Cyber Forensics Essay

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Recommended: The importance of handling digital evidence

Introduction
Cyber forensics, also called digital forensics or computer forensics, is a quickly growing field as the world goes digital. This field involves gathering evidence and analysing this evidence from computers, servers and networks in a manner that is suitable to present in a court of law. As the internet grows in popularity, so does criminal activity over the internet. When the law catches a criminal that used a computer to commit a crime, they confiscate the computer and all related storage devices for cyber forensics experts to examine the device to find fraudulent activity.
Investigators usually follow a set of predefined procedures when given a case to work on. First they ensure that the device being examined cannot get contaminated in any way possible. To ensure this, they would create a digital copy of the device's storage media and store the device in question in a secure location to maintain the condition which they received it in. Forensics is then carried out on the image created.
There are several different forensics applications and techniques used to examine the image retrieved from the device being examined to search unallocated disk space for data that could have been encrypted, damaged or deleted and for folders that are hidden. A 'finding report' is created to document any evidence. This evidence is then compared with the original to prepare for any of the following proceedings. The steps taken to examine the device or medium will be discussed in more detail in this essay.
Digital evidence
Stored or transmitted information in binary form that can be relied upon on in court can be defined as digital evidence. This evidence can take many different forms such as a computer hard drive, mobile phones, compact...

... middle of paper ...

...k is copied to another drive. This copy is taken to further ensure that the original data is safe and cannot be altered unknowingly.
(3) The copying process used was thorough.
Once the second step is complete, it is vital that the forensic expert checks the copy of the original matches the original exactly. They can ensure the copy is reliable by checking three characteristics. Firstly, the copying process must meet industry standards. A worthy benchmark is checking if the copying software used is used by other law enforcement agencies. Secondly, the copy must be able to be verified by the opponent in court. Finally the copy that is created should not be able to be manipulated.
(4) All the media used during the investigation was stored and used securely.
After the copies have been verified, the original must be securely stored and preserved.
(Feldman & Kohn, 2008).

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