Digital forensics refers to the process of collecting, analyzing, and verifying information and data on digital carriers to obtain the evidence required for a case. The digital carriers include computers, mobile devices, etc. Originating in the 1970s, digital forensics was originally used in computer crime investigations. Later, with the rapid development of computer technology, criminals are increasingly using computers to carry out criminal activities. U.S. law enforcement agencies began to pay attention to the investigation of computer crimes, and digital forensics came into being.
From the initial file recovery and log analysis to the subsequent digital fingerprint extraction and virtual machine analysis, the technology and techniques of digital forensics have been continuously improved, providing law enforcement agencies with more powerful investigative tools. This article will provide you with a complete guide on what is digital forensics from the following six aspects.
Part 1: What is Digital Forensics
What is digital forensics? Digital forensics is the process of collecting, preserving, analyzing, and presenting evidence of digital crimes. It involves the identification, protection, extraction, and archiving of digital evidence residing in computers and related peripherals.
The goal of digital evidence forensics is to investigate and analyze digital devices and electronic data in order to discover and preserve evidence for legal purposes. This field deals with the identification, collection, examination, and interpretation of digital evidence, such as computer systems, mobile devices, networks, and digital storage media. The ultimate goal is to support legal proceedings, assist in solving crimes, and provide accurate and reliable information that can be used in court.
Digital forensics aims to discover digital artefacts, recover deleted or hidden data, and reconstruct digital activity to gain a comprehensive understanding of events and actions that may be relevant to an investigation or legal case.
Part 2: Six Great Significance of Digital Forensics
Digital forensics is of great significance in protecting data security, preventing legal disputes, reducing financial losses, meeting compliance requirements, regulatory investigations, and combating cybercrime. With the rapid development of the digital economy, digital evidence forensics will play an increasingly important role in all walks of life. You can know more about what is digital forensics with its great significance. The specific meaning includes the following six aspects:
1. Data Protection
Digital forensics helps keep business and personal data safe. Through digital evidence forensics, security issues such as data leaks, malware attacks, and data tampering can be prevented and discovered, thereby ensuring data integrity and security.
2. Legal Liability
Digital forensics can help companies and individuals provide strong evidence in the event of legal disputes. When it comes to legal issues such as infringement, contract disputes, and defamation, digital forensics can provide effective evidence support and help parties protect their rights and interests.
3. Financial Loss Prevention
Digital forensics helps enterprises prevent and discover financial losses, such as customer information leakage caused by data leakage, server paralysis caused by malware attacks, etc., thereby reducing their economic losses.
4. Compliance
Digital forensics helps businesses meet various compliance requirements, such as data protection regulations, cybersecurity regulations, and more. Through digital data forensics, enterprises can ensure that their business activities comply with relevant regulations and reduce compliance risks.
5. Regulatory Investigations
Digital forensics plays an important role in government departments, law enforcement agencies, etc. In regulatory investigations, digital data forensics can help investigators obtain critical evidence to resolve issues quickly and ensure public safety.
6. Cybercrime Investigation
Digital forensics plays an important role in fighting cybercrime. Through digital evidence forensics, investigators can track the behavior of criminals and obtain key evidence, thus effectively combating cybercrime.
Part 3: Five Types of Digital Forensics
What is digital forensics? In this part, we will introduce digital forensics, mainly in terms of its 5 types.
1. Mobile Device Forensics
Mobile device forensics is the practice of legally and ethically extracting and examining data from mobile devices to serve as evidence in a court of law. This process involves utilizing specialized tools and techniques to recover and analyze information stored on smartphones, tablets, and wearables. The data obtained can include call logs, text messages, contact lists, browsing history, photos, videos, and more.
Law enforcement agencies, criminal investigators, and private individuals often employ mobile device forensics to gather evidence in criminal cases, such as murder investigations or fraud cases. Additionally, businesses may utilize this practice to investigate internal misconduct or data breaches.
Proficiency in mobile device forensics necessitates a high level of technical expertise and familiarity with various mobile devices and their operating systems. Forensic analysts must also adhere to relevant legal and ethical guidelines and employ best practices to ensure the admissibility of the evidence they collect in court.
2. Network Forensics
Network forensics involves the collection and analysis of data from computer networks to investigate security incidents, cybercrimes, and network breaches. This process entails examining network traffic, logs, and other network-related information to understand the actions and behaviors of individuals or entities on the network.
The primary goal of network forensics is to uncover details about unauthorized access, data theft, malware attacks, network intrusions, and other potential security breaches. It relies on specialized tools and techniques to capture and analyze network packets, log files, network configurations, and other relevant data.
By analyzing the collected data, network forensics can provide valuable insights into the origins of an attack, the methods employed, and the extent of the damage caused. It can also aid in identifying compromised systems, detecting unauthorized access, and establishing the timeline of events.
Professionals in network forensics require expertise in network protocols, network architecture, security systems, and forensic analysis tools. They must possess the ability to analyze network traffic, identify anomalies, and reconstruct events to uncover evidence that can be utilized in legal proceedings or to enhance network security.
3. Digital Image Forensics
Digital image forensics involves the use of scientific methods to investigate and analyze digital images, with the purpose of determining their authenticity, source, ownership, rights, and other relevant information.
The primary objective of digital image forensics is to establish the trustworthiness, accuracy, ownership, and validity of digital images, ensuring that they have not been altered, falsified, or tampered with. This involves techniques such as examining image metadata (including creation date, device information, and other details), comparing digital signatures, verifying the integrity of the image file itself, and comparing the image against known patterns of manipulation or forgery.
The importance of digital image forensics is growing in fields like law enforcement, criminal investigation, and intelligence gathering, where digital images are frequently used as evidence. It is also relevant in protecting intellectual property rights, such as in cases of copyright infringement or counterfeiting.
Digital image forensics is an evolving field that continuously adapts to new challenges and technologies. It combines techniques from various disciplines, including computer science, engineering, physics, mathematics, and law.
4. Digital Video/Audio Forensics
Digital video/audio forensics includes the use of scientific methods and techniques to examine and analyze digital video and audio files, with the objective of determining their authenticity, integrity, source, and other pertinent information. It focuses on assessing the reliability, accuracy, and potential tampering or manipulation of digital video and audio evidence.
The primary aim of digital video/audio forensics is to uncover details about the origin, content, and context of digital video and audio files. This includes identifying the device or software used to create the file, detecting any modifications or edits made to the content, and establishing the chronological sequence of events captured in the recording.
To analyze video and audio files, digital video/audio forensics employs a variety of techniques and tools. These may involve enhancing video quality, analyzing audio for anomalies or edits, examining time and date stamps, and comparing digital signatures or metadata to verify the file’s authenticity.
5. Memory Forensics
Memory forensics is a specialized field within forensics for digital data that focuses on analyzing and extracting information from a computer’s volatile memory, also known as RAM. Its primary objective is to investigate the contents of a computer’s memory at a specific moment in time to gather evidence, uncover any malicious activities, and gain insights into the system’s overall state.
The insights provided by memory forensics can be highly valuable in a range of investigations, including malware analysis, incident response, intrusion detection, and the forensic analysis of compromised systems. By examining the memory, investigators can identify active processes, detect hidden or malicious code, track network communications, recover deleted or encrypted data, and reconstruct a timeline of events.
Professionals in memory forensics must possess a deep understanding of computer architecture, operating systems, memory structures, and forensic analysis tools. They need to be skilled in interpreting memory artefacts, identifying anomalies, and correlating the information obtained from memory analysis with other digital evidence to reconstruct events accurately and provide reliable findings.
Part 4: Seven Steps of Digital Forensics
You could also learn about what is digital forensics with its operation and procedure. The 7 steps involved in digital forensics can be summarized as follows:
Preparation: Before commencing a digital evidence forensics investigation, it is essential to prepare the investigation environment, equip the necessary tools and software, and ensure a solid understanding of digital data forensics fundamentals. Familiarity with applicable laws and regulations is crucial to ensuring the investigation adheres to legal and ethical requirements.
Evidence Identification: Determine the specific digital evidence to be collected and gather relevant information associated with it. This step requires in-depth knowledge of the target system and proficiency in relevant technical methods and tools.
Evidence Collection: Select appropriate methods and tools for gathering digital evidence, while ensuring its integrity and authenticity. Specialized forensic equipment or software might be necessary to obtain data, and it is important to document the collection process with meticulous detail, including timestamps.
Evidence Preservation: Safeguard the collected evidence to prevent any modification, deletion, or damage. Techniques such as using write-block devices or other safeguards may be employed to prevent data tampering.
Examination and Analysis: Utilize suitable tools and techniques to analyze the collected evidence and extract relevant information. This step might involve activities such as data decryption, file recovery, network analysis, or software reverse engineering.
Reporting and Presentation: Prepare a comprehensive report detailing the digital evidence forensics investigation, encompassing the evidence collected, analysis results, and pertinent conclusions. The report should maintain objectivity, accuracy, and ease of understanding for non-technical audiences.
Disposition: Upon completing the investigation, handle the collected evidence by legal and ethical requirements. This might involve actions such as deleting or encrypting evidence files, encrypting storage media, or returning the evidence to its owner.
Part 5: Recommendation of Powerful Forensics Tool
From the 4 parts above, you may have a certain knowledge of what is digital forensics. Here we recommend a powerful digital forensics tool, MTM-Video Forensics. The tool is currently divided into two versions: MTM-Video Forensics for Removable Devices and MTM-Video Forensics for Storage Devices, which can support thousands of removable and storage devices. It has four significant advantages: high confidentiality, fast case resolution, intuitive operation, and complete functions.
The all-in-one digital evidence collection software can quickly realize more than ten functions such as video evidence recovery, restoration, extraction, playback, evidence authentication, and analysis. The evidence is compliant and can be directly adopted by the court. Next, let’s have a look at how to use the MTM-Video Forensics for video evidence forensics:
1. Choose Video Authentication
Open the software and navigate to the left menu to select the “Video Authentication” function.
2. Connect and Scan
Insert the memory card of the removable or storage devices that need to be extracted as prompted, such as CF or TF cards. Then, choose “Memory Card” from the selection window that appears. The software will begin scanning and extracting all normal videos from the device one by one.
Note: If “Memory Card” is not listed, you can remove and reinsert the memory card, and wait for it to refresh.
3. Select Video Evidence
Once the scanning is complete, a list of extracted video evidence will be displayed. You can switch the view format by clicking the toggle button above. To authenticate specific videos as evidence, simply tick or select them.
4. Authenticate
Click on “Authenticate” and enter the necessary evidence authentication information. After clicking “OK“, the software will automatically calculate and verify the evidence to establish the authenticity of the video evidence, facilitating subsequent scrutiny.
5. Export
Click on “Export” to package the selected video evidence. Additionally, an authentication report and an authentication data package will be generated and exported. This process also includes performing compliance certification promptly, enabling further compliance analysis and judgment.
The MTM-Video Forensics tool is now available for free. If you encounter issues in video evidence forensics, you can contact the official customer service for help.
Part 6: Current Challenges of Digital Forensics
In the last part, we introduce you to what is digital forensics, mainly about the current challenges of digital forensics. Forensics for digital data faces challenges in many aspects, such as technology, law and speed, mainly in the following four points:
1. With the development of new technologies, new types of cybercriminal suspects will use new technologies to commit crimes in a timely manner, but many traditional concepts of forensics will not work under the conditions of new technologies, and may even cause serious consequences of destroying data.
2. The increasing capacity of data storage devices, the popularity of embedded flash memory, the dramatic increase in file formats, encryption technology, cloud computing for remote processing and storage, and the fact that malware no longer just infects computer memory are all factors that increase digital evidence forensics difficulty.
3. Legal challenges and speed are also difficult issues for digital evidence forensics. For example, under the requirement of finding evidence within 72 hours, evidence collection needs to be faster and more efficient.
4. Mobile devices/IoT devices promote the development of forensics technology but also increase the difficulty of data forensics and analysis.
Bottom Line
Here is the complete guide on what is digital forensics in 2023. With the increase in computer crimes around the world, law enforcement agencies of various countries have begun to strengthen transnational cooperation and exchanges to jointly deal with challenges in the field of digital evidence forensics. In addition, international organizations such as INTERPOL are also promoting international cooperation in the field of digital data forensics.
Digital evidence forensics has been widely used in computer crime investigation, network security, intellectual property protection, e-government, and other fields. With the development of the Internet, Internet of Things, big data, and other technologies, digital forensics will play an increasingly important role in the future.