Digital Forensic Investigation

Digital forensics is a branch that is over the recovery and investigation of materials found in digital devices, it gives a better understanding of the situation. Back before the computers, researchers used to investigate the situation through eyewitnesses, evidences, and trying to recreate what happened in that area. Digital devices are everywhere this day and age. “Computers and networks have become so ubiquitous in our society, such an integral part of our daily lives, that any investigation or legal dispute will likely involve some form of digital evidence.” Casey, 2009 Introduction. Through electronics, it can store the needed evidence to be used in the future.

The main goal of this article is to raise awareness about how forensic archeology and anthropology can be used to improve the outcome of cases in the advocacy for human rights. It is mainly intended to prove how the material remains can be used to address violations of human rights in the past, by allowing the families of the victims to honor their memories. A way to do that is to provide the deceased with appropriate burials, as well as to provide their families with enough knowledge to seek justice. This article proves the efficiency of archeological techniques to illustrate how human rights have been compromised in the past by providing objective evidence of violations committed during the Civil War in Spain. This article demonstrates

Crime scares everyone. From murders and kidnapping, to robberies and home invasions, crime can take a serious impact on humans psychologically. What puts humans at ease, is knowing that the culprit of these horrendous crimes are put away. With the help of new technology, police forces have a more easier than ever way for identifying the criminal. If ANY DNA (such as blood, semen, saliva, urine, feces, hair, teeth, bone, tissue and cells) are left at the crime scene, new advancements are able to identify whose DNA it will match with. A helpful tools when deciphering through suspects. Criminal forensic techniques use these methods everyday, and it is all thanks to cellular biology. With these methods comes new advancements in the field, possible

Having digital forensic capabilities is very important in this era we are in. At our company, we have an in house forensics team that consists of a senior forensic investigator, project manager, computer forensic examiner, legal counsel, IT specialist, and three lab assistants.

Forensic science has assisted law enforcement agencies across the nation with solving crimes with well-known techniques to include but not limited to fingerprint analysis, DNA analysis, ballistic analysis, and any type of digital forensics. These types of forensic analysis have become very popular with jury’s during trial because of shows like CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, NCIS: Naval Criminal Investigative Services, and Bones. What many jurors do not understand is what happens on television does not represent what actual crime scene investigators and forensic examiners do every day. Television shows like these show that forensic sciences are flawless.

When I have to investigate a business computer for an investigation I cannot just walk into the location and say let me see your computer I want to check your instant message communications. That is not how things are done. Every forensic investigator has to follow protocol to maintain the integrity of their evidence, chain of command and most of all not to violate or invade one’s privacy according to the Fourth Amendment of Search and Seizure.

I suppose one thing that goes along with graduating high school is constantly being asked where you are going to college and what degree you are planning to get. Every time I answer this question with Forensic Chemistry, a few questions will inevitably follow it such as: “Wow so you must be one of those crazy/ smart people?” or “Okay, so you must watch those CSI shows?” Well too answer those questions, no, I would not consider myself to be the smartest person in my class and no, I have never seen CSI or NCIS and yes, obviously I know that those shows are not even close to an accurate portrayal. When people ask me why I chose Forensic Science I love to freak them out, so I always say that I took a Buzzfeed Quiz that said I should be one, for the record that is only partially a lie, because I do always get some kind of scientist when I take those “incredibly accurate” career quizzes. Honestly I think I only get that result every time is because whenever it gives me options about what my dream workspace would be, for some reason I always click on the picture with a microscope in the background.

Forensic Science as applied to Digital Evidence. Forensics is the use of a scientific approach to investigate and present valid evidence in a court of law. The ultimate goal of digital forensics is to collect, preserve, analyze and interpret digital evidence in support of an investigation for legal cases. This includes everything from pulling data from a smart phone or laptop to analyzing network traffic logs. Digital forensic investigators have a wide variety of tools and techniques at their disposal and must follow some basic principles when working with evidence. One of the most important guiding principles of any forensic science is that investigators must never take any action that alters the evidence itself and may lead to misinterpretation of that evidence.

Digital forensics is the process of uncovering and interpreting electronic data for use in a court of law. The main goal of the process is to preserve any evidence in its most original form while performing a structured investigation by collecting, identifying and validating the digital information which will be admissible in a court of law. To collect the document has to follow certain guidelines. United States v. Gourde (2006) and United States v. Zeigler (2007) are both great examples of cases to investigate the case. The primary goal of this document is to demonstrate the importance of digital forensics in solving criminal investigation. In the following paragraph two criminal cases are studied and analyzed.

We live in the information age; the way people communicate and practice business has changed tremendously. Everyday new technologies such as: operating systems, applications and automated software make our lives easier. As computer technologies continue to grow, the necessity of securing private information has not been an easy task for computer networking administrators and information security teams. For digital forensic investigators, staying on top of rapidly evolving technologies had become an everyday challenge. Therefore, there are several factors that play an important role to be successful in digital forensics career. First, you must become familiar with the newly OS platforms. Secondly, continuous testing, evaluation and research could expand the capabilities of a forensic lab. Lastly, forensic investigators should maintain connections with a

The major take away from this talk are, realize the important of forensic analysis for investigators, identify deleted data, know the process of database carver and understand the persistence of database. In the paragraph below I will explain each lesson in detail.

By investing in new technology and process improvements, the division has tried to reduce testing time while maintaining accuracy. Although the division has made these efforts, the backlog continues to grow.

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.).

The current literature reveals a number of proposed frameworks, models and procedures that have been put in place in an attempt to formally describe an effective digital forensic investigation process. In digital forensic investigations, various processes focus on different actions performed, such as the data extraction, data examination, and data gathering and so on. Others tend to be more concerned with the analysis of the data extracted from the digital media.

Forensic investigation process that involved several steps, the first step of each and every investigation is to determine whether or not there will be an investigation. Not all incident required an investigation, which can be categorized under accidental or natural disasters. If there is a sense of worthy scenario to do an investigation first thing is to select the person with who has well trained and experiences to conduct this type of investigation. Then as second step need to identify evidence of interest in different types. That should collect and start the investigation depending on the investigation which going to conduct, the items interest that could be anything from a laptop, desktop computer, tablet, mobile phone or USB thumb drive