by Alameen Karim Merali

Introduction

• What exactly is Digital Cyber-Crime Forensics?

Digital Cyber-Crime Forensics is a discipline that investigates and identifies processes, inspecting and analyzing data to obtain information or evidence that leads to a suspect of a cyber-crime. As a certified Computer Hacking Forensic Investigator myself, I am aware that there’s plenty of information that needs to be taken into consideration when acquiring data, as we shall see below.

• How is it done?

Digital data forensics could take many formats; one is when investigators need to be aware that some data is latent, which normally means that they can’t be seen as obvious and requires deeper analysis. Performing forensics itself is a tedious task since it really depends on how much information you have to start working from.

• What does the court consider as evidence?

In order to present data that adheres to strict investigation procedures, an acceptable and approved chain of custody pathway needs to be followed. Data obtained in such a manner should be presented in a tested and proven evidence register suitable for court proceedings.

The chain of custody is normally only for the eyes of a specific number of people, who are supposed to sign the document in order to view the evidence.

No one else has access. This is how tough integrity of digital evidence needs to be kept because any tampering would cause the evidence to be disproved by the court. Some other....