Tuesday, 20 September 2022
The Importance of Cyber Forensics Professionals in 2022 and Beyond
Saturday, 18 September 2021
What is an Computer Hacking Forensic Investigator?
What is a Computer Hacking Forensic Investigator?
Computer hacking forensic investigation is the process of detecting hacking attacks and properly extracting evidence to report the crime and conduct audits to prevent future attacks.
Computer crime in today’s cyber world is on the rise. Computer Investigation techniques are being used by police, government and corporate entities globally and many of them turn to EC-Council for our Computer Hacking Forensic Investigator CHFI Certification Program. Computer Security and Computer investigations are changing terms. More tools are invented daily for conducting Computer Investigations, be it computer crime, digital forensics, computer investigations, or even standard computer data recovery, The tools and techniques covered in EC-Council’s CHFI program will prepare the student to conduct computer investigations using groundbreaking digital forensics technologies.
Read More: 312-49: Computer Hacking Forensic Investigation
Computer forensics is simply the application of computer investigation and analysis techniques in the interests of determining potential legal evidence. Evidence might be sought in a wide range of computer crime or misuse, including but not limited to theft of trade secrets, theft of or destruction of intellectual property, and fraud. CHFI investigators can draw on an array of methods for discovering data that resides in a computer system, or recovering deleted, encrypted, or damaged file information known as computer data recovery.
Electronic evidence is critical in the following situations:
◉ Disloyal employees
◉ Computer break-ins
◉ Possession of pornography
◉ Breach of contract
◉ Industrial espionage
◉ E-mail Fraud
◉ Bankruptcy
◉ Disputed dismissals
◉ Web page defacements
◉ Theft of company documents.
Become a Computer Hacking Forensic Investigator
The CHFI certification validate the candidate’s skills to identify an intruder’s footprints and to properly gather the necessary evidence to prosecute in the court of law.
Certification Target Audience
◉ Police and other law enforcement personnel
◉ Defense and Military personnel
◉ e-Business Security professionals
◉ Systems administrators
◉ Legal professionals
◉ Banking, Insurance and other professionals
◉ Government agencies
◉ IT managers
Exam Information
The CHFI certification is awarded after successfully passing the exam EC0 312-49.
CHFI EC0 312-49 exams are available at ECC exam center around the world.
CHFI Exam Details
CHFI Exam Details | |
Duration | 4 Hours |
Questions | 150 |
Saturday, 15 May 2021
What is Steganalysis? How to Successfully Identify Steganography?
Steganography and Steganalysis are two different sides of the same coin. Therefore, do not confuse both of them to be the same. Steganography is the method of hiding messages in plain sight. Whereas, Steganalysis tries to detect the hidden message and retrieve the embedded data. Being said that, cyber-criminals are extensively using Steganography to hide incriminating material in their possession. Therefore, having an understanding about Steganalysis and learning the art of detecting hidden messages plays a very important role in computer forensics.
In this article, we will discuss Steganalysis, how to identify steganography, and the tools required for Steganalysis.
What Is Steganalysis In Computer Forensics?
Steganalysis in computer forensics is the technology of defeating steganography by identifying the hidden information, extracting it, and destroying it. Being said that, anyone who makes use of Steganalysis for detecting and defeating the hidden information is referred to as a Steganalyst.
The overall purpose of Steganalysis in computer forensics to identify the existence of a hidden message is to identify the tools which were used to hide the message in the first place. If the Steganalyst is able to identify the tool that was used for hiding the message, then the analyst can use the same tool for extracting the original message and subsequently destroying that message. Being said that, some of the most common hiding techniques includes appending to a file, hidden information in the unused header portion of the file, or the algorithm which is used to disperse the hidden message throughout the file.
How to Identify Steganography
There are a number of different methods of identifying steganography based on the kind of information available with the analyst. The following are some of them.1. Stego-only attack – In this type of attack, only the stego-object is available for analysis with the Steganalyst.
2. Known cover attack – In this type of attack, both the stego-object and the original medium is available with the Steganalyst. Being said that, the stego-object is compared with the original medium to determine any hidden information.
3. Known message attack – In this type of attack, the hidden message as well as the corresponding stego-image are known to the Steganalyst. The patterns which corresponds to the information being hidden can help in discovering the information in future.
4. Known stego attack – In such attack, both the stenography algorithm as well as the stego-object and original object are known to the Steganalyst.
5. Chosen stego attack – In such attack, both the stenography algorithm as well as the stego-object are known to the Steganalyst.
6. Chosen message attack – In such attack, the Steganalyst generates the stego-object by using a tool or algorithm of the chosen message. The overall goal is to understand the patterns in the stego-object.
Digital Forensic Tools Required For Steganalysis
Stegdetect is one of the most commonly use Steganalysis tool. This digital forensic tool can help in finding the hidden information in the JPEG images by using steganography schemes such as invisible secrets, JPHide, F5, and JSteg. Moreover, the tool also has a graphical interface that is known as Xsteg.
Stego Suite from WetStone Tecnologies is another digital forensic tool that can help with Steganalysis. It the suite consist of three different products such as Stego Watch, Stego Analyst, and Stego Break. All of these three different products can help the Steganalyst in their digital forensic investigation.
Source: eccouncil.org
Saturday, 20 February 2021
What is Digital Evidence and Why Is It Important?
Digital devices surround our world in 2021. The immediate thought we get of a digital device is a computer, mobile phone, or internet. But the rise of IoT has made every electronic device a source of digital evidence. For instance, a built-in TV can be used to store, view, and share illegal images. Digital forensics experts, who are the first responders in this case, need to recognize and be able to properly seize every potential digital device for evidence.
If you are keen on a career as a forensic investigator to serve your community and help solve crimes, this blog will serve as your introduction to collecting digital evidence, along with the best path forward to pursue a calling in this exciting field.
What Is Digital Evidence?
Digital evidence can be defined as the information or valuable data stored on a computer or a mobile device that was seized by a law enforcement organization as part of a criminal investigation.
Digital evidence is commonly associated with e-crime (Electronic Crime), such as credit card fraud or child pornography. The information stored or transmitted in binary form on a computer hard drive, a mobile phone, or any other electronic device can be used as digital evidence by the forensic responders in a court of law. This evidence can include files on emails or mobile phones of the suspects, which could be critical to track their intent and location at the time of the crime and the searches they made on search platforms like Google or YouTube.
The types of evidences that a digital forensic examiner must consider are:
1. Analogical Evidence
This kind of evidence can only be useful for increasing credibility by drawing parallels when there isn’t enough information to prove something in a workplace investigation, but it cannot be produced as evidence in a court of law.
2. Anecdotal Evidence
This type of evidence can only be used to get a better picture of an issue and to support a particular conclusion, but cannot be used in court as evidence.
3. Circumstantial Evidence
This type of evidence is used to infer something based on a series of facts. It can be used in criminal investigations to separate facts from other facts that can be proven when no strong evidence is considered.
4. Character Evidence
This is a document or testimony that can help prove that the actions were taken in a particular way based on another person’s character. It can be used to prove intent, motive, or opportunity.
5. Digital Evidence
Digital evidence can be any sort of digital file from an electronic source. This includes email, text messages, instant messages, files and documents extracted from hard drives, electronic financial transactions, audio files, and video files.
6. Demonstrative Evidence
A document or an object which demonstrates a fact can be considered as demonstrative evidence.
7. Documentary Evidence
Written forms of evidence such as letters or wills, documentary forms of media evidence such as images, audio recordings, or video formats.
8. Direct Evidence
The testimony of a witness who can give a first-hand account of the incident is the most powerful type of evidence.
9. Exculpatory Evidence
A law enforcement personnel can disclose any exculpatory evidence to the defendant that they think can help the case get dismissed.
10. Forensic Evidence
Scientific evidence such as DNA, fingerprints, trace evidence, and ballistic reports comes under forensic evidence, providing solid proof for a person’s guilt or innocence.
11. Testimonial Evidence
Spoken or written evidence given by a witness forms the most common type of evidence.
What Are the Types of Digital Evidence?
There are basically two types of digital evidence:
◉ Volatile, which is non-persistent: Memory that loses its content once the power is turned off like data stored in RAM (semiconductor storage).
◉ Non-volatile, which is persistent: No change in content even if the power is turned off. For example, data stored in a tape, hard drive, CD/DVD, and ROM.
Digital evidence can be found on any server or device that stores data, including some new home gadgets such as video game consoles, GPS sports watches, and internet-enabled devices used in home automation. Digital evidence is often found through internet searches using open-source intelligence (OSINT).
Digital evidence encompass any sort of digital file from an electronic device. This includes email, text messages, instant messages, files, and documents extracted from hard drives, electronic financial transactions, audio files, video files.
The five rules while gathering digital evidence are admissible, authentic, complete, reliable, and believable.
How to Perform Digital Evidence Acquisition and Analysis?
Digital evidence collection essentially involves a 3-step sequential process:
◉ Seizing the available electronic media.
◉ Acquiring and creating a forensic image of the electronic media for examination.
◉ Analyzing the forensic image of the original media. This ensures that the original media is not modified during analysis and helps preserve the probative value of the evidence.
Large-capacity electronic devices seized as evidence in a criminal investigation, such as computer hard drives and external drives, may be 1 terabyte (TB) or larger. This is equivalent to about 17,000 hours of compressed recorded audio. Today, media can be acquired forensically at approximately 1.5 gigabytes (GB) per minute. The forensically acquired media is stored in a RAW image format, which results in a bit-for-bit copy of the data contained in the original media without any additions or deletions, even for the portions of the media that do not contain data.
Examples of Digital Evidence
These are the digital evidences that a court of law considers and allows the use of:
◉ Emails
◉ Digital photographs
◉ ATM transaction logs
◉ Word processing documents
◉ Instant messages history
◉ Accounting files
◉ Spreadsheets
◉ Internet browser history
◉ Databases
◉ Contents in a computer memory
◉ Computer backups & printouts
◉ GPS Tracks
◉ Digital video
◉ Audio files
Challenges of Digital Evidence
Collecting digital evidence requires a different kind of skill set than those required for gathering physical evidence. There are many methods for extracting digital evidence from various devices, and these methods, as well as the devices on which the evidence is stored, change rapidly. Investigators need to either develop specific technical expertise or rely on experts to do the extraction for them.
Preserving digital evidence is also challenging because, unlike physical evidence, it can be altered or deleted remotely. Investigators need to be able to authenticate the evidence and provide documentation to prove its integrity.
Source: eccouncil.org
Thursday, 8 October 2020
5 of the Highest Paying Computer Forensics Jobs
How does computer forensics work?
Is Computer Forensics a good career?
What is the highest paying forensics job?
You should always remember that the amount paid is determined by your level of education, experience, certifications, locations, among other subjective factors. The following are some of the highest paying forensics jobs (in no particular order).
How to Start a Career in Digital Forensics
Friday, 9 August 2019
How You Can Practice CHFI Skills at Work
CHFI comprises identifying cyber-attacks, evaluating the issue to stop future attacks, and finding evidence utilized in reporting the crime. A CHFI expert is accountable for getting information from flash drives, remote servers, computers, and other forms of data storage devices. An investigator works with the concerned business and law enforcement authorities.
Skills Obtained through CHFI Certification
CHFI certification qualifies professionals how to carry out investigations precisely so that evidence will retain its morality and be helpful during prosecution of cybercrimes. Professionals will also learn how to retrieve deleted files and obtain hidden information on Windows, Linux, and Mac operating systems.
Another feature of a forensic investigation is the recovery of lost information, which can occur due to sabotage or equipment failure. Forensic investigators should also be able to analyze the information they find to understand the impact of a hack and the degree of a data breach.
In some cases, the cybercrime intricate isn’t a data breach but requires possession of illegal materials like pornography. CHFI skills can be used to detect the possession of pornography and collect evidence for prosecution.
CHFI certification can be valuable in many different jobs to improve your skillset so you can meet your employer’s continually developing needs. Here are some ways you might use a CHFI certification in your IT job.
1. To find out whether your network was breached.
IT security professionals and systems administrators can practice the skills acquired from a CHFI certification to help determine network breaches, should they occur. In many cases, they can also work toward concluding who was behind the breach and help law enforcement distinguish them so they can be prosecuted.
Instead of your organization having no idea its security was breached or that client data was compromised, CHFI-certified professionals will have the skills to detect a breach, or expectantly, to avoid or stop it before any information is imperiled.
2. To expand law enforcement training.
For police and other law enforcement officers, CHFIcertification can help them to investigate cybercrime and arrest cybercriminals. Cybercrime is on the peak, and law enforcement training has lagged because it is relatively new and continually evolving.
CHFI certification could help you get reinforced to the detective or other supervisory jobs where greater expertise about cybercrime and data breaches is essential.
3. To constitute a criminal or civil case against hackers, or defend accused cybercriminals.
The CHFI certification may be beneficial for lawyers, both prosecutors and defense lawyers, who may come across ever more frequent cases concerning cybersecurity and data breaches. A thorough understanding of hacking and computer forensics may be needed to correctly prosecute or defend these cases.
4. To assure that disloyal employees don’t steal information or resources, or to gather evidence that they did so to prosecute them.
Disloyal employees could use their access to company servers and networks to theft corporate secrets or give other people access to corporate data and networks. Earning a CHFI certification can assure that your organization remains safe, or that unfaithful employees who have already destroyed company data can be brought to justice.
5. To be sure dismissed employees don’t interrupt the network or any part of the server.
After employees are suspended, they may want to hit back at the company by stealing data, information, or money from the organization. They may also attempt to ruin data or systems. CHFI certification can stop these attacks or allow the collection of evidence to sue them after the fact.
Career Prospects for a Computer Hacking Forensic Investigator
There is a huge demand for CHFI-certified professionals across industries. CHFI-certified individuals are being hired not only by IT and IT security organizations but also by the defense and military sectors, legal practices, law enforcement agencies, banking, and insurance companies.
The CHFI certification certifies an applicant’s skills to gather the required evidence of theft to prosecute in a court of law. Starting salaries in the computer forensics field can go as high as $85,000 to $120,000. According to Payscale.com, on an average, a Computer Hacking Forensic Investigator (CHFI) receives around $86,000 annually in the U.S.
Certified CHFI professionals can pursue the following roles:
- Information Security Analyst
- Computer Forensics Analyst
- Ethical Hacker
- Malware Analyst
- Network Security Specialist
- Security Administrator
- IT Security Consultant
- Penetration Tester
- Homeland Cyber Security
- IT Auditor
Thus, Computer Hacking Forensic Investigators aresteadily becoming inescapable for the organization of all sizes. As an IT professional geared up to join the domain of ethical hacking, CHFI Certification is indeed your great opportunity.