Understanding The Basics Of Computer Forensics

By Shirley Hayes


Computers are being adopted at a very high rate in government, corporate, and personal processes worldwide, something that is leading to a new form of crime called cybercrime. For a crime to qualify as cybercrime, it must have been facilitated by the use of a computing device. To counter cybercrime, a new field of study called computer forensics has been formulated. This field is growing at a fast rate worldwide as cases of cybercrime continue to grow.

Computer forensic science is the other name that is used to refer to this field. This science makes one of several other subfields that comprised in digital forensic science. In Albemarle, NC, there are several professionals whose area of expertise is CF. CF is a separate field of study that specializes in the analysis, reporting, and collection of data stored on digital media. The entire profession revolves around computers and digital storage media. Experts prevent and detect criminal activities by using data kept on digital media.

Computer forensic science continues to find more use in new professions. Almost every profession finds CF useful in one way or another. Law enforcement agencies are some examples of bodies that pioneered this field. These agencies make heavy use of this field in various operations. They also stand at the forefront in the major breakthroughs that have been made in CF.

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.

Investigation in this field employs several different techniques. These techniques include cross-drive analysis, stochastic forensics, steganography, live analysis, and deleted files. The correlation of information gathered from multiple hard drives is done under cross-drive analysis.

CF examination is a single process that is comprised of six separate steps. These steps include readiness, presentation, review, collection, evaluation, and analysis. The list above is not in a chronological order. Although very crucial, the readiness step is often overlooked. Legal, administrative, and technical are the three broad categories of issues that prevail in this field.




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