Investigation In Digital Forensics

Dear Readers,

As promised in my previous blog I will discuss Types of Investigation, understand Law Enforcement Agency investigations in detail, and talk about the chain of custody.

Let's begin the topic of the day!

Types of Investigation

Broadly, digital forensics investigations fall under two main categories i.e.

1. Public Investigation and
2. Private Investigation

Now you might be wondering about these investigations. So let's learn about it one by one.

1. PUBLIC INVESTIGATIONS:

These types of investigations involve government agencies investigating the crime and prosecuting it.

A search warrant is mandatory while dealing with public investigations.

2. PRIVATE INVESTIGATIONS:

Now, it basically deals with private companies or non-law-enforcement agencies. Here there is no direct involvement of criminal law also no search warrant is required as such. But can end up as a criminal investigation depending upon the sensitivity of the case.

Understanding Law Enforcement Agency Investigations

To understand the job of an investigator it becomes important to learn about what happens during a Digital Forensics investigation. So, in this part, we would elaborate on what happens during an investigation.

It’s important to familiarize ourselves with some terminologies.

1. Digital Evidence First Respondent (DEFR):
2. Digital Evidence Specialist (DES):
3. Affidavit

Talking about-

Digital Evidence First Respondent (DEFR):

He is the first person to arrice on the crime scene, analyse the situation and take the precautionary steps to acquire and preserve the evidence.

Digital Evidence Specialist (DES):

This person has skills to analyse data and accordingly whether another specialist must be called for assistance or no.

Affidavit:

A sworn statement of support of facts or evidence of a crime that must include exhibits that support the allegation.

CHAIN OF CUSTODY:

It is the process of tracking data and equipment that will help producing evidance admissable in court.

To be precise chain of custody is process of gathering how any kind of evidance is gathered, tracked and protected on its way to court of law.

SNIFFERS:

What is Sniffer?

It is defined as monitoring the every packet(Possibly the data that travels through internet can also be called internet traffic) that crosses the network.

legitimate uses of sniffers are:

• Capturing packets of data
• Recording and analyzing traffic
• Packet decryption
• Network troubleshooting
• Firewall testing
• Ensuring smooth traffic flow.

Illegitimate uses of sniffers, essentially spying, include:

• Capturing private info like usernames, passwords, credit card numbers, etc.
• Recording communications such as emails and instant messages
• Identity fraud
• Monetary theft

That’s all for the day, in the upcoming blog we would talk about sniffers in detail.

Thank you,

Happy Learning, Have a nice day.