The rapid advancement of technology has increased cybercrime. Hackers can employ hacking tools to gain access to data storage by breaching the system. As the number of digital devices such as computers, laptops, and mobile phones has grown, so has the number of cyber-attacks.
To have a comprehensive understanding of hacking, you can join the Ethical Hacking Online Course, which will help you learn more about the illegal and legal aspects of the cybersecurity industry.
Hackers should know how to get into a system using various strategies and tools, but they must have the authority to do so. Black Hat hackers, also known as cybercriminals and illegal hackers, are hackers who have no authority to gain access.
In this blog, we shall discuss the digital forensics process and types of digital forensics in detail.
What is Digital Forensics?
The process of collecting, analyzing, identifying, and recording computer data that can be utilized in a legal proceeding is known as digital forensics. It is the science of obtaining data from online devices such as a desktop, mobile, website, or internet. It equips the investigators with the most up-to-date tools and methodologies for solving various digital cases.
Digital forensics assists the forensic team in evaluating, examining, recognizing, and storing digital evidence stored on a variety of electronic devices.
Digital forensics specialists respond to an incident like Website hacking or personal data breaches. And with the aid of forensic tools, the forensics team finds out concealed data and other proof. They gather, analyze, and retain relevant data for the investigation and compile and present it in court.
Digital forensics has various aspects depending on the type of data and its sources, but each requires specialized professional training that leads to outstanding job prospects and an exciting career.
History of Digital Forensics
- The FBI established the first operational forensic sciences lab in 1932.
- In 1978, the Florida Computer Crime Act recognized the first computer crime.
- Francis Galton (1982 – 1911): Proved that fingerprint is helpful in forensics study.
- In 1992, Computer forensics was introduced in academic literature.
- 1995 International Organization on Computer Evidence (IOCE) was established.
- In 2000, SWGDE introduced “Best practices for Computer Forensics”.
- In 2002, the First FBI Regional Computer Forensic Laboratory was formed
- In 2010, Simson Garfinkel determined problems confronting digital investigations.
Computer forensics has several goals
The following are the primary goals of employing computer forensics:
- It assists the investigating agency in gathering, assessing, and preserving computer and related documents to display them as evidence in legal proceedings of law.
- It aids in determining the crime’s intent and the recognition of the main criminal.
- Creating procedures at a suspect criminal investigation can help you ensure that the forensic information you collect isn’t contaminated.
- Restoring deleted documents and partitions from digital platforms to obtain and authenticate evidence.
- It enables you to quickly discover evidence and analyze the probable impact of malicious action on the victim.
- Producing a comprehensive digital forensics document outlining the investigation procedure.
Process or Steps of Digital Forensics
- Identification
- Preservation
- Analysis
- Documentation
- Reporting
Identification
In the initial stage of the forensic process, What proof is present, where it is recorded, and how it is saved are all part of the identification process.
Desktop, smartphones, and personal digital assistants (PDAs) are electronic storage devices where the data can be stored.
Preservation
During this phase, data is protected, secured, and stored. It includes restricting people from utilizing digital devices to prevent interference with forensic data.
Analysis
In this stage, the investigator rebuilds the segmented detail and draws the result based on the proof found. But this process takes in-depth methodical investigation.
Documentation
In this process, all evidence must be documented via images, sketches, and a crime scene layout.
Presentation
The summation and justification of conclusions are concluded in this final step. It should, however, be written in layman’s words with abstracted terms. Key details should be mentioned in all abstracted terms.
Digital evidence
The details can be collected from electronic devices like mobile, lap, computer, etc. The details are:
- Media files include audio, video, documents, images, etc.
- Name of the use, ID number, password details, and login name.
- Browsing history, call history( receive and dialed)
- Video and audio call history
- Email ID(sender details, contents, inbox details, etc.)
- Random-access memory files.
- All types of documents like shared, pdf, received files.
- Automated teller machine transactions details
- Global Positioning System records
- Closed-circuit television record
- Backup details.
Types of Digital Forensics
Disk Forensics
It deals with gathering information from media files by scanning the available files, changed, or removed.
Network Forensics
It is the process of collecting crucial data and forensic proof by monitoring and evaluating internet network activity.
Wireless Forensics
The main objective of digital forensics is to provide the necessary equipment to gather data and information from wireless network activity.
Malware Forensics
This component is responsible for detecting vulnerable code by analyzing its content, malware, and bugs, among other things.
Email Forensics
Restores and examines emails, even those removed, reminders, and contact information.
Memory Forensics
It is concerned with gathering data from the computer system (registers, storage, and RAM) and carving the data from the crash 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.
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Now, you would have understood the process of computer forensics, types of digital forensics, and forensics processes. So, to learn more concepts of cybercrime and cybersecurity, you can join an Ethical hacking course to have comprehensive knowledge of hacking techniques and what Digital Forensics is.