-
Book Overview & Buying
-
Table Of Contents
Digital Forensics Cookbook
By :
When a storage drive is attached to a computer, the operating system may read from, and sometimes even write to, the device. Because this can alter original data (for example, timestamps and system logs), it should be avoided when handling evidentiary media. To prevent inadvertent modification, we implement write-blocking, which allows a drive to be read while blocking any write requests from the host workstation.
Write-blocking solutions are available as hardware devices (physical bridges placed between the host and the evidence drive) or as software controls on the host. Hardware write-blockers are firmware-based appliances and are generally the most reliable option; they are specifically designed to refuse write commands.
Software write-blocking relies on the host operating system or drivers to prevent writes and is more prone to accidental failure or misconfiguration. Because some drive types and connection interfaces can behave unexpectedly, it's...