The advent of the digital age in the 1980s revolutionized how people and industries used and accessed data. The digital automation of previously traditional systems, such as paperwork and analogue autonomous systems being replaced by smart devices and the Internet, however, exposed users to data breaches, identity theft, and data loss. The digital revolution required solutions to counter and address the risks. This led to the birth of digital forensics.
The objective of digital forensics is to address digital risks, which are classified into four categories. A cybersecurity risk refers to unauthorized persons gaining access to sensitive information with malicious intent such as fraud or extortion. The second, compliance risk, refers to organizations being targeted through technology to expose shortcomings like standard security controls and data privacy requirements. Closely related to compliance risk, third-party risk is associated with outsourcing tasks to third-party vendors and disclosing customer information, intellectual property, or financial information. The absence of or weak security controls in a third-party company’s system may affect the outsourcing organization. Last, identity risk covers the risk to credentials and accounts, especially prominent people, corporate user accounts, or affiliates. Mitigating or addressing the risk requires a robust digital forensic system and team.
As a branch of cybersecurity, digital forensics focuses on identifying, preserving, analyzing, recovering, investigating, and presenting digital material found in devices, cyber activity, and electronic evidence. Initially referred to as computer forensics, the term’s meaning broadened to encompass all digital devices, especially with the increase in the smartphone and Internet use.
Identification entails observation of the material evidence present, the storage area, and the storage format. Second, preservation involves isolating and securing the data to prevent tampering or theft. After this, the investigators reconstruct the collected data to seek patterns and draw conclusions. Easily the most intensive part of the process, some investigations require extensive research to generate a feasible theory. The last stages involve the documentation and presentation of the evidence to the relevant party.
The functionality of the highlighted digital forensics process requires equally robust tools. Before the availability of the tools, investigators used the system’s default admin to troubleshoot and attempt to track the breaches alongside live analysis. During the process, regardless of the team’s adeptness, common secondary risks merged, including evidence tampering and modified disk data. Such consequences, especially for sensitive information, saw the introduction of best practices and national legislation.
The Federal Law Enforcement Training Center created SafeBack and IMDUMP in 1989. These two programs provided backup options for federal data before, during, and after the forensics exercise. Next, a program named DIBS, available to the public, created copies of the digital media for testing, investigation, and verification purposes. In the following years, the increased data breach occurrences accelerated the availability of paid and opensource digital forensic tools like FTK, EnCase, WindowsSCOPE, Wireshark, and HashKeeper. To determine the most feasible tool, one should consider integration with system-embedded forensic capabilities, support for different file formats, ease of use, features, and possible configurations.
The evidence from digital forensics is applicable in various areas, especially in system testing, investigations, and legal proceedings. In cases of data theft and network breaches, the evidence aids in understanding how the breach occurred and the attackers went about it. This is common in industries with personal data-intense systems such as financial institutions and phone companies. The evidence also forms the primary mode to gauge the impact of online fraud and identity theft on an organization and the customers, and thus dictates the subsequent decisions and actions.
Also, digital forensics assists with serious crimes by examining data in smartphones and vehicles associated with the crime. In addition, one can use the evidence to prosecute white-collar crimes like embezzlement, extortion, and corporate fraud. Evidence traditionally lost through burning or shredding paperwork can now be retrieved through digital footprints stored on various databases.
