Computer Forensics

Paper Summary:

This paper takes a look at computer forensics. According to the paper, computer forensics is one of the new professions that resulted from the ubiquitous use of computers and the Internet. The paper reports that computer forensics professionals are the modern-day centurions or praetorian guards that ensure the continued use of new and emerging information technologies.

Table of Contents:
The "New Kid on the Block"
A Discipline for Crime Detection and Data Restoration
The Methodology and its Application
Identification of the Source
Preservation of the Evidence
Analysis of the Evidence
Presentation of the Findings
The Future Arts and Science

From the Paper:

"The discipline of computer forensics can be called both an art and a science. An art because like programmers and hardware developers, they can add elegance and form to how they go about doing their jobs - and by putting "their personal touch" to it they leave an important legacy for others to follow. It is a science because computer forensics expert go to the same scientific methodology in determining the outcome of their work. The process is well defined and controlled so as not to leave any doubt as to the integrity of the work. "The scope of computer forensics covers a wide field, which continues to grow as computer technology proliferates its way into every aspect of modern life. The base of computer forensics is recovering data from floppy disks, hard drives, and removable drive cartridges. Recovering data can be just finding it among the active files. Often, it will also include searching the media for files that have been deleted and been listed as unallocated space. When dealing with someone, who is actively attempting to hide information, scouring media space the operating system has registered as free or corrupted. (Potaczala, 2001)"

Sample of Sources Used:

• Anderson, Michael R. Computer Evidence Processing: Good Documentation Is Essential. 2005. 20 April 2007. <http://www.forensics-intl.com/art10.html>.
• Carrier, Brian. Open Source Digital Forensics Tools: The Legal Argument. 14 September 2003. 20 April 2007. < http://www.digital-evidence.org/papers/opensrc_legal.pdf>.
• Farmer, Dan and Venema, Wietse. Forensic Computer Analysis: An Introduction. 22 July 2001. 20 April 2007. <http://www.ddj.com/184404242>.
• Nolan, Richard, O'Sullivan, Colin, Branson, Jake and Waits, Cal. First Responders Guide to Computer Forensics. March 2005. 20 April 2007. <http://www.cert.org/archive/pdf/FRGCF_v1.3.pdf>.
• PC-History.org. The History of Computer Forensics. 2005. 20 April 2007. < http://www.pc-history.org/forensics.htm>.

More papers on Computer Forensics:

• Essay # 63662 : "Computer Forensic Tools"
• Term Paper # 146251 : "Computer Ethics and Logical Security"
• Essay # 67000 : "Forensic Computer Investigation"

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