What is Digital Forensics? Types, Process & Challenges

Introduction

What is Digital forensics? The process of collecting, analyzing, and storing digital evidence, that can be used in legal proceedings is known as Digital forensics. Finding evidence that can be utilized to solve crimes or support legal arguments is the aim of digital forensics. Emails, chat messages, papers, and other kinds of digital assets can all be used as evidence in digital forensic investigations.

Digital Forensics, as you may know, has increasingly gained buff due to the increase in the use of digital devices in our daily lives. This increase, now has led to an increase in the cybercrime, which in turn has increased the demand for Digital Forensics in the field of cybersecurity.

Digital Forensics - Types

Based on the device used and the investigation performed, Digital forensics is usually categorized into multiple types. The following are a few commonly used types,

- Computer Forensics

In Computer Forensics, digital evidence are collected from computers and are used for processing and analyzing. These evidences can also include information about the operating system, secured files, and history network activity. These evidences are collected in computer forensics and are then be used in various incidences including fraud detection, theft, and cyber-attacks.

- Network Forensics

Network traffic analysis is the method used in network forensics to gather data about crimes. To locate the origin of an attack or a suspect, this may involve examining traffic logs and packet captures. In circumstances involving cyber-attacks and data breaches, network forensics is frequently used.

- Database Forensics

Database forensics is the process of collecting and analyzing digital evidence from databases. This can include analyzing database logs and transaction records to identify suspicious activity. Database forensics is often used in cases related to financial fraud and data breaches.

- Mobile Device Forensics

The technique of gathering and examining digital evidence from portable electronics like smartphones and tablets is known as mobile device forensics. Providing evidence like Call logs, text messages, and location information to be used in mobile device forensics can often aid help in cases like cyberbullying, harassment, and child exploitation.

Process of Digital Forensics:

As discussed, digital forensics works on the basis of device used and the investigation performed. The processes digital forensics can be divided into four stages and they are,

- Collection

The first stage of digital forensics is collection. In this stage, digital evidence is collected from various sources. This can include seizing physical devices such as computers and mobile phones or collecting data from cloud-based services.

- Preservation

The next stage of digital forensics is preservation. In this stage, the digital evidence is preserved in a way that maintains its integrity and admissibility in court. This can include creating a forensic image of a device or copying data to a secure location.

- Analysis

The third stage of digital forensics is analysis. In this stage, the digital evidence is analyzed to identify relevant information. This can include using forensic tools to recover deleted files or analyzing network traffic logs to identify suspicious activity.

- Presentation

The final stage of digital forensics is presentation. In this stage, the digital evidence is presented in a way that is admissible in court. All the evidence is collectively documented as reports and is presented to a jury.

Staying updated to the latest changes and developments in the technology is a necessity for Digital Forensics Investigators. This allows them to stay a step ahead of the cybercriminals irrespective of their evolving methods and techniques of cyber-attacks.

Challenges in Digital Forensics

Despite paling an important role in the cybercrime and cybe4rsecuytity domain, Digital forensics also come with their own share of flaws and this hinders its effectiveness. The following a few examples.

- Encryption

Encryption is a method of securing data from unauthorized foregone access. Digital Forensics Professionals, in addition, must also have the knowledge and expertise of decryption. This decrypted data is further investigated and analyzed to document a report about the incidences and attacks.

Using vast amounts of encrypted data leads in developing new and advanced techniques of data encryption and decryption. Digital Forensics Scientists face a lot of challenges in accessing, decrypting, and analyzing all the encrypted data. To overcome such challenges, specialized tools are designed to help professionals develop implement new techniques. Since these tools do not come free, they also cost extra resources.

- Obsolescence

Another difficulty that digital forensics professionals encounter is Obsolescence. Digital devices are no exception to the ongoing evolution of technology. As new hardware and software are produced, existing technology becomes obsolete. This can be a significant challenge for digital forensics professionals because they may encounter devices or software that their manufacturers no longer support.

In some situations, they may lack the tools or software required to access or evaluates the data on the device. To address this difficulty, digital forensics practitioners must stay current on technology breakthroughs and tools.

Because of the speed at which technology is developing, digital equipment and software age quickly. In order to investigate and evaluate digital evidence, digital forensics investigators must stay current with the newest technology and techniques. Missed chances to find important evidence can occur when one doesn't stay current.

- Lack of Resources

In the field of cybersecurity, lack of resources can lead to major consequences.  In addition to the specialized hardware and software being costly, shortage of qualified digital forensics professionals is another major challenge for organizations. This occurs due to the shortage in the invest resources for training and tools. These conditions in turn create a delay in investigation.

Designated professionals analyses massive amounts of data using specialized tools but, they are at the same time very time consuming and obviously cost effective but are demanding as well. To avoid this, organizations must make sure that their digital forensics teams are supported and funded with all the necessary resources. By investing in necessary tools and resources allows organizations to aid with under resourcing their employees.

- Legal Issues

In the process of Digital Forensics Investigation, investigators often end up including sensitive information that maybe then processed in legal processing. To present the evidences to the law court, it is very important that Digital Forensics Investigators are aware of all the legal issues surrounding their work. They must be completely aware of the laws and regulations that govern the investigation processes and also the legal requirements.

In any care of failure of presenting with legal requirements can straight lead to dismissing the case. Hence, it is very important for the investigators to make sure that the evidences being presented are been cross-examined to be testified in the court.

Digital Forensics Investigators are made to work meticulously with legal professionals and law enforcement agencies. This helps organizations overcome such challenges to ensure that the investigations are conducted and performed considering all the reverent applicable laws. Together with this, it is also equally important to maintain confidentiality to secure the evidences.

Conclusion

The field of digital forensics is essential for preventing cyber-attacks and helping to solve crimes. In order to help investigations and judicial actions, it involves gathering, analyzing, and archiving digital evidence. Investigators also deal with numerous challenges due to a few aspects such as increasing complexity of digital devices, technological change, and frequent change in tools and techniques.

Overcoming these challenges, digital forensics investigators work on a collective objective and that is,

1. To secure the digital data accuracy,

2. To globally provide security to businesses.

To keep one step ahead of hackers, digital forensics investigators must be aware of their constantly changing techniques. To be effective, they must conduct their investigations using a range of methods and instruments and keep up with the most recent advancements in technology.

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