Digital forensics is the field of forensic science techniques that are based on recovering and investigating data from digital devices used in crimes, mainly cybercrimes. The word digital forensics was coined to replace the word computer forensics.
Digital forensics helps identify, conserve, evaluate, and record digital evidence. This is done so that the evidence can be presented in a criminal court if required for a particular case.
Cybercrime is rapidly increasing every year, causing severe damage to individuals, companies, and the economy. Its investigation requires advanced training skills and technology. Digital forensics experts work tirelessly to stop these cybercrimes from happening.
Digital forensics experts specialize in the investigation of network and computer-related crimes. They collect, store, recover and preserve evidence and data relevant to an investigation. They are also trained to perform a thorough analysis of the data and present it in a manner that is admissible in court as evidence.
Cybercrime seems to be everywhere these days, with cybercriminals lurking in the shadiest corners of the internet. These cybercriminals are wreaking havoc by stealing data, unleashing ransomware attacks, and even disrupting government operations.
Cybercrimes are getting more severe with every passing day. A report by Accenture shows that the number of security breaches increased by almost 11% between 2017 and 2018.
The technological advancements of this century have become useful to us in all walks of life. The criminals of the 21st century have also unfortunately modified their criminal channels accordingly.
Data leaks, hacks, and breaches of sensitive information were not common more than a decade ago. However, cybercrime has become the most dangerous and discreet method of committing crimes today. To catch these technologically evolved criminals, digital forensics has also morphed accordingly. Cybersecurity has become an essential concern of most private and government sectors, and computer forensics engineers can prove helpful in this regard.
A calm evening, a romantic walk at the beach, and the shining moonlight; everything made it the perfect evening for a romantic third wedding anniversary. However, things turned deadly for husband Justin Barber and wife April when an unidentified assailant tried to rob them and then brutally gunned them down.
However, law enforcement experts quickly gathered compelling evidence and got their hands on the right man – Justin Barber.
Digital forensics is a process often used in criminal investigations. It involves collecting digital evidence from various devices, tools, or infrastructures such as computers, mobile devices, emails, hard discs, and cloud storage systems.
Here are a few famous cases where digital forensics played a crucial role.
Mikayla Munn had the classic tragic tale to tell: a poor mother loses her newborn. We are all, instinctively, inclined to sympathize with her and to feel for her. However, an investigation soon revealed that Munn had that within which passeth show.
And it was digital forensics that cracked the case.
In the world of digital forensics, often, the most challenging part of the process is getting to the data. You need to first acquire the data in order to analyze it completely and effectively. This is where problem-solving comes into play.
Problem-solving is an ever-evolving issue in the fields of computer forensics and mobile device forensics and will continue to be so as the industry progresses. The thing about problem-solving skills, though, is that they aren’t so much as taught as they are acquired over time with experience.
In this piece, we discuss what you need to know about problem-solving in computer and mobile device forensics. Let’s dive right into it.
In 2021, digital devices are quite common, with the most common ones being mobile phones, tablets, and computers. However, the emergence of IoT has made a plethora of electronic devices a source of digital evidence. For example, a digital camera can be used to view or store illegal images. The first responders in this case are digital forensic experts, who should identify and seize every electronic device to acquire evidence.
But how is this digital evidence gathered? Hear what our digital forensic engineer has to say!
Numerous sources can be used to collect digital evidence. Some of these sources are servers, cloud computers, USB memory sticks, CD-ROM, hard drives, digital cameras, mobile phones, computers, and the like. Some of the more non-obvious sources include web pages that should be preserved because they can change, as well as RFID tags. It’s important to ensure that extra care of data sources is taken so that nothing can modify or contaminate them as they’ll be used for digital forensic investigations.
Since the majority of digital information is volatile, it’s subject to change. Once it’s modified, identifying the changes or rolling back the data to its original state becomes a lot more difficult. Therefore, a cryptographic hash of digital evidence can be carried out and calculated. This hash must be recorded in a safe place to ensure there’s no contamination of digital evidence. This is crucial because it would allow computer forensic experts to establish whether someone fiddled with the original data evidence or not.
During the initial phases of the investigation, it’s a good practice to duplicate the original evidentiary media. Now, a combination of software imaging tools and standalone hard-drive duplicators can be used to fully close the entire hard drive. This can be done at the sector level, where a bit-stream copy of all parts of the hard drive’s user-accessible areas will be made. This means there won’t be any need to duplicate the file system. In order to prevent tampering, the original drive can be transferred to secure storage. While this imaging process is underway, a write-blocking or write-protection application or device can be used to make sure no information is made part of the evidentiary media during the computer forensic investigation.
It’s important to preserve the sources from which evidence is gathered so that the chain of custody remains intact. Otherwise, it won’t be possible to validate the results of the digital forensic investigation.
Since 2005, we’ve worked on hundreds of cases for a variety of individuals, private attorneys, and law enforcement jurisdictions. We’re ready and poised to help in the analysis and development of mobile device forensics, authenticate audio and video forensics, court-certified forensics in FL. Contact us now for more information!