Book Image

Learn Computer Forensics

By : William Oettinger
Book Image

Learn Computer Forensics

By: William Oettinger

Overview of this book

A computer forensics investigator must possess a variety of skills, including the ability to answer legal questions, gather and document evidence, and prepare for an investigation. This book will help you get up and running with using digital forensic tools and techniques to investigate cybercrimes successfully. Starting with an overview of forensics and all the open source and commercial tools needed to get the job done, you'll learn core forensic practices for searching databases and analyzing data over networks, personal devices, and web applications. You'll then learn how to acquire valuable information from different places, such as filesystems, e-mails, browser histories, and search queries, and capture data remotely. As you advance, this book will guide you through implementing forensic techniques on multiple platforms, such as Windows, Linux, and macOS, to demonstrate how to recover valuable information as evidence. Finally, you'll get to grips with presenting your findings efficiently in judicial or administrative proceedings. By the end of this book, you'll 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)
1
Section 1: Acquiring Evidence
6
Section 2: Investigation
12
Section 3: Reporting

Understanding data acquisition 

So, let's recap—you have received training as a digital forensic investigator and you may have received certification. You have built or purchased a digital forensic workstation and a forensic laptop and have created your response kit. You have responded to the scene and ensured that it has been made secure. You have verified that no one has altered the scene and you have documented the scene with photographs. Now, it is time for you to process the scene and collect that digital evidence. We will now discuss the acquisition of data, otherwise known as evidence.

There are multiple scenarios where someone may call on you to acquire data for a digital forensic investigation. As a law enforcement officer, you may respond to the scene, identify potential sources of digital forensic evidence, and then seize those items. As a private sector or corporate investigator, you may be called on to take an employee's workstation or to...