Which Forensic Step? — TechKnowSurge

About this interactive

Evidence collected the wrong way gets thrown out, so digital forensics follows a set process. Identification: work out what to collect. Artifacts are data that give insight into the past. Sometimes you are told exactly what to hand over (e-discovery); sometimes you have to decide where the traces might be. Acquisition: obtain it. Pull logs from the log aggregator, or go to the computers, servers, firewalls and phones themselves. Mind the order of volatility: memory is lost when the power goes, so take memory snapshots first, then clone or image the disks, then the less volatile data. Preservation: keep it in its original state. Copy it with tools that keep the original timestamps, store it securely, and take a hash of it, kept somewhere else, so a fresh hash later proves nothing changed. A chain of custody records everyone who handled it, when and where. Analysis: render the artifacts down to the evidence that matters, then work out what it means. This may need cryptanalysis (decrypting) or steganalysis (finding a hidden message). Reporting: assemble the findings into a report for the legal system or an internal investigation.

What you'll learn

Place a digital forensics task in its step of the process: identification, acquisition, preservation, analysis or reporting
Apply the lesson's evidence-handling principles: collect volatile data such as memory first, keep originals and timestamps intact, and prove integrity with hashes

Aligned to

NIST NICE

K1055 Knowledge of digital forensics principles and practices

K1153 Knowledge of digital evidence handling principles and practices

K1147 Knowledge of data integrity principles and practices

ISC2 CISSP

7.1 Understand and comply with investigations

CompTIA Security+

4.8 Explain appropriate incident response activities.

CompTIA CySA+

3.2 Given a scenario, perform incident response activities

Key terms

Digital Forensics: Digital Forensics is the science of collecting, preserving, analyzing, and presenting electronic evidence in a legally sound manner to support incident investigations or criminal proceedings.
Order of Volatility: A principle in digital forensics that dictates collecting the most volatile data first, such as RAM, before less volatile data like files and archives, to prevent evidence loss.
Artifact: Data or information collected during a forensic investigation that provides insight into past system activity or events.
Hash Function: A mathematical algorithm that converts input data of any size into a fixed-size output value used to verify data integrity.
Data Integrity: The assurance that data has not been altered or corrupted during storage or transmission.
Evidence: Facts or information collected during an investigation that indicate whether a belief or claim is valid or true.

Topics

Digital Forensics Incident Response Interactive Categorize

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