Understanding The Basics Of Computer Forensics

Computers are being adopted at a very high rate in government, corporate, and personal processes worldwide, something that is leading to a new form of crime called cybercrime. For a crime to qualify as cybercrime, it must have been facilitated by the use of a computing device. To counter cybercrime, a new field of study called computer forensics has been formulated. This field is growing at a fast rate worldwide as cases of cybercrime continue to grow.

Another name for this field of study is computer forensic science. Some of the best specialists in this field are located in Albemarle, NC. Computer forensic science is one of the branches that make up the field of digital forensic science. It is a science that pertains to the evidence that is found on digital storage media and computers. The field entails the practice of collecting, analyzing, and reporting on digital data in a legally admissible manner. It makes use of digitally stored data to detect and prevent crime.

The modern lifestyles, makes the use of computer forensic science relevant in almost all professions. Only in a few field that CF is not applicable. The earliest users of CF are law enforcement agencies. These agencies are also some of the heaviest users. The agencies are responsible for most of the developments that occur in this field.

There are several different scenarios in which computers can be crime scenes. For instance, during a hacking or denial of service attack, the computer in question often becomes the crime scene. Computers can also be sources of useful evidence in the form of internet history, documents, and emails, which may be relevant in crimes such as drug trafficking, kidnapping, and murder.

CF goes beyond finding documents, files, and documents on a computing device. An examination always exploits metadata to find several other pieces of information that can be very helpful in an investigation of crime. For instance, the examination will often reveal the date a document first appeared on a computing device. The examination also identifies when the document was last edited, last saved, and last printed. The user who carried out all these functions can also be identified.

Commercial organizations have in the recent past used CF in a number of cases to their own benefit. Some of the areas in which this science has been used by commercial organizations include intellectual property theft, industrial espionage, employment disputes, fraud investigations, and forgeries. Additional cases include bankruptcy investigations, regulatory compliance, and internet use and inappropriate emails in workplaces.

Investigation in this field employs several different techniques. These techniques include cross-drive analysis, stochastic forensics, steganography, live analysis, and deleted files. The correlation of information gathered from multiple hard drives is done under cross-drive analysis.

The process of CF examination has been categorized into six main processes. These processes are readiness, evaluation, collection, analysis, presentation, and review. The readiness stage is a very crucial stage, but it is often overlooked by experts in this field. CF, like other fields, is also faced by several issues, which can be categorized as legal, administrative, and technical.