Network investigation cases will rarely follow a rote path. However, most investigations have a few typical steps that are taken. One of the first steps is to acquire the memory if we are doing a live analysis. We can glean a myriad of invaluable information from a computer’s memory. This information may include hidden and running processes, when these processes were started and by whom, and what these specific processes were doing. Terminated objects may even be found in memory days after they were killed. The memory also will have the state of active network connections (Burdach). “Windows memory analysis techniques depend on the examiner’s ability to translate the virtual addresses used by programs and operating system components into the true locations of data in a memory image,” (Schuster). Due to Windows caching large amounts of file data in memory we need to ensure we take invalid, mapped-file data into account. Memory is divided into 4096 bytes of data that is referred to as a page when in memory and a frame when on the hard drive. The memory manager assigns pages to a process to utilize as data storage for that process. When a page does not meet this criterion is said to be invalid (Burdach). In some memory images over 20% of the virtual addresses we find point to “invalid” pages that cannot be found using an average method for address translation (Schuster). By using every available page we can greatly increase the totality of the analysis and accurately recreate the machine as it existed at the time of imaging. Data Carving can be done with memory just as with the hard disk. Data carving algorithms cannot recover fragments if a page is not yet loaded into memory, though. We can, however, reconstruct ... ... middle of paper ... ...orks Cited Anson, Steve. Mastering windows network forensics and investigation. 2nd ed. Indianapolis: John Wiley & Sons, 2012. Print. Burdach, Mariusz. "An introduction to the Windows Memory Forensics." Windows Memory forensics. N.p., n.d. Web. 7 Feb. 2014. . Dolan-Gavitt, Brendan. "The VAD tree: A process-eye view of physical memory." Digital Investigations 4 (2008): 62-65. Print. Petroni, Nick, Aaron Walters, and William Arbaugh. "FATKit: A framework for the extraction and analysis of digital forensic data from volatile system memory." Digital Investigations 3.4 (2006): 197-210. Print. Schuster, Andreas. "Searching for processes and threads in Microsoft Windows memory dumps." Digital Investigation: The International Journal of Digital Forensics & Incident Response 3 (2006): 10-16. Print.
In the final chapter of The Impossible Knife of Memory, the main character of the book, Hayley begins it off talking about being in a fairytale. If this was her fairytale, this chapter would be her happily ever after. Before this chapter of the book, her life had been disorganized frequently because of her father’s disorder. Her father, Andy Kincain, a war veteran, has PTSD. Also known as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder; this disorder is caused by seeing or experiencing a very intense, and terrifying event. In Andy’s case, the war was what caused his condition.
National Institute of Standards and Technology. (2009). Active File Identification & Deleted File Recovery Tool Specification. Retrieved March 23, 2014 from http://www.cftt.nist.gov/DFR-req-1.1-pd-01.pdf
Forensics investigations that require the analyzation and processing of digital evidence can be influenced both positively and negatively by a number of outside sources. In this paper, we will explore how physical security plays a role in forensics investigations activities. We will start by examining how physical and environmental security might impact the forensics investigation process. Next, we will discuss the role that physical and logical security zones play in supporting effective forensics activities. We will illustrate how centralized and decentralized physical and environmental security affects the forensics professional’s approach toward the investigation. Lastly, we will evaluate some potential areas of risk related to the physical security of our case study organization, Widget Factory, identified in Attachment 1.
Technologies are advancing in today's world where more information is being generated, stored and distributed through digital gadgets. This requires investigators and forensic expert to increase the use of digital evidence gathering as a tool to fight against cyber-crime (International competition network, n.d.).
One of the most important aspects of studying a history of a place is why that place came into existence in the first place. The FBI's Regional Computer Forensics Laboratories are perhaps not a terribly well-known entity within the general public, yet they play an essential part in both our justice system, and our everyday lives. So this begs the question, why would a laboratory centered strictly around computers, even more specifically the forensics around computers, come to be in an age where certainly all major government establishments have, and are familiar with, computers and the technology associated within them. These are a few of the questions that will be answered throughout this research paper, along with an analysis of where they are today, and where it appears the future of these labs will take them.
Nowadays, most of the web, email, database and fileservers are Linux servers. Linux is a UNIX system which implies that it has solid compatibility, stability and security features. Linux is used for the mentioned environments because these services require high security. Further, an increase of attacks on these servers can be observed. Additionally, the methods to prevent intrusions on Linux machines are insufficient. Further, the analysis of incidents on Linux systems are not considered appropriately (Choi, Savoldi, Gubian, Lee, & Lee, 2008). It can also be observed that a lot of investigators do not have experience with Linux forensics (Altheide, 2004).
“Advance in Forensics Provide Creative Tools for Solving Crimes.” www.ctcase.org. Np. n.d. Web. 17 March 2014.
Despite these advantages, Grispos, Glisson and Storer (2012) highlighted several challenges that the cloud environment may pose for digital forensic investigators during the collection and analysis phrases of the investigation process. Artifacts, data used that can be used as evidence, are often hard to extract because resources can be redirected and/or disappear destroying the trial of evidence in the process. During the preparation stage of the investigation, an investigator trained in the conventional methods of digital forensics will usually obtain a comprehensive history and overview of the crime scene, and have a idea of what will be required from the organization in order to proceed with the investigation. However, in the case of network forensic investigations, there is a no comprehensive history and overview of the suspected crime scene, and there is a lack of structured environment in which data transmissions between various network points and platforms can be collected as evidence. There may also be a lack of structure in the target environment and methods of monitoring and reporting transmission information may not exist. The segregation of duties and differences in the service models that exists between cloud service providers and cus...
The EEPROM chip can store up to one kilobytes of data and is divided into 64 words with 16 bits each. Some memory is inaccessible or reserved for later us...
Britz, Marjie. 2009. Computer forensics and cybercrime: an introduction. Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Pearson Prentice Hall.
is the shortest and less extensive of the others. It can hold memory for only an
A forensic interview is a structured conversation with a child or minor with the intention of eliciting detailed information about a possible event (s) that the child many have experienced or witnessed. Concurrently, for Van Heerden (1977: 8) forensics refer to the computerized activities or scientific knowledge employed by law enforcement agents to serve justice. In the study, forensic investigation is used to refer to any computer-related activities or methods used by police, investigators, prosecutors and all other law enforcement agents to gather facts, track down criminals, arrest or detain them, gather information, preserve information and finally present it in the court of law.
Best Practices for Cyber Forensics Paper Introduction Forensics has now entered a new age of collecting and analyzing evidence. Cyber forensics is a relatively new field that continues to expand upon its current operations, tactics and procedures. The development of cyber forensics has initialized the computer incident response techniques, recovery and analyzation of IT systems to include password cracking, and imaging which assist in the prosecution of criminals. As information technology and the cyber forensics have developed best practices in several areas of the field and we will discuss the critical pieces of these practices. These practices support the legal investigations and the prosecution of successful civil or criminal prosecution.
Virtualization technologies provide isolation of operating systems from hardware. This separation enables hardware resource sharing. With virtualization, a system pretends to be two or more of the same system [23]. Most modern operating systems contain a simplified system of virtualization. Each running process is able to act as if it is the only thing running. The CPUs and memory are virtualized. If a process tries to consume all of the CPU, a modern operating system will pre-empt it and allow others their fair share. Similarly, a running process typically has its own virtual address space that the operating system maps to physical memory to give the process the illusion that it is the only user of RAM.
There are four types of memory. These are the RAM, ROM, EEPROM and the Bootstrap loader. The RAM, also known as Random Access Memory, is the temporary space where the processor places the data while it is being used. This allows the computer to find the information that is being requested quickly without having to search the hard drive space. Once the information has been processed, and stored onto a permanent storage device, it is cleared out of the RAM. The RAM also houses the operating system while in