04,April 2024
The branch of forensic science that deals with the extraction of important data from electronic devices that can be presented as proof of a certain crime is known as cyber forensic science. This field of forensics is often referred to as computer forensics. It is a science that collects, inspects, interprets, and presents electronic evidence in the courtrooms. These pieces of evidence can be the deleted data of the device or the existing one. Here in this blog, we have given the complete details on cyber forensic science, tools used, its applications, etc.
It is the process of ethically acquiring and examining the evidence from an electronic device that can be presented in front of law enforcement agencies. Cyber forensic science is used to determine the actual offender of the security breach, attackers, hackers, etc. Since there is a rise in the number of cyber crimes the need for such professionals who can work in close collaboration with the investigating officers is rising. These are the people who can help in solving crimes related to the digital world.
As we have discussed earlier their primary aim is to find out the evidence from digital media and prepare the reports to be presented against the offender to the courts. These are the dedicated experts who can help the police department in solving crimes including retrieving the data from devices without altering them. Hence they play an important role in the field of forensics. Here we have given some of the most important tasks that are done by cyber forensic scientists:
Cyber forensic science is not just about one field of investigation instead it has several branches. Some of the important fields of cyber forensics are as mentioned below:
In case of cyber attacks, to track the communication links between the devices involved in crime network forensics is used. In this field tools like network intrusion detection systems are used to monitor and analyze the network traffic.
Under this field, criminal email details are extracted and examined. Such specialists examine the existing email data and retrieve the deleted threads to get the important information related to a case that can be presented in the legal proceedings.
It involves the determination of the presence of malicious software in the computer system. The experts use this branch to analyze the crimes related to hacking, etc. The main aim behind using this branch is to figure out the criminal involved in any online attack.
Under this branch of forensics, the experts collect the memory data from the system like cache, RAM, etc. Once the task of collecting the data is done they extract the relevant information from it that can be used in identifying the cyber threats, etc.
This field of cyber forensics deals particularly with the examination and analysis of mobile phones. This branch is focused on examining and evaluating the data present in a mobiles or tablets. The data includes messages, call details, application use history, etc.
Under this branch, such experts examine and analyze the database data and its associated information.
This branch deals with the extraction of data from logical storage media like hard disks, removable devices, etc. The experts analyze the storage disks to retrieve the deleted or modified files or data to gather evidence against the offender.
Under this branch of forensics, the experts involved in the investigation examine the cloud-based data or services to trace the activities involved in a crime.
This technique is used to extract the data from a system while preserving its state without interrupting the operation of the system. This also includes identification of live malicious activities that are going on in a running computer.
Cyber forensics has become an important pillar for investigation in the digital world. It involves the examination of digital devices involved in a crime. Since the determination of criminals involved in a cyber crime is not an easy task this branch uses various techniques for the identification. Techniques that are used in cyber forensics are as mentioned below:
The foremost technique that is used in this field is the collection of evidence from digital devices like computers, mobile phones, networks, etc. Under this method, the experts make sure that they maintain the integrity of the evidence that can be presented in the courtrooms.
Under this method, forensic experts recover the data from digital media to identify the offenders of cybercrime using specialized tools.
To understand the cyber attack pattern and its probable vulnerability, forensic specialists analyze the network traffic and hence trace the origin of such attacks.
Through this technique, such professionals analyze the malware’s presence in a computer system. Their main focus is to understand the behavior and working mechanism of such malicious software on the system.
The syllabus of cyber forensic science is not the same for every college offering this course. Here we have given the detailed cyber forensic syllabus for your reference in the table given below:
| Serial No. | Subjects | Syllabus |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | Cyber Crime | Introduction to Digital Forensics; Cybercrimes and their types; Electronic evidence and its handling; Electronic media; Collection, Examination, and Storage of Electronic media; Internet crimes; Hacking; credit card and ATM frauds; Web technology; Cryptography. |
| 2. | Basics of Computer System | Components of computer; CPU; Memory of computer system and its types; storage devices; basics of computer languages like C and C++. |
| 3. | Cyber Forensics | Data Acquisition and Authentication; Windows System like NFAT12, FAT16, FAT32, and NTFS; UNIX file Systems; Computer And Internet Artifacts; Operating System Artifacts. |
| 4. | Forensic Tools | Introduction to Forensic Tools; Disk Imaging; Data Recovery; Vulnerability Assessment Tools; Process of computer forensics; Digital Evidence Processing; Data Recovery From Damaged SIM; Retrieving Deleted Data. |
| 5. | Fundamentals of Biometrics | Benefits of Biometric Security; Verification And Identification of Biometrics; Basic Working of Biometric; Biometric Solutions. |
| 6. | Speech Recognition And Methods | Regular Expressions; Transducers; Part of Speech; Hidden Markov and Entropy models; Speech-Phonetics; Speech Synthesis; Automatic speech recognition; Speech Recognition Advanced Topics. |
| 7. | Incident Response | Cyber Incident Statistics; Computer Security Incident; Data Classification; Information Warfare; Concepts of Information Security; Types of Computer Security. |
| 8. | Ethics And Cyber Policies | Introduction to Indian Laws, Digital Signatures; E Commerce; Crime Scenarios; Data Interchange; Smart Card; Indian Laws. |
| 9. | The IT Act | Information Technology Act 2000; Indian Evidence Act; India Technology Amendment Act 2008; Indian Penal Code; Computer Security Act 1987; National Information Infrastructure Protection Act 1996; Fraud Act 1997; Children Online Protection Act 1998; Computer Fraud and Abuse Act 2001. |
Forensic experts are required to follow certain procedures to collect and examine the evidence collected from the crime scene that can help in the investigation. Here we have given the details on how these experts work:
The scope of forensics is huge for candidates willing to make their career in this field. Candidates in this field can work with both the public and private sectors. Some of the top career options for such experts are given below:
The importance of cyber forensics is crucial in today’s digital world. The experts working in this field act as an integral part of cyber crime investigation. Some of the most important applications of cyber department are given below:
This is a new field with lots of opportunities open to such experts. Candidates can grow to the level they are willing to as there is no constraint on their growth. If you wish to be an investigator while dealing with technology and digital media this is the perfect field for you.
