Digital Forensics: A Complete Guide
The world today we live in is full of modern gadgets. The boom of technology has made it possible to have a link from one pole to another pole of the earth while sitting at your home. That much advancement in technology has a positive impact by increasing the comfort level, but like everywhere positive and negative people live, so negative use of technology is being done in the world by the people.
The crimes are now being done by the use of technology, so to counter them there must be something. Therefore to deal with the culprits, digital forensic is an important tool to get information about the crime and to meet both ends of a criminal case.
What is a digital forensic?
Digital forensic can be defined as the process by which we identify, extract, and preserve the evidence related to the computer.
The information we gain by doing digital forensic can present it as a form of evidence in front of the court which helps in to solve the filled case.
Digital forensic is basically the science or phenomena of searching evidence from the digital media which may include your mobile phones, your personal computer, laptops, and network. These digital media are very helpful in providing very essential evidence to sort out the main culprits involved in the criminal case.
Digital forensic HISTORY
Slowly and gradually digital forensic became an essential part of handling criminal cases. After the first computer crime was reported in the U.S.A state of Florida in 1978, we feel the need of handling the crimes related to computers. One can say it is the beginning of a new era of modern technology. Thus in 1995, the International Organization On Computer Evidence was formed. After that in 2002, a book was published related to digital forensic.
Main Goals Of Digital forensic
Digital forensic being an integral part of resolving criminal cases have some main goals which are as follow:-
- It assists in providing the investigating team to recover out the data, to analyze it properly, and to make it conserve effectively so that it can't be tempered and is presentable before the court as a piece of evidence.
- It helps to find out the main reason behind the unlawful activity and to reach out to the main culprits.
- It draws out some basic procedures at the crime scene that add in to preserve the data and not let it be tampered.
- Its main goal is to detect and find out the deleted or missing files from the digital devices that are being used by the wrongdoers.
- It can help detect the evidence.
- Comes up with a full report, which is very helpful in solving complicated investigations.
How digital forensic is done?
Digital forensic is done by a team of experts, it is not an easy job to extract the evidence, but in fact, a hard nut to crack. Only experts in the field can make it possible to have a digital forensic by following steps.
- The first step that is included in digital forensic is to identify. The process of identification may include which type of evidence we have, in which format the information is stored in the electronic media device. ( it includes your mobile phone, personal computer, etc. )
- The second step in digital forensic is preservation. In this step, data is extracted, made safe, and conserved properly so that data may not get tampered with by hacking or any other means.
- The third step is to analyze the data. After a deep analysis of the data, a conclusion based on evidence is constructed.
- The fourth step is the documentation process. In this step, the experts try out to reconstruct the same scenario of how the crime is done and review it multiple times so that a blurred image can be made clear to sort out the main reasons.
- The last step is to summarize the data and to extract the conclusion.
Advantages of digital forensic
There are many advantages of having a digital forensic, some are discussed below:-
- To extract out important information.
- To resolve the complicated crimes
- To confirm the integrity of digital media.
- To produce evidence that can be submitted before the court.
- Helps in to control cybercrimes.
- Helps in many ways such as in protecting the firm's time and money.
- It assists in controlling the loss of data from the users.
Let us consider a case to make a deep understanding of digital forensic. A businessman shot dead and the authorities have to catch the main culprits. This case can have multiple culprits, as a person is a wealthy businessman, so one reason behind the murder can be heritage. Another reason can be related to business. The third aspect can be some kind of revenge from the person.
As there are many aspects, to reach the main culprits can be difficult because doubt is on many people, and no such strong evidence is found on the crime scene. Thus a difficult case to handle. Therefore in these conditions, digital forensic can be helpful to untie the knots.
The mobile phone or any other electronic media device can be taken into custody to get the data. This data may include the text message, to check that is there anyone blackmailing the person. Call data, to see anyone threatening a person or the location and other information that can relate to the case.
Thus by following the steps of digital forensic, we came to the conclusion that it was his own brother, who shot the person to take over the business. The greed of one brother killed another brother and gained nothing as he was caught by the investigating authorities. The phone calls, text messages that took place between the killer and the victim are made preserved and are presented before the court as evidence.
Therefore by digital forensic a case is solved easily, which would be so difficult without digital forensic. Thus by this process, the maintenance of peace is done in society. Otherwise, if the culprits are not caught, then the adverse effect can be seen in society.
Takeaway
Digital forensic is a basic need of time. It is a modern way of countering crimes. Therefore with the advancement in methods of doing crimes, there must be an advancement in countering the crimes, to maintain peace and harmony in the society.