Cyber Forensic Science – An Overview

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.

What is Cyber Forensic Science?

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.

What Do Cyber Forensic Scientists Do?

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:

• Recover deleted data from devices like files, chat, call logs, emails, etc.,
• Extract recorded phone conversations,
• Identify the program user of a system,
• Determine the identity of the user of the system.

Types of Cyber Forensic Science:

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:

Network Forensics:

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.

Email Forensics:

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.

Malware Forensics:

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.

Memory Forensics:

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.

Mobile Phone Forensics:

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.

Database Forensics:

Under this branch, such experts examine and analyze the database data and its associated information.

Disk Forensics:

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.

Cloud Forensics:

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.

Live Forensics:

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.

Techniques Used In Cyber Forensic Science:

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:

Evidence Collection:

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.

Recovery of Data:

Under this method, forensic experts recover the data from digital media to identify the offenders of cybercrime using specialized tools.

Analysis of Networks:

To understand the cyber attack pattern and its probable vulnerability, forensic specialists analyze the network traffic and hence trace the origin of such attacks.

Analysis of Malware Presence:

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.

Cyber Forensic Science Syllabus:

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.

How Does Cyber Forensic Science Work?

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:

• Examination And Identification: The foremost step that is taken by such experts is to examine the crime scene and identify the evidence present at the location.
• Preservation: Once the task of identification is done by the experts now the next step is to preserve the data that can be presented as evidence in the legal proceedings. They ensure that no one tempers with the data extracted while investigating the case.
• Analysis of Data Gathered: The next step taken by such experts is the analysis of the system to gather any kind of data available in it. The experts recover the data being deleted from the system to trace the criminal.
• Recording The Data: After analyzing the recovered data the cyber forensic experts record the data to recreate the crime scene and identify the actual offender of the crime.
• Presentation of Evidence: The last step of these experts is the presentation of the evidence in the courtroom.

Scope of Cyber Forensic Science:

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:

• Forensic Laboratories,
• Defense Sector,
• Police Department,
• Crime Branches,
• Banks,
• Universities/Colleges.

Application of Cyber Forensic Science:

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:

• These experts help in the collection of evidence from digital media that is used for solving crimes like theft, murder, blackmail, etc.
• They help the investigating officers in tracing the criminals,
• Helps organizations in dealing with the cyber crimes,
• Suggest measures to prevent digital crimes,
• Prepare reports based on the findings and present them in the court.

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.

References

• https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/ cyber-forensics/
• https://intellipaat.com/blog/ what-is-cyber-forensics/
• https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/ brief-introduction-cyber-forensics-vishwas-narayan
• https://www.ibm.com/topics/ computer-forensics