Book Image

Learn Computer Forensics – 2nd edition - Second Edition

By : William Oettinger
Book Image

Learn Computer Forensics – 2nd edition - Second Edition

By: William Oettinger

Overview of this book

Computer Forensics, being a broad topic, involves a variety of skills which will involve seizing electronic evidence, acquiring data from electronic evidence, data analysis, and finally developing a forensic report. This book will help you to build up the skills you need to work in a highly technical environment. This book's ideal goal is to get you up and running with forensics tools and techniques to successfully investigate crime and corporate misconduct. You will discover ways to collect personal information about an individual from online sources. You will also learn how criminal investigations are performed online while preserving data such as e-mails, images, and videos that may be important to a case. You will further explore networking and understand Network Topologies, IP Addressing, and Network Devices. Finally, you will how to write a proper forensic report, the most exciting portion of the forensic exam process. By the end of this book, you will have developed a clear understanding of how to acquire, analyze, and present digital evidence, like a proficient computer forensics investigator.
Table of Contents (17 chapters)
15
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16
Index

Defining forensic imaging

I continue to stress that we never want to change the source device/digital evidence. That is why we never conduct a digital forensic examination on the original device. You should only conduct your digital forensic analysis on a copy, not the original device. You must remember the forensic copy you make will also be considered the evidence and will have the same evidentiary weight as the source device in terms of evidence. What are we transferring from the source device into our forensic copy? Everything! I want to look at allocated files, deleted files, slack space, unallocated space, and unpartitioned space. I want to collect every bit on the source device. Earlier in this book, in Chapter 2, The Forensic Analysis Process, I gave you the following definitions:

  • Forensic copy: This is a straight bit-for-bit copy of the source to the destination. This is not common in today’s environment, so ensure that your destination device has no old...