الاثنين، 19 فبراير 2018

An Introduction To Computer Forensic Investigation

By Donald Davis


As technology continues to take the world by storm in every facet of everyday life, so do the new theft techniques deployed by fraudsters. Today, fraud is highly digital, with computer networks serving as conduits for bank robberies and identity theft. Investigators usually undertake computer forensic investigation to bring evidence of crime to light.

Most people assume that once a person presses the delete key on a PC, the deleted data becomes irretrievable. For many newbie cyber criminals, this may be contrived as lost evidence. However, this is certainly not the case.

This is because upon deletion, data does not entirely get wiped out from memory. The delete key simply instructs the PC to free up the already occupied space. It does this by shifting the data to a hidden register in memory. This essentially means the deleted data can still be rebuilt using custom software and by following a set of instructions.

A large portion of the job of a forensic investigator involves inspecting hard drives obtained from laptops and desktop computers. More often than not, this is done in the context of law enforcement. The subsequent results of a hard drive audit can reveal crucial information on online fraud, the biggest contributor of cyber crime.

Contrary to what many believe, fraud is not the only type of cyber crime. Another common crime is child pornography. By picking the hidden parts of PC memory, investigators can uncover lots of evidence that can help put a child sex offender behind bars.

In the corporate world, forensic investigations play a major role in ensuring financial deals are transparent. It is easy to alter accounting software to report a falsified tax return. Such an act can be laid bare when a company wide system audit is conducted.

In the aforementioned case, all that an investigator would have to do is retrieve original copies of financial data and compare it with what has been reported by the accounting software. This process may take weeks or months depending on the amount of data involved. The end results are always accurate nonetheless.

An IT specialist who majors in forensics may be called upon to serve as an expert witness in court proceedings. In such a scenario, the work of the specialist is to give the court a professional account of how a crime may have been committed. If you would like to venture into this career, the sky is the limit.

PC theft is one of the easiest crimes to solve. All PCs in the market have unique identifiers that buyers can refer to when proving ownership. Most of the stolen computers being resold usually come without their unique identifiers. By reconstructing the memory partitions in stolen computers to their original form, law enforcers can easily ascertain ownership.

Forensics is a growing field and is one of the best weapons that the police have against modern day crooks. If you hope to get into it someday, you should enroll for a technology course like computer science. You may also take a certificate course in forensics to get the skills required for the job.




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