As technology continues to take the world by storm in every facet of everyday life, so do the new theft techniques deployed by fraudsters. Today, fraud is highly digital, with computer networks serving as conduits for bank robberies and identity theft. Investigators usually undertake computer forensic investigation to bring evidence of crime to light.
Most people assume that once a person presses the delete key on a PC, the deleted data becomes irretrievable. For many newbie cyber criminals, this may be contrived as lost evidence. However, this is certainly not the case.
This is because upon deletion, data does not entirely get wiped out from memory. The delete key simply instructs the PC to free up the already occupied space. It does this by shifting the data to a hidden register in memory. This essentially means the deleted data can still be rebuilt using custom software and by following a set of instructions.
A significant part of the work done by a forensic investigator is checking hard drives. This happens quite regularly in law enforcement agencies. The results generated after auditing a hard drive may bring to light evidence of crimes such as fraud, which in effect is the greatest contributor of online crime.
Contrary to popular belief, cyber crime does not solely revolve around fraud. Child pornography can also be viewed as crime. By uncovering what lies hidden in the memory of a PC, prosecution teams can piece together deleted evidence and use it to bring a perpetrator of child pornography to justice.
In the corporate world, forensic investigations play a major role in ensuring financial deals are transparent. It is easy to alter accounting software to report a falsified tax return. Such an act can be laid bare when a company wide system audit is conducted.
In an ordinary organization, an audit may involve the retrieval of original financial data and comparing it with what the accounting software in the organization had reported. The process may drag on for weeks and months depending on how much data the investigator is dealing with. Nevertheless, the outcome is always on point.
An IT specialist who majors in forensics may be called upon to serve as an expert witness in court proceedings. In such a scenario, the work of the specialist is to give the court a professional account of how a crime may have been committed. If you would like to venture into this career, the sky is the limit.
One crime that is easy to solve through this sort of work is PC theft. Every PC has data that uniquely identifies it with a buyer. Stolen computers are usually resold with this data wiped out. Through data reconstruction, law enforcement authorities can easily tell whether a stolen PC belongs to the person who has been caught with it.
There is a lot that the future holds for forensics, more so to law enforcement. Computer science is a good course for an aspiring investigator to enroll for. There are agencies that also insist on a certificate in forensics.
Most people assume that once a person presses the delete key on a PC, the deleted data becomes irretrievable. For many newbie cyber criminals, this may be contrived as lost evidence. However, this is certainly not the case.
This is because upon deletion, data does not entirely get wiped out from memory. The delete key simply instructs the PC to free up the already occupied space. It does this by shifting the data to a hidden register in memory. This essentially means the deleted data can still be rebuilt using custom software and by following a set of instructions.
A significant part of the work done by a forensic investigator is checking hard drives. This happens quite regularly in law enforcement agencies. The results generated after auditing a hard drive may bring to light evidence of crimes such as fraud, which in effect is the greatest contributor of online crime.
Contrary to popular belief, cyber crime does not solely revolve around fraud. Child pornography can also be viewed as crime. By uncovering what lies hidden in the memory of a PC, prosecution teams can piece together deleted evidence and use it to bring a perpetrator of child pornography to justice.
In the corporate world, forensic investigations play a major role in ensuring financial deals are transparent. It is easy to alter accounting software to report a falsified tax return. Such an act can be laid bare when a company wide system audit is conducted.
In an ordinary organization, an audit may involve the retrieval of original financial data and comparing it with what the accounting software in the organization had reported. The process may drag on for weeks and months depending on how much data the investigator is dealing with. Nevertheless, the outcome is always on point.
An IT specialist who majors in forensics may be called upon to serve as an expert witness in court proceedings. In such a scenario, the work of the specialist is to give the court a professional account of how a crime may have been committed. If you would like to venture into this career, the sky is the limit.
One crime that is easy to solve through this sort of work is PC theft. Every PC has data that uniquely identifies it with a buyer. Stolen computers are usually resold with this data wiped out. Through data reconstruction, law enforcement authorities can easily tell whether a stolen PC belongs to the person who has been caught with it.
There is a lot that the future holds for forensics, more so to law enforcement. Computer science is a good course for an aspiring investigator to enroll for. There are agencies that also insist on a certificate in forensics.
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