Book Image

Digital Forensics and Incident Response

By : Gerard Johansen
Book Image

Digital Forensics and Incident Response

By: Gerard Johansen

Overview of this book

Digital Forensics and Incident Response will guide you through the entire spectrum of tasks associated with incident response, starting with preparatory activities associated with creating an incident response plan and creating a digital forensics capability within your own organization. You will then begin a detailed examination of digital forensic techniques including acquiring evidence, examining volatile memory, hard drive assessment, and network-based evidence. You will also explore the role that threat intelligence plays in the incident response process. Finally, a detailed section on preparing reports will help you prepare a written report for use either internally or in a courtroom. By the end of the book, you will have mastered forensic techniques and incident response and you will have a solid foundation on which to increase your ability to investigate such incidents in your organization.
Table of Contents (18 chapters)
Title Page
Credits
About the Author
About the Reviewer
www.PacktPub.com
Customer Feedback
Preface

Memory evidence overview


When discussing analyzing the memory of a system, there are two terms that are used interchangeably. The first is RAM. RAM is the portion of the computer internal systems where the operating system places data utilized by applications and the system hardware while that application or hardware is in use. What makes RAM different from storage is the volatile nature of the data. Often, if the system is shut off, the data will be lost.

There is a good deal of data contained within RAM at the time a system is running that is valuable in an incident investigation. These include the following:

  • Running processes
  • Loaded Dynamic Link Libraries(DLL)
  • Open Registry Keys
  • Network connections