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

Chapter 6: Windows Artifact Analysis

The world runs on the Microsoft Windows operating system, with Microsoft accounting for nearly 90 percent of the operating system market share (https://netmarketshare.com/). In my personal experience, I have examined far more Windows operating systems than any other operating system; macOS would be the next most common operating system with Linux running a distant third. While you have to be prepared to analyze all operating systems, whichever is the most common within the realm you are working in is where you should focus your attention. 

This chapter will provide you with an understanding of the Windows operating system and the artifacts you may find. There are entire books written about the Windows operating system; this chapter's goal is to provide you with an understanding of the more common operating system artifacts you may encounter during your investigation. You will start by going through user profiles where most...