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Computer Forensics: Data Collection, Analysis and Preservation. Kikunda Eric Kajangu, Cher Vue, and John Mottola ITIS-3200-001. Computer Forensics defined:.
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Computer Forensics:Data Collection, Analysis and Preservation Kikunda Eric Kajangu, Cher Vue, and John Mottola ITIS-3200-001
Computer Forensics defined: The use of analytical and investigative techniques to identify, collect, examine and preserve evidence/information which is magnetically stored or encoded.
Industry companies interested in computer forensics • Guidance Software (http://www.guidancesoftware.com) • They are the creators of the popular GUI-based forensic tool “EnCase”. • Digital Intelligence, Inc. (http://www.digitalintel.com/) • Digital Intelligence designs and builds computer forensic software and hardware. They also offer free forensic utility software for law enforcement. • IVIZE Data Center: (http://www.ivize.net). • They provide several litigation support services including Electronic Data Discovery
Three main concepts • Data collection • Data analysis • Data preservation
Data Collection • Research challenges • Gathering data • Ensuring the data is relevant and complete • Obtaining volitile data • Obtaining deleted and changed files • Lack of trained professionals • Computer Forensics is a relatively new field • Threat of System administrators corrupting data • No standards
Data Collection • Evolution of data collection • Mid 1980’s • X-Tree Gold and Norton Disk Edit • Limited to recovering lost or deleted files • 1990’s • Specialized tools began to appear • Tools to perform Network investigations • 1999 • Boot to floppy and write to alternative media • Very slow transfer rate. (1GB/hr) • Current • Many tools to choose from • GUI and Command Line Tools are available • Fast and efficient
Data Analysis • The main problem when dealing with electronic data analysis is not only the size that can easily reach a very large volume to manage, but also the different number of the application associated with those files. • Electronic Data Discovery : - e-mail, Microsoft Office files, accounting databases,…- other electronically-stored information which could be relevant evidence in a law suit. • Tools to analyze electronic data in computer forensics : • - Needle Finder: use a special .NET framework application in conjunction with a SQL database to process hundreds of file types and emails simultaneously and pinpoint pertinent, requested information for analysis. • - E-Discovery
Data Preservation • Data should never be analyzed using the same machine it is collected from • Forensically sound copies of all data storage devices, primarily hard drives, must bet made. • There are two goals when making an image • Completeness • Accuracy • This is done by using standalone hard-drive duplicator or software imaging tools such as DCFLdd or Iximager
Training Operational Standards International Standardization Research Challenges: What are the essential problems in this field
Training • Law enforcement personnel should be trained to handle it • Network operators should also be trained, to improve their abilities in intrusion detection, • Lawyers should receive some training to give a basic understanding of computer evidence.
Operational Standards • Basic guidelines for the evidence collection process to be established • Planning • Recording • Performance • Monitoring • Recording • Reporting
International Standardization • Different countries each have their own methods, standards, and laws • What is acceptable evidence in one country may not be in another • Serious problem when dealing with international crimes, as computer crime often is
Conclusions and future work • Even though it is a fascinating field, due to the nature of computers, far more information is available than there is time to analyze. • The main emphasis of future work is on recovery of data. • To improve ways to: • Identify the evidence • Determine how to preserve the evidence • Extract, process, and interpret the evidence • Ensure that the evidence is acceptable in a court of law
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