Book Image

Practical Digital Forensics

By : Richard Boddington
Book Image

Practical Digital Forensics

By: Richard Boddington

Overview of this book

Digital Forensics is a methodology which includes using various tools, techniques, and programming language. This book will get you started with digital forensics and then follow on to preparing investigation plan and preparing toolkit for investigation. In this book you will explore new and promising forensic processes and tools based on ‘disruptive technology’ that offer experienced and budding practitioners the means to regain control of their caseloads. During the course of the book, you will get to know about the technical side of digital forensics and various tools that are needed to perform digital forensics. This book will begin with giving a quick insight into the nature of digital evidence, where it is located and how it can be recovered and forensically examined to assist investigators. This book will take you through a series of chapters that look at the nature and circumstances of digital forensic examinations and explains the processes of evidence recovery and preservation from a range of digital devices, including mobile phones, and other media. This book has a range of case studies and simulations will allow you to apply the knowledge of the theory gained to real-life situations. By the end of this book you will have gained a sound insight into digital forensics and its key components.
Table of Contents (18 chapters)
Practical Digital Forensics
Credits
About the Author
Acknowledgment
About the Reviewer
www.PacktPub.com
Preface
Index

Chapter 2. Hardware and Software Environments

Before looking in any detail at digital evidence and the intriguing processes of its location, recovery, and analysis, it is helpful to understand the fundamentals of computer devices and how they store digital information. Doing so will provide a sound basis for understanding the nature of digital evidence and its value to the practitioner. The nature of digital evidence will be touched upon in this chapter but will be described in greater detail in Chapter 3, The Nature and Special Properties of Digital Evidence.

This chapter will describe and explain the basic workings of computer hardware and the operating systems and applications typically installed on them. It will describe how these environments are used to create, store, and transfer electronic data. An insight is provided into the workings of computers and storage devices and the location of datasets where digital evidence may be located.

The topics covered in this chapter will:

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