diverse digital evidence, find traces of malicious actions and use timestamps from various Windows artifacts to reconstruct an incident scenario. They will also gain expertise in analyzing browser and email histories. By the end of the course, trainees will be proficient in incident scoping, evidence acquisition, log file analysis, network analysis, creation of Indicators of Compromise (IoCs), and memory forensics.

The training program was developed by Ayman Shaaban, Digital Forensics and Incident Response Group Manager at Kaspersky, bringing extensive expertise in cybersecurity gained over many years. In addition to gaining extensive knowledge in digital forensics from the Kaspersky expert, participants will be able to apply their newly-acquired knowledge in a virtual lab. This secure virtual environment was designed specifically to assess the participant’s level of understanding and enhance their practical skills.

This training is part of a series of courses focused on incident response, allowing specialists to tailor their educational path in this field. It will be equally beneficial for companies aiming at enhancing their incident response teams and individual cybersecurity professionals who are looking to upgrade their technical analysis skills in digital forensics.

“To achieve cyber-resilience, organizations must be prepared for incidents by managing logs centrally, retaining them for extended periods, and safeguarding them against tampering, malicious access, or accidental loss. They also need the ability to conduct forensic investigations promptly when necessary. During this training course, you will get acquainting with digital forensics as an important part of the incident response process and will be equipped with useful knowledge that help you to swiftly handle, contain, understand and recover from cyber-attacks and effectively minimize their impact in the quickest way possible”, comments Ayman Shaaban.

Registration to the ‘Windows digital forensics’ course is available through this link .

About Kaspersky

Kaspersky is a global cybersecurity and digital privacy company founded in 1997. With over a billion devices protected to date from emerging cyberthreats and targeted attacks, Kaspersky’s deep threat intelligence and security expertise is constantly transforming into innovative solutions and services to protect businesses, critical infrastructure, governments and consumers around the globe. The company’s comprehensive security portfolio includes leading endpoint protection, specialized security products and services, as well as Cyber Immune solutions to fight sophisticated and evolving digital threats. We help over 200,000 corporate clients protect what matters most to them. Learn more at www.kaspersky.com .

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