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

Computer Systems

As we discussed in previous chapters, digital forensic investigators must control the environment they operate in. The diversity of computer hardware, operating systems, and filesystems requires the digital forensic investigator to have a firm understanding of all the different and potential configurations they may encounter. This requires the digital forensic investigator to have procedures or controls to protect the integrity of digital evidence and the processes used to examine it. If you do not understand the boot process and how the system reacts when it starts or which filesystem is used on storage devices, you could make a fatal mistake. In addition, you must understand how they work together. Failure to understand these essential components could lead you to alter the digital evidence. You will also find that you will be less effective when you testify in judicial or administrative proceedings.

In this chapter, we will cover the following topics:

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