Cyber Forensics Definition

Cyber forensic is an electronic discovery technique used to reveal and determine the evidence of a criminal offence. The primary goal of computer forensics or cyber forensics is to investigate and create a chain of evidence to determine exactly how the crime was performed and who was behind the crime. 

Cyber forensics is sometimes also called computer forensic science. Its primary purpose is to recover data for legal activities admissible in court. Sometimes cyber forensics is referred to as digital forensics. 

Digital forensics comes with the collection of evidence with integrity. Its primary purpose is to determine how the data was changed and who made the data change. One of the central parts of data recovery is digital forensics. It is also used to collect the recovery data from the crashed server, failed drive, or other situations when the system stops working. We can perform the following activities with the help of digital forensics.

• It can record the phone call conversation.
• Recovery of deleted files, email and chat logs.
• We can also recover deleted phone calls and SMS.
• It can also determine which user used which computer for how much time.
• It is also able to decide which users run which code.

Why is cyber forensics important?

Cyber forensics is vital in the criminal justice system to present the evidence with integrity in front of the court. The evidence collected by digital forensics or cyber forensics has become more critical in solving the case. An average person cannot collect the proofs that can be collected by digital forensics. For example, the computer in cars stores all the information like how many times the driver brakes the car, how many times the driver jump the signal, and so many reports about car and drivers. However, the information collected by the computer available in the vehicle is used to solve the crime which was made by the car. We can also solve physical world crimes like assault, hit-and-run accidents and murder with the help of digital forensics. The business uses multilayer firewall protection and network security strategy to secure its information. The forensic data from the forensic investigation should be managed with the help of a streamlined process. Some businesses also use computer forensics to track network compromises and data theft. Companies also benefit from the digital forensic expert for data recovery or network failure from natural or other disasters. Nowadays, the cases of cybercrime increase because cyber forensic specialists are no longer a monopoly in this field. 

The Process Involves in Cyber Forensics.

There are some processes which are followed by cyber forensics to collect the evidence. These processes are as follows.

• First, they have obtained a digital computer that they will inspect.
• Then, the experts authenticate and verify the collected data. 
• Then, using the Autospy tool's help, they recover the deleted files.
• Then they find the information that they need by using keywords.
• Finally, they establish a technical report.

How does a computer forensic expert work?

Cyber forensic investigators follow some standard procedures to investigate the crime, which may vary depending on the context of the cybercrime. But in general, the investigator follows three rules. These three rules are as follows:

1. Data collection

Electrically the data are collected in a way that maintains integrity. It also ensures that the data collected by the investigation by cyber experts cannot be contaminated or damaged in any manner. Then the examiner makes a digital copy of the forensic report and then locks that report to keep it safe. The composition of this digital report is also called a forensic image. Then all the procedures of investigation occurred in that digital copy. In other cases, the digital copy is also stored in some public domain like Facebook or the website of the corresponding department. 

2. Analysis

The investigator then analyses the digital copy, which is stored digitally. Various tools are used in this process to investigate the document. Autospy technology is used to analyze the data, and Wireshark is used to analyze the network protocol. A mouse juggler is used while examining the whole system to prevent it from sleeping or shutting down.

3. Presentation

The forensic investigator has to show the legal evidence they collected during the investigation. These are presented in front of the judge for legal proceedings. In the case of data recovery, the investigators can recover the data from a complex system. 

There are multiple tools used for the verification of the results. 

Types of Computer Forensics

There are so many types of computer forensics present depending on the need of the kind of investigation. These are as follows.

1. Network Forensic

The network forensic involves analyzing and monitoring the network traffic from the criminal traffic. The tools used for network forensics are an Intrusion detection system (IDS), firewall and many other tools. 

2. Email Forensic

In the case of Email forensics, the investigator checks the mail of the criminal's Email and recovers the deleted mail to extract some related information. They also contain other information like schedule and contacts from the criminal's Email.

3. Malware forensic

The hacking-related crimes come under the malware forensic. Here the forensic experts investigate to identify the hackers behind the Trojan and malware. It also shifts through the code to identify the payload of the malicious program.

4. Memory forensic

Memory forensics involves the collection of case-related data from the cache and RAM. Then the information is organized from the collected data. 

5. Mobile Phone forensics

The checking of mobile phones generally comes under the mobile phone forensic. This step involves analyzing and examining the information like incoming and outgoing text messages, contacts, pictures and video calls from the mobile phone. 

6. Database forensic

The database analysis and its related metadata come under the database forensic. 

7. Disk forensic

This step involves the extraction of data from the storage media. The actions like searching and deleting the files are processed in these steps.

Techniques used by Cyber Forensic Experts

Cyber forensic experts use some tools and techniques for examining the data. Some methods are as below.

1. Reverse Steganography

Steganography is a technique or method used to hide the data inside images, digital files etc. So the cyber experts find the relation between the files by reversing the technique. If a criminal hides some crucial information inside another file, then it can be extracted by this reverse steganography. 

2. Stochastic Forensics

Here the experts reconstruct the digital activity without the process of alteration of data that occurs from digital techniques. These steps include the clues related to digital crime. Stochastic forensics is frequently used in data breach investigations where the attacker is an insider who might not leave.

3. Cross-drive Analysis

In this process, most of the data is collected from different computers and then analyzed to extract some crucial information relevant to the investigation. This process is also known as anomaly detection.

4. Live Analysis

This process analyses the data when the operating system is running. Its main aim is to extract the volatile data from RAM. Many tools are used to extract these volatile data to maintain the legitimacy of a chain of evidence.

5. Deleted File Recovery

This step includes searching for the fragmented file to recover that one for evidence purposes. This is sometimes also known as file carving or data carving.

Advantages of Cyber Forensic

Following is the list of some advantages of cyber forensics:

• The integrity of the computer is ensured by cyber forensics.
• With the help of cyber forensics, some people and companies can know about such crimes and take prevention to avoid such crimes.
• Cyber forensic experts collect the evidence from digital services and present this evidence in front of the judge.
• They continuously track crime anywhere in the world.
• They also help people to save their money from such criminals.

Set of Skills Required being a Cyber Forensic Expert?

Cyber forensic experts need to know the following skills.

1. Cyber forensic experts require knowledge of various technology, mobile phone, computers, and security breaches.
2. The expert should be very attentive while examining a large amount of data.
3. The experts are also aware of criminal laws.
4. The experts must be upgraded to the latest technology.
5. The experts should analyze the data and derive a conclusion from it.
6. The experts must have a strong knowledge of cyber security.