What does Digital Forensics involve?

Digital forensics involves gathering and analyzing data from various sources, including volatile and non-volatile information from different operating systems, network traffic, and other digital evidence.

Windows: Memory dumps, running processes, network connections, open files, registry keys

• Linux: Running processes, open files, network connections, memory dumps
• macOS: Running processes, open files, network connections, memory dumps

Non-Volatile Information Gathering:

• Windows: File system, registry, event logs, prefetch files, hiberfil.sys, pagefile.sys
• Linux: File system, log files, configuration files
• macOS: File system, log files, configuration files, plist files

Network Forensics:

• Network traffic capture and analysis (e.g., packet captures, network logs)
• Network device logs (e.g., firewalls, routers, switches)
• Wireless network analysis

Event Correlation:

• Correlating events from various sources (e.g., logs, network traffic, system artifacts)
• Identifying patterns and anomalies
• Incident timeline reconstruction

Network Traffic Investigation:

• Analyzing network traffic for suspicious activities
• Identifying communication patterns, data exfiltration, command-and-control traffic
• Reconstructing network sessions

Dark Web Investigation:

• Monitoring and analyzing activities on dark web forums and marketplaces
• Identifying potential threats, data leaks, or illegal activities

Email Crime Investigation:

• Analyzing email headers, attachments, and content
• Identifying phishing attempts, spam campaigns, or malicious links
• Recovering deleted or encrypted emails

Malware Analysis:

• Static analysis (e.g., code review, file properties, strings)
• Dynamic analysis (e.g., sandboxing, behavior monitoring)
• Reverse engineering and code analysis
• Identifying malware capabilities, command-and-control mechanisms, and persistence techniques

These are just some of the key areas in digital forensics, and the specific techniques and tools used may vary depending on the case and the available resources.