Introduction to Digital Forensics

Digital forensics is a branch of forensic science that involves the identification, preservation, analysis, and presentation of digital evidence in legal or investigative proceedings. It focuses on investigating and recovering information from digital devices, networks, and digital media to uncover and prevent cybercrimes or other illicit activities,

Digital forensics encompasses a wide range of techniques and tools to extract, examine, and interpret data from various digital sources. This includes computers, mobile devices, storage media, networks, and cloud-based platforms. The goal is to retrieve and analyze digital artifacts such as files, emails, chat logs, internet browsing history, system logs, and metadata to reconstruct events, establish timelines, and identify perpetrators.

History of Digital Forensics

Here, are important landmarks from the history of Digital Forensics:

• Hans Gross (1847 -1915): First use of scientific study to head criminal investigations.

• FBI (1932): Set up a lab to offer forensics services to all field agents and other law authorities across the USA.

• In 1978 the first computer crime was recognized in the Florida Computer Crime Act.

• Francis Galton (1982 – 1911): Conducted the first recorded study of fingerprints.

• In 1992, the term Computer Forensics was used in academic literature.

• 1995 International Organization on Computer Evidence (IOCE) was formed.

• In 2000, the First FBI Regional Computer Forensic Laboratory was established.

• In 2002, the Scientific Working Group on Digital Evidence (SWGDE) published the first book about digital forensics called “Best Practices for Computer Forensics”.

• In 2010, Simson Garfinkel identified issues facing digital investigations.

Objectives of computer forensics

Here are the essential objectives of using Computer forensics:

• It helps to recover, analyze, and preserve computers and related materials in such a manner that it helps the investigation agency to present them as evidence in a court of law.

• It helps to postulate the motive behind the crime and the identity of the main culprit.

• Designing procedures at a suspected crime scene helps you to ensure that the digital evidence obtained is not corrupted.

• Data acquisition and duplication: Recovering deleted files and deleted partitions from digital media to extract the evidence and validate them.

• Helps you to identify the evidence quickly, and also allows you to estimate the potential impact of the malicious activity on the victim.

• Producing a computer forensic report which offers a complete report on the investigation process.

• Preserving the evidence by following the chain of custody.

How Digital forensics differs from computer forensics.

Digital forensics and computer forensics are related but distinct fields. Computer forensics specifically deals with the examination and analysis of computer systems and digital devices to uncover and preserve evidence for legal proceedings. It is often used in criminal investigations to uncover evidence of cybercrime or other digital-related offenses, Digital forensics, on the other hand, encompasses a broader range of activities, including computer forensics but also including the examination and analysis of other digital devices such as cell phones, tablets, and other electronic devices. It also includes the recovery of data from damaged or corrupted devices, and the analysis of digital media such as audio and video files, In summary, computer forensics is a subset of digital forensics that focuses on the examination and analysis of computer systems and digital devices to uncover and preserve legal evidence

Process of Digital Forensics

Digital forensics entails the following steps:

• Identification

• Preservation

• Analysis

• Documentation

• Presentation

further explained in Process of Digital Forensics blog

Types of Digital Forensics

Disk Forensics

It deals with extracting data from storage media by searching active, modified, or deleted files.

Network Forensics:

It is a sub-branch of digital forensics. It is related to monitoring and analysis of computer network traffic to collect important information and legal evidence.

Wireless Forensics:

It is a division of network forensics. The main aim of wireless forensics is to offers the tools need to

collect and analyze the data from wireless network traffic.

Database Forensics:

It is a branch of digital forensics relating to the study and examination of databases and their related metadata.

Malware Forensics:

This branch deals with the identification of malicious code, to study their payload, viruses, worms, etc.

Email Forensics

Deals with recovery and analysis of emails, including deleted emails, calendars, and contacts.

Memory Forensics:

It deals with collecting data from system memory (system registers, cache, RAM) in raw form and then carving the data from Raw dump.

Mobile Phone Forensics:

It mainly deals with the examination and analysis of mobile devices. It helps to retrieve phone and SIM contacts, call logs, incoming, and outgoing SMS/MMS, Audio, videos, etc.

Challenges faced by Digital Forensics

Here, are major challenges faced by the Digital Forensic:

• The increase of PC’s and extensive use of internet access

• Easy availability of hacking tools

• Lack of physical evidence makes prosecution difficult.

• The large amount of storage space into Terabytes that makes this investigation job difficult.

• Any technological changes require an upgrade or changes to solutions.