Thursday, September 29, 2016

What To Know Concerning Computer Forensics

By Shirley Hayes


The rate at which the use of computers is being adopted worldwide is very high as corporate, government, and personal processes are increasingly being conducted through computing devices. The high rate of adoption has a bright side as well as a dark one. The dark side involves an increase in cybercrime. Cybercrimes are those crimes that are committed through the use of computers, that is, computers are used to facilitate the crimes. Another profession called computer forensics has come up in an attempt to combat the problem of cybercrime. This field although relatively new, is growing at a phenomenal rate globally.

This field also goes by the name computer forensic science. Albemarle, NC, is home to some of the best experts in this field. Computer forensic science is a branch within the field of digital forensic science. As a field of study, it pertains to all evidence gathered from computing devices and digital storage media. Experts in this field aim to collect, analyze, and report on digital data in a way that is legally admissible. They use data that is stored digitally to prevent and detect crime.

The modern lifestyles, makes the use of computer forensic science relevant in almost all professions. Only in a few field that CF is not applicable. The earliest users of CF are law enforcement agencies. These agencies are also some of the heaviest users. The agencies are responsible for most of the developments that occur in this field.

Modern computers are increasingly becoming active crime scenes through the action of criminals and law enforcement officers. A computing device can become a crime scene when it was the target of a denial of service or hacking attack. Computers are also important sources of information in criminal investigations. It may hold information about internet history, emails, and documents, which can be useful in a crime such as a murder.

The scope of CF exceeds finding documents, files, and emails on computing devices. It involves the examination of metadata on documents to reveal more information about them, which could prove to be useful in solving a crime. For example, through the use of metadata, it is possible to identify the first date a document appeared or was created on computers. It is also possible to determine the last date the document was printed, edited, and saved beside identifying the user of who undertook all these operations.

CF has been employed by commercial organizations in the recent past for meet organizational goals. Commercial organizations use this field in various cases, including intellectual property theft, fraud investigations, forgeries, industrial espionage, and employment disputes. Some additional cases that are handled using CF are bankruptcy investigations, internet use in workplaces, inappropriate emails in workplaces, and regulatory compliance.

The field employs different techniques during investigation. The main techniques are stochastic forensics, steganography, cross-drive analysis, deleted files, and live analysis. Information from multiple hard drives is usually correlated through cross-drive analysis.

There six different steps making up the process of CF examination. The steps are readiness, evaluation, analysis, presentation, review, and collection. The steps are not listed in a chronological order. Most professionals overlook the readiness step, although it is equally important. The major issues faced in this field can be categorized broadly as technical, administrative, and legal.




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