Computer Forensic Tools The Use of Computers

Computer Forensic Tools:

The use of computers in homes, schools, offices, and other places has increased in the past few years due to technological developments. As computers have become important components of modern communication, their increased use has also led to the emergence of computer crimes. Computer crimes basically involve the use of a computer system to carry out an illegal activity. In attempts to lessen the frequency and impact of computer crimes, law enforcement agencies use computer forensic to investigate these offenses. Actually, computer crimes are governed by specific laws and dealt with through conducting a computer forensic investigation (Easttom & Taylor, 2011, p.337). Notably, a computer forensic investigation is usually carried out through the use of computer forensic tools, which help in collection of evidence based on the specific offense.

Programs for ecovering Deleted Files:

There are various programs that can be used for recovering deleted files such…… [Read More]

Computer Forensics Donning Your Detective

Specialized forensic tools will be necessary to retrieve and analyze deleted, renamed and encrypted data that search tools will overlook. Further, forensic tools will help with complex information correlation. For example, to construct a timeline of events it may be necessary to tie network log stamps and data together with database access and usage logs.

Reporting is the final phase of forensic investigation. Here, the article is weak, only recommending the inclusion of summary information about the event and additional details. In the product review section of the article, there is a mention of forensic tools that allow users to add notes, bookmark sections of data and produce detailed reporting.

The article concludes with a comparison of commercially available forensics tools as well as the availability of many open-source solutions. and, it advises that even if the steps outlined above are followed, it will probably still be necessary to hire…… [Read More]

Computer Forensics Solving Crimes Using

Such information is collected using packet sniffers which are programs that can access all information passing through a computer, and not only information particularly sent to the computer. The packet sniffer can either pick all the information, or just selected what is needed, and at the specific time when the information passed through the computer. This is then copied into a given memory. However, for the packet sniffers to be used, the investigators must have proper authorization depending on what they are investigation. This is to help protect the privacy of computer users.

Computer forensics also works by disk imaging. This is a process where all information on a disk is copied in the form of an image and looked into. Disk imaging copies all files, both active and inactive, unlike when creating a backup where one only copies active files. One advantage of disk imaging is that it provides…… [Read More]

Computer Forensic Investigation Making an

Typically, a database uses either the simple recovery model or the full recovery model. The full recovery model can be supplemented by switching to the bulk-logged recovery model before bulk operations." (Microsoft, 2010 P. 2).

Meanwhile, our company will need to implement the full back up safeguard all our data. Under the full recovery model, the first step is to back up the transaction log. Combination of full back-up with log back ups is equivalent of full database back up. Starting the back up from the log transaction is the best practice to perform a full database back-up. The illustration in Fig 2 reveals the strategy to implement a full back up. As being revealed in the Fig 2, the back up starts from the transaction logs and the next step is to schedule the full database back up and file backups at subsequent interval to satisfy our company requirements.…… [Read More]

Computer Forensics for Preventing Email

i.e. modifying the domain name system.

7. DNS-ased Phishing ("Pharming"): This offense is based on interference in the domain name searching process by modifying the domain name resolution sending the user to a different IP address.

8. Content-Injection Phishing: The phisher introduces fraudulent content into a legitimate website.

9. Data Theft: Malicious code that collects sensitive information stored within the machines in which it is installed.

10. Man-in-the-Middle Phishing: The phisher takes a position between user's PC and the server filtering, reading and modifying information.

11. Hosts File Poisoning: This is another option for pharming. In this case the attack is carried out by the host's card index hosted on DNS' servers.

12. Spear Phishing: One of the newest phishing strategies. It targets a specific company and uses e-mails to train individuals at various locations. (Frost and Sullivan, nd)

It is reported that the types of websites attacked by phishers…… [Read More]

Computer Forensics Law Enforcement

computer forensics tools and processes used by investigators continually evolve and change over time. Although the material published in the 2008 version of the United States Attorneys' Bulletin includes some stalwart information regarding processes and procedures, the specific issues at stake will have changed drastically in the nearly 8 years since the issue was published. For example, the operating systems and encryption methods would have completely changed from 2008 until 2016. Carroll, Brannon & Song's (2008c) analysis of Vista and its file structure will be outmoded for many individuals or organizations under investigation. Therefore, great care should be taken when investing into computer forensics tools that may be outmoded. Using outmoded tools can seriously jeopardize an investigation and lead to serious loss of credibility on the part of the departments involved and their team leaders. At the same time, computer forensics experts do need to maximize knowledge of retrograde technologies…… [Read More]

Priorities for Any Competent Computer Forensics Examiner

priorities for any competent computer forensics examiner is the establishment of policies, processes and procedures to govern the structure of your forensics laboratory environment. According to the current Guide to Forensics and Investigations, it is of critical importance that you have first "defined policies, processes, and prescribed procedures before beginning any casework to ensure the integrity of an analysis and its results" (Nelson, Phillips, & Steuart, 2010). In the circumstances described, wherein you have been hired to perform digital investigations and forensics analysis for a company with no preexisting policies, processes or procedures in place, it is paramount that you immediately develop your own guidelines for the operation of your lab environment. The best way to begin would be through carefully researching the forensics lab management guidelines prescribed by the American Society of Crime Lab Directors, which include steps for identifying the duties of your various lab staff members, preplanning…… [Read More]

How to Collect and Analyze Data in Computer Forensics

burgeoning field of computer or digital forensics has multiple applications. As Carroll, Brannon & Song (2008a) point out, the two primary functions of computer forensics include data extraction and data analysis. As with other areas of forensics, methodologies in computer forensics include scientific methods of data collection, data preservation, and data analysis with ultimate goals of documentation or presentation in accordance with the needs and demands of the investigative team. Although computer forensics is relatively new compared to other branches of the field, the methods whereby digital data can be collected and analyzed are systematic to ensure accuracy and validity.

Computer forensics experts should become familiar with the latest operating systems for the purposes of data collection and preservation. For example, Carroll, Brannon & Song (2008b) note that Microsoft Vista's BitLocker provides encryption storage, which has direct ramifications on data extraction and collection by law enforcement. It is also critical…… [Read More]

Forensic Tools Computer-Based Forensics Tools

It is thus that technologies which work to yield that crucial data from the memory store of any such device have become so valuable to law enforcement in the age of terrorism. According to the Computer Forensics Tool Testing Program (CFTT), "a cellular forensic tool shall have the ability to logically acquire all application supported data elements present in internal memory without modification" (Ayers, 15)

This is to indicate that such technology should be able to hack into mobile communication devices without detection by the subject, making it a valuable tool in investigating crimes and preventing suspected crimes. The evaluate of its requirements is produced by the CFTT, which is an organization that "provides a measure of assurance that the tools used in the investigations of computer-related crimes produce valid results." (Ayers, 6)

A major drawback of such technologies, and one that invokes a yet far more complex discussion concerning…… [Read More]

Forensic Tools for Computers

Zilla Data Nuker

Test: Zilla Data Nuker

Software Title

Files created or downloaded leave a trace even when deleted. These traces allow skilled computer forensic professionals to retrieve the data. Zillasoft, LLC, a New England-based software developing entity provides Zilla Data Nuker that "Shreds sensitive files so they cannot be recovered or undeleted" according to the promotional material for the software. (Zilla Data Nuker 2.0) Zilla Data Nuker is freely downloadable from the ZDNet site at www.zdnet.com or can be obtained directly from the Zillasoft website at www.zillasoft.ws.

Software Functionality

Zilla Data Nuker uses what the company terms as "shredding algorithms" to obliterate data. Ostensibly the software is designed to be used to improve the functionality of a home or office computer by deleting unnecessary files from the hard drive. Zillasoft also claims that the software can function to help protect the user's privacy by completely destroying information targeted by…… [Read More]

Computer Used by the Employee Has Either

computer used by the employee has either been compromised physically with a password cracking software (EC-Council,2010;Beaver & McClure,2010) or it has bee compromised remotely with the help of a keylogging software.A keylogger is noted by APWG (2006) as a special crimeware code that is designed with the sole intention of collecting information from the end-user terminal. The stolen information includes every strike of the keyboard which it captures.The most sensitive of the captured information are the user's credentials. Keylogger may also be used to refer to the hardware used for this purpose. The employee's password could also have been shoulder-surfed by his immediate neighbor at the workplace. This could be his coworker who manages to peek and see over his shoulder as he types in sensitive authentication information (password)

Strategy to address the issue as well as the necessary steps for resolving the issue

The strategy for addressing this threat…… [Read More]

Forensic Lab Forensic Crime Labs Are Important

Forensic Lab

Forensic crime labs are important institutions within the criminal justice system and each lab must be up to standard in order for this system to operate at a high and fair level. A good crime lab begins with a good design based on solid fundamentals and thorough planning. The purpose of this essay is to design a digital forensic crime lab that can be used in a university setting. In order to this, the essay will explain the budgeting process while keeping business objectives in mind. The next step of the design will introduce how the physical controls can be used to implement this design. Criteria for success will also be discussed as well as a suggested floor plan to house the lab.

Budgeting

The setting for this digital forensic lab is within a university setting which denotes that funds could most likely be attained for these purposes.…… [Read More]

Forensic Entomology

Forensic

According to Elvidge (2014), the first record of the use of forensic entomology is Song Ci (Sung Tz'u), in 13th century China. However, using insects and arthropods like arachnids to aid in forensics investigations is a relatively new field, and one ripe with potential. The most notable applications of forensic entomology are in the identification of time elapsed since death, and the geographic location of death. When applying forensic entomology to homicide and other death studies, the specialist will take into account the various stages of decomposition. Forensic entomology can also be used to elucidate other types of crimes in which any type of decaying organic matter is a clue, in cases of human or animal abuse in which wounds have festered, in analyzing dried blood samples, in the investigation of botanical drug trafficking, and when detecting the presence of drugs in the deceased. Less glamorous but equally as…… [Read More]

Opportunities Abound in the Forensics Industry Today

Opportunities abound in the forensics industry today, and the experts suggest that this trend is going to continue to increase in the future. The term "forensics," though, can be applied to a number of different fields; however, all of these disciplines share a common feature in that their work products are specifically used in courts of law or for other legal issues that can mean the difference between life and death in many cases. According to Black's Law Dictionary (1990), the term "forensic" means "belonging to courts of justice," while "forensic engineering" means "the application of the principles and practice of engineering to the elucidation of questions before courts of law" (p. 648). Genetic forensics refers to the diagnosis of otherwise unknown biological material based on analysis of proteins or DNA; this branch of forensics has resulted in hundreds of death row prisoners being freed after they were exonerated through…… [Read More]

Capture Data Sources Using the Digital Forensics Tool

Digital Forensics to Capture Data ources

Network Intrusion

Prioritizing Data ources

Account Auditing

Live ystem Data

Intrusion Detection ystem

Event Log Analysis

Malware Installation

Prioritizing data sources

Activity Monitoring

Integrity Checking

Data Mining

Insider File Deletion

Prioritizing data sources

Use of Uneraser program Recovers the Deleted Data

Network torage

A recent advance in information technology has brought about both benefits and threats to business organizations. While businesses have been able to achieve competitive market advantages through the internet technology, the hackers are also using the opportunities to penetrate the organizational network systems to steal sensitive data worth billions of dollars. A recent wave of cybercrimes leads to the growth of forensic investigation dealing with a collection of evidence to track cyber offenders. The study investigates different data sources that can assist in enhancing digital forensic investigation. The study identifies event log analysis, port scanning, account auditing, and intrusion detection system…… [Read More]

Summarize the Disadvantages to Law Enforcement With Respect to the Advancements of Computers

Computer/Software and the Use of Computer Technology in Investigations

The key advantage of computer forensics is that it can look for and assess loads of data in a swift and efficient manner. Computers are able to search for keywords from hard drives, in various languages. This proves valuable, as cybercriminals are easily able to cross national boundaries over the World Wide Web (Forensic Science, 2009). Computer forensics may be utilized in cases of corporate frauds, thefts, disputes over intellectual property, asset recovery and contract breaches (Forensic Science, 2009).

Important information, which cybercriminals have deleted or which is lost may be recovered and employed as significant court evidence. Professionals in the legal domain can furnish evidences in courts, which were earlier impossible. The field of computer forensics (i.e., electronic evidence) is fairly new; typically, criminal issues are handled through the use of physical evidence. Fortunately, the tool has proven advantageous in…… [Read More]

Digital Forensics in the Modern Age

computer forensic offense. ecommendations for investigation will be addressed. Further, an example of an industrial espionage case will be cited.

Crimes Committed/Background

This lawsuit entailed contract violation cross-claims, with the dispute between the two parties chiefly revolving around events that had transpired during the latter half of 1998. esidential Funding Corporation (FC) was requested to salvage and present related emails dated from October to December 1998, from its backup drives. The corporation's internal legal consultant discovered that the company didn't possess requisite internal resources for email retrieval from backup source in the time period allowed. Therefore, the company retained Electronic Evidence Discovery's services, for support with email retrieval. Many weeks into employing established recovery techniques, the corporation was able to present a total of 126 emails (dated between January and August 1998) as well as 2 emails dated September of the same year (Computer Forensic - Computer Forensic Case Studies…… [Read More]

Matthew Baker Murder Case Forensics

Matthew Baker Murder Case

In aco, Texas former pastor Matthew Baker was convicted of the murder of his wife in early 2010. In 2006, Baker's wife Kari was found dead in what looked like a suicide. However, it soon became apparent that Baker's accounts of his and Kari's movements during the day of her death were inconsistent with the forensic evidence discovered at the scene. It took some time before prosecutors had enough evidence to reach an indictment. Once the trial finally commenced, it became obvious that if nothing else Baker had been inconsistent with his various explanations for discrepancies and had outright lied about certain aspects of the case. One of the things Baker was found to have lied about was the object of his potential reason for committing the crime. The motive according to prosecutors was that Baker was having an affair with a Vanessa Bulls and wanted…… [Read More]

Computer Misuse Legislation Unfit for

Knowledge of e-crime from the perspective of crime science is insufficient in devolution of the problem, which cuts across various sections of social interaction through computers. There is a limitation in the forensic and social / legal exploration of information technology aspects and that is the possible cause of the limitations of the jurisdictions of the computer crime legislation, creating the insufficiency in the fulfillment of its purpose (Tonry 2009 p. 20-350).

The legislation approaches the infringement of the social precepts of technology without any consideration of social remedies. The use of police in regulation of operations is limiting because they may not have the capacity for gauging the extent of computer damage. It is logical considering the sensitivity of pro-social individuals, and their possibility of taking up their responsibilities. Social norms revolve around consideration of others and create a sense of mindfulness and consideration of activities (Humphreys 2007 p.…… [Read More]

Forensic Unit Justification

Justification of a Forensic Unit

Our Agency has just received $3 million grant from the federal government because of the efficient method that the unit employs in running the department. Additionally, the City Council has agreed to continue assisting the unit with additional funding at the end of the three years provided the department is productive and serve the citizens well. However, the department requires presenting a different budget from the previous budget. This proposal will create a new budget for the forensic unit to describe where all the funding will be allocated. The budget will consider the specialized personnel for the unit because smooth running of the unit depends on the specialized personnel.

Mission Statement of the Specialized Unit

The specialized forensic unit will deliver highest quality forensic services to all our customers, and our unit will deliver accurate service through analysis and the state of art technology. We…… [Read More]

Field of Forensic Chemistry Investigation

Forensic chemistry is a branch of chemistry that applies the techniques and concepts of chemistry to provide evidence and testify in court. Some federal agencies such as FDA (Food and Drug Administration) and National Institute of Justice use forensic chemistry experts to investigate the crimes committed against the society, which include environmental pollution, food adulteration, and distribution of unsafe chemical substances. In the United States, cocaine and other illegal drugs can put society at risks. Thus, experts in forensic chemistry uses different processes to perform a laboratory test to identify the presence of substances. A chemical analysis carried out in the laboratory can help to detect illegal drugs, which will assist the police or other law enforcement agents to prosecute offenders in the law courts. (Drug Enforcement Administration 1).

Moreover, the forensic chemistry analyzes non-biological materials to detect a trace of evidence from the crime scenes to found unknown material…… [Read More]

Cyber Crime Investigation and Digital Forensics

Digital Forensics and Cyber Crime Investigation

HCC Partner is the top healthcare company in the United States, and the management has noticed an intrusion in the systems based on the alerts from their IDS (Intrusion Detection System) logs that causes the management to question the reliability of the system. Analysis of their systems reveals that HCC uses the Snort IDS that is running in Linux system. Moreover, the HCC database administrator has received and downloaded the strange email from the Human Resources Department, which makes the system behaving strangely after they open the attachment.

he objective of this project is to analyze the HCC database server, the network system and other workstations suspected leading to data leakage. he project will investigate whether there is a possibility of evidence of data breach.

A: Plan for Processing the Incident Scene and Potential Crime

he study uses the staircase model for the investigation…… [Read More]

Criminal Justice - Forensics Twentieth-Century

, 2005)

In the same way that traditional techniques of criminal identification have enabled law enforcement authorities to establish national fingerprint information databases for the purposes of connecting evidence to possible previous offenders, DNA-based forensic evidence has allowed the creation of similar databases greatly expanding the types of forensic evidence used to increase the security of sensitive facilities and restricted areas.

When combined with the ever-increasing power of modern computer technology to cross reference and match different types of physical evidence, law enforcement authorities have already developed the ability to establish terrorist watch lists incorporating forensic evidence of previous acts of terrorism with uniquely identifying features of perpetrators still at large. The continued evolution of such marriages between criminal forensics and identification techniques will greatly enhance homeland security, both at checkpoints and in terms of tracking the possible whereabouts and activities of persons of interest in connection with possible terrorism.…… [Read More]

Odontology in Criminal Justice Forensics

In 2002 the crime lab in the state of Mississippi found that the semen in the victim's body belonged to two different men and neither of them was Kennedy rewer. alko concludes by stating: "Forensic scandals have been troublingly common of late, with phony experts, fake results, and incompetent testing recently uncovered in Virginia, Maryland, Kansas, Illinois, and Texas, to name just a few. Courts need to take a more active role in weeding out the Michael Wests of the world before they ever take the witness stand. ut professional organizations also need to be more vigilant about policing their own. Dr. West's peers should more vocally have questioned his methods long before he was permitted to testify more than 70 times in courts across the country. One would think they'd step up their standards to protect the integrity and reputation of their profession. ut these continuing scandals suggest another,…… [Read More]

Criminal Justice Forensics Undercover Is a

However, as criminals become more aware of undercover tactics, the covert officer is required to provide more and more proof that he is indeed a criminal- which leads to the officer committing acts that compromise his or her integrity for the sake of maintaining cover. y understanding the often conflicting nature of these goals, deception and integrity, we can see how an undercover officer can become confused, lost, and susceptible to temptation (i.e. criminal behavior).

y examining both aspects- environmental factors and personality factors- we take into account both sides of a complex relationship. These two groups of factors, when combined together, shed some light on the exact nature of criminal tendencies amongst police officers.

Definition of Terms

Covert: another term for undercover, meaning the use of deception for the purpose of gathering information or intelligence.

Non-covert: police officers that, even in plain clothes, maintain their own true identity instead…… [Read More]

Ftk Imager the Digital Forensic Toolkit Analysis

FTK Imager, the Digital Forensic Toolkit

FTK Imager is an imaging and data preview tool used for forensic analysis. Typically, the FTK imager can create disk images for USB and hard drives. The FTK can also create forensic images (perfect copies) of data without altering the original evidence. Moreover, the FTK imager can create MD5 or SHAI hashes of files and be able to recover deleted files from ecycle Bin.

Objective of this project is to investigate the strategy of using the FTK for forensic investigation.

Use of the FTK

The first step is to install the FTK Imager, which can be accessed from the following website: http://accessdata.com/product-download/?/support/adownloads

After opening the webpage, the current releases of the digital forensic tools appear ad being revealed below:

Then, click FTK Image and Click the FTK Imager, version 3.4.2, and Click download. After completing the installation, the next section discusses the method of…… [Read More]

Inadequacy of Forensic Hair Analysis

Hair is also in contact with chemicals in shampoos, and any dyes, gels, sprays or other cosmetics that may be placed on the hair (11).

Since there is no standardized method for cleaning these external contaminants off of the hair prior to analysis, the potential for inaccurate results from external contamination is widespread. There is no way to tell in the laboratory if a chemical is contained within the hair, and therefore came from with in the body, or if it is on the surface of the hair and did not come from within the body (12). An enormous amount of scientific research studies have indicated that hair analysis is unreliable as a diagnostic tool in crime solving. For example, in one study, the researchers took hair from the head of a single individual and sent portions of the sample to six laboratories; the results varied widely from laboratory to…… [Read More]

IAS and DF

Assurance and Security (IAS) Digital forensics (DF)

In this work, we take a look at three laboratory-based training structures that afford practical and basic knowledge needed for forensic evaluation making use of the latest digital devices, software, hardware and firmware. Each lesson has three parts. The duration of the first section of the three labs will be one month. These labs would be the largest labs. The Second section would consist of smaller labs. The training period duration in these labs would also generally be one month. The third section would consist of smallest labs. The duration of training period in these labs would be one week. The training will be provided in the field of software, programming concepts, flowcharting and algorithms and logical reasoning- both linear and iterative.

Part 1 Larger Labs:

Lab 1(Timeline Analysis)

Purposes and goals of the Lab (Lab VI):

Use MAC (Media Access Control, internet…… [Read More]

Different Interpretations of ISO-9660 File Systems

Systems

COMPUTE SCIENCE

Computer forensic is a scientific method of analyzing the digital information which is used as evidence for the criminal, administrative and civil cases. In the contemporary legal environment, computer forensic has become a vital part in solving the complex crimes. Since computer forensic experts use data to solve high level cases, effective data storage and retrieval is critical aspect of forensic investigation and effective data storage is very essential to assist in achieving the data integrity. ISO9660 file system has become an effective method that forensic experts employ to store and retrieve data. (Dixon, 2005). Preserving and storing the critical data and information without alteration of the original state of data is the most important aspect of Computer Forensics. Some of the techniques employed are by using the ISO9660 file system to store data. It is essential to realize an employee might inadvertently overwrite valuable data. Otherwise,…… [Read More]

IT Security Lang David A

This makes it easier for investigators to identify connections by clicking on a particular item in the three-dimensional link.

The difficulties of this process of proving such a chain indicates the importance of creating steps that can help companies simplify the task of conducting a computer forensic investigation, should one ever be required. The article stresses that the most important step is to ensure that network logging devices are turned on, even though these devices use disk space and processor time. If they are turned off, investigations can become impossible. Closing any unneeded ports on the company firewall and patching systems regularly, are also helpful.

This article paints an overall benign portrait of law enforcement, zealously protecting user privacy and safety. It demonstrates how an apparently invisible crime can be rendered visible through the use of technology, and both the law and law enforcement's attempts to stay one step ahead…… [Read More]

Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks

Often on AID systems an entire volume can be reconstructed if the Level 4 (dedicated parity drive) or Level 5 (block interleaved distributed parity) areas of the entire logical volume are available (Miller, 2007). Often forensic investigators will begin with these inherent advantages of the AID technology, yet revert to virtualization techniques if these do not work (Leventhal, 2010). AID is by nature a technology that can replicate list partitions and drives (Elerath, 2009) (Leventhal, 2010) (Miller, 2007).

Isolating which data has been lost and then defining a strategy for its recovery is critically important in the development of forensics strategies for reconstructing and recovering it (Miller, 2007). AID techniques have proven to be exceptionally effective in reconstructing lost data, yet the use of virtualization techniques have augmented and accelerated greater forensic success rates of recovery (Teelink, Erbacher, 2006).

Conclusion

Initiating strategies for the recovery of lost data can be…… [Read More]

U S V AOL

U.S. v AOL:

AOL case was a lawsuit involving collusion between the executives from AOL and PurchasePro Inc. (PPO) with the sole intention of overstating revenue. The 37% overstated revenue would make executives to believe that PurchasePro Inc. had achieved its sales forecasts, which would in turn contribute to inflation of the company's stock price. Due to their contributions, some of the executives involved in this illegal agreement and fraud would obtain large bonuses and the company's stocks. However, the jury in the case acquitted the three defendants in the much publicized five-year investigation into fraudulent accounting practices between AOL and PurchasePro. Notably, the case offers an example of criminal offenses conducted through the use of computers and necessitates the use of computer forensic tools and procedures in order to resolve.

The Use of a Computer to Commit the Crime:

As previously mentioned, U.S. v AOL is a lawsuit involving…… [Read More]

Chief Security Officer As the Chief Security

Chief Security Officer:

As the Chief Security Officer for a local University, my main role is establishing and maintaining an enterprise wide information security program that helps to ensure all data and information assets are not compromised. This process involves developing a plan to conduct a security program that prevent computer crimes, establishes a procedure for investigation, and outlines laws that are applicable for potential offenders. To develop an effective plan, the process would involve identifying recent computer attacks or other offenses that have been carried out against higher educational institutions and processes established by these institutions to prevent the recurrence of the crimes. In addition, procedures, methodologies, and technologies that could be bought to lessen computer crime threats and effective laws for convicting offenders will also be examined. The other parts of the process include identifying computer crime fighting government programs and the types and costs of computer forensics…… [Read More]

Carla Murray Timothy Broyles the Number of

Carla Murray

Timothy Broyles

The number of online security breaches is increasing day by day. For instance, with the Sony Playstation data breaches to millions of small breaches; something must be done to protect the online security of citizens as well as our own government (Sony Playstation System Hacking). The question then becomes who is going to do it? Can the American citizens trust the United States government to ensure their security and thereby their very safety? In light of the fact that the Michigan police force has recently been found to use a forensic cell phone reader or Cellebrite upon routine traffic stops, the ACLU has called into question the ethics of seizing such information without probable cause. Are cell phones merely a tracking device as far as the police force is concerned? Does this not violate the Constitutional right we are guaranteed by our government? Most recently a…… [Read More]

Alternate Data Stream Ads and Steganography Hiding

Alternate Data Stream (ADS) and Steganography Hiding Techniques

This paper provides a review of the relevant literature concerning alternate data stream (ADS) and steganography data-hiding techniques, including how users can utilize ADS to hide data and use them for destructive purposes and a discussion concerning rootkits and their use as alternative data-hiding techniques. Finally, a description of the processes and tools that can be used to detect steganographic applications is followed by a description of two steganography tools that can be used to hide data.

Explain how a user could utilize ADS to hide data and explain other destructive uses which exist for ADS. According to Vacca and udolph (2011), alternative data streams (ADSs) can be used in a number of different ways to hide data. In this regard, Vacca and udolph report that, "For example, kernel space filters such as kdl use ADS by attaching their log files to…… [Read More]

Information Security Model and Cyber Terrorism

goals of this study are to reveal some of the common and prevailing cyber security threats. Here we plan to explore the risk that is most difficult to defend: social engineering. We seek answers to the human elements and characteristics that contribute to the frauds and how they themselves unwittingly give out information that eventually leads to difficult situations. There are many ways in which the attackers 'phish' their targets. We will look into the origin of such techniques and proceed to develop a methodology to avert such attacks. In the highly computerized environment that we are living, a new method of multitenant services has been evolved to substitute for the demands on memory space and time- the Cloud. The impact of these vast and complex systems has raised newer kinds of concerns that will then be assessed and hence a strategy to safeguard the interests of the user because…… [Read More]

Privacy Protection Commenting on the

Confab, howeve, is an achitectue that is able to bypass these limitations and combine both appoaches. It is limited, though, and a tue pevasive envionment calls fo complex pefeences that can be easily manipulated by the end use.

Moeove, all these appoaches ae not completely sufficient in meeting the challenges mentioned in section 3.2. Fo instance, PETs and pivacy models do not explicitly contibute in a eduction of data collection, no is that thei intent o pupose. Although anonymous data collection is based on the assumption that if data is collected anonymously then it cannot be linked with any individual, and if data cannot be elated to an individual then it poses no theats in tems of pivacy. Thus, detailed pivacy policies and safeguads fo data ae not seen as citical in this model. By collecting anonymous data, one may ague that a tue minimum amount of pesonal data is…… [Read More]

Michigan vs Tyler the Supreme Court Decided

Michigan vs. Tyler, the Supreme Court decided that "fire fighters, and/or police and arson investigators, may seize arson evidence at a fire without warrant or consent, on the basis of exigent circumstances and/or plain view"

This may only occur during the extinguishing operations or immediately after, otherwise a warrant or the owner's consent is necessary. This came as a response to an accusation of "conspiracy to burn real property," where the prosecutors had collected and used evidence of numerous days after the firefighting operations. The Supreme Court ruled in favor of the defendant, as evidence was collected without warrant in the subsequent days.

I think the process used by a gas chromatograph (heating, etc.) is not appropriate for separating sand granules and the gas chromatograph cannot identify sand grains as a substance. In my opinion, something like filtration should have been used to separate sand from the rest of the…… [Read More]

Security Technology in Next Five Years Globally

Security Technology in Next Five Years

Globally security concerns have placed great pressure on the survival of human life and had threatened the daily life, confidence and dignity of societies at large. To resolve the security concerns and overcome with this disastrous obstacles, security technological advancements have been made in many facets. Human life is playing its vital role in moving the world to a secure place where families, businesses, trade, educational system, media, governance, art and science thus all fields of life is affected by the security concerns (Sen, 2002). Now the big question here is how technological development can contribute towards the security concerns especially in the areas of biometrics, forensics and physical security.

Although, there has been intensive increase in human security as the consequences of technological development, the historical background of technology has not rooted much confidence in the societies that further technological development will reduce…… [Read More]

Securing the Scene the Objective of This

Securing the Scene

The objective of this study is to develop a plan to approach and secure an incident scene and discuss the initial steps taken for an investigation while explicating the importance of creating an order of volatility by identifying the potential evidence that is most volatile and explain how evidence would be extracted. This study will identify the high-level steps that would be performed in collecting and analyzing the evidence including the required steps and what should be avoided in order to maintain the admissibility of the evidence.

Securing the Scene

Securing the scene of a computer crime investigation requires that all electronic devices be secured including personal and portable devices and ensuring that no person unauthorized has access to any electronic devices found at the scene of the crime. The investigator should refuse anyone who offers to assist with anything technical in nature and should remove all…… [Read More]

Criminal Justice Agency Administration Drug

" (U.S. Department of Justice, 2007; 22)

The U.S. Department of Justice report also states that upon evaluation of the management of the DEA of "selected practices governing its SIU Program...revealed significant deficiencies including: (1) poor recordkeeping; (2) inadequate control over SIU equipment; (3) inadequate practices for supply salary supplement payment to unit members; (4) excessive span of control ratios for management of the units; (5) insufficient evidence of training; and (7) failure to perform exit briefing of outgoing SIU members. (2007) Stated to be crucial in the DEA success or failure in investigative activity internationally are relationships with: (1) other DEA offices (foreign and domestic); (2) other U.S. law enforcement agencies abroad; and (3) foreign government and their law enforcement components charge with combating illicit drug trafficking." (U.S. Department of Justice, 2007; 26) the following chart shows the sources of international training funds for the DEA in 2005.

Sources…… [Read More]

Advances in Technology The Internet Has Brought

advances in technology. The Internet has brought the idea of instantaneous global communication to a reality; smaller and smarter chips are now included in inexpensive Smart Phones, and our ability to understand and manipulate data has vastly increased. New technologies can certainly offer law enforcement a number of new tools that aid in their job. Essentially, these can be divided into different segments, all of which are useful during different situations:

Aviation Technology -- Helicopters and light planes have both improved and become more cost effective, although they are still more appropriate for larger urban areas. They are able to help with traffic issues, and with the addition of cameras and nigh vision, help track suspects or increase surveillance on large events or potential gang related activities. They are also able to be equipment with special weapons (SWAT), firefighting, and emergency medical equipment (Langton, 2009).

Biometrics -- Biometrics is a…… [Read More]

It Risk Management -- Cyber

The organizations are usually run by a core group, which divides the different responsibilities of an operation (e.g. spamming, web design, data collection) among the members. The members run their own outer networks to fulfill those responsibilities -- rarely even having contact with each other online. The decentralized structure of the internet, as well as the high levels of anonymity it provides makes it difficult for law enforcement agencies to locate cybercriminal groups. A group could have networks in a myriad of different countries, whilst using servers based in numerous different countries and jurisdictions. Furthermore, many national jurisdictions lack the legislative framework required to properly prosecute online crime." (Collins, 2012)

These insights are illustrating how the lack of self-control is creating a situation where more criminals or organizations are turning to cyber crime. What makes the situation worse; is they can work anonymously and be able to conduct these activities…… [Read More]

Analyzing the Hashing Files

Hashing Files

Course Code

ouse (2005-2015) defines hashing as the changing of a characters' string into normally smaller fixed-length value, which corresponds to the initial string. It is made use of in indexing and retrieving items in databases because the item is easier to find when a shorter hashes key is used than when an original value is used. Hash functions are well-defined functions for converting or representing various kinds of data into comparatively smaller integers. The value of a hash function is a hash value, hash, or hash code.

Importance of Hash Values

Hashing creates sets of numbers representing drives or sets of files. On using hashing, the details about the particular evidence cannot be determined or drawn from the hash code, but an alteration of the evidence results to a change in the hash code. This is demonstrated below through an illustration.

A word document containing 60 lines…… [Read More]

Agency Organization in Which You Worked Include Information

agency/organization in which you worked. Include information on the size of the organization (number of personnel, of what kinds) and the division of labor into units or departments. Obtain an organizational chart, or prepare one yourself, showing the formal structure of the organization.

The organization where I worked from April 24, 2012 to June 29, 2012 was U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Created in 2003, it is the main investigative body of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security Investigation. It is a federal law enforcement agency whose main responsibility includes executing the immigration and custom laws of the United States to protect the country and to ensure the public security.

The detailed chart of the structure of the organization is attached in the Appendix A. ICE has a divisional organizational structure. It is headed by the Director who is appointed by the President of U.S. And approved by the…… [Read More]

Police in America in the

Because of the type of individuals police officers in mid-to large cities often deal with, they can engender a mind-set of violence and abuse of power. Certainly, the military approach is efficient; the command style authoritarian so it can get quicker results. However, in going with more modern leadership approaches, the servant leadership, or service style might be more appropriate in many areas. This would stress community service; keeping areas safe, but referring as many problems as possible to social agencies, trying for education and partnership, and working to improve society through a more egalitarian approach in which police are integral to the community's entire philosophy.

Part 4 -- Design for an effective police department would entirely depend on the size and composition of the area affected. For instance, large urban area with a concentrated inner-city would require a different organization than a smaller community of 30,000 people. Hypothetically, if…… [Read More]

Christopher Vaughn Case

Forensics

On June 14, 2007, a man covered in blood waved down a passing motorist on Interstate 55 in Illinois. He had gunshot wounds in the arm and leg. It was 5:40 in the morning in Channahon Township, Illinois. Nearby, the man's 2004 Ford Expedition carried the dead bodies of the man's wife and three children, ages 12, 11, and 8. They had all been shot to death. After pulling over, the motorist phoned 911, and the man was rushed to hospital. It was Christopher Vaughn, 32-year-old cyber crime and computer security investigator.

The police questioned Vaughn in hospital. Vaughn's initial statement revealed an outlandish story he would cling to during the course of his defense. Vaughn claimed that his wife asked him to pull over, then suddenly pulled out a gun, shot at him, killed her three children, and finally shot herself dead. The police did not believe Vaughn…… [Read More]

Evaluating Appropriate Methods of Employee Compensation

Forensic Rehabilitation Counseling

Labor Market Surveys In Forensic Rehabilitation Counseling

The article elaborates the concept compensation system for workers in California. The author argues that the opinions of vocational experts should meet standards of motivational satisfaction. This principle operates on the view that operational decisions by the court should focus on upholding the ruling by administrative body in case evidence supports material concerns from the administrative body with a reasonable base of the decision. I agree with the clarification that labor markets exist for some jobs as recommended by the vocational experts although labor market surveys (LMS) must be undertaken to establish substantial evidence. The surveys avail the necessary details involved in the determination of whether employers can consider employees with medical limitations against their current abilities and skills vocational training. Further, the civil cases established through labor market surveys offers invaluable demonstration of the available employment opportunities in specific…… [Read More]

Malware Since the Earliest Days

However, nothing can be done until the malware actually occurs. With all the different viruses, worms and Trojans, how can security managers possibly predict what malware will occur next? In contrast, a behavioral rule defines legitimate activity in a system. Any activity not matching the profile will cause the security product to be triggered. As rules are not specific to a particular type of attack, they can block malicious behavior without having to recognize the precise attack used. Thus, there is additional protection against new attacks as they emerge. It is to effectively prevent any unauthorized applications, including malicious code and Trojans. or, it could protect a webserver by making it impossible for anyone to access the webserver to change the files and limiting the risk of a hack (Franklin, 2002).

However, the dilemma comes how many rules should the system have? The security manager must decide between an effective…… [Read More]

Acquiring Digital Data - Choosing

A combination of Ethernet and USB data acquisition products would be useful.

A hash is a one way operation that is performed on a block of data to create a unique hash value that represents the contents of the data. No matter when the hash is performed, the same hashing algorithm performed on the same data will always produce the same hash value. If any of the data changes, the hash value will change appropriately. Hashes are not useful for encrypting data because they are not intended to be used to reproduce the original data from the hash value. Hashes are most useful to verify the integrity of the data when used with an asymmetric signing algorithm. ("Creating a Hash with CNG," 2010, para. 1)

In choosing a hash the one chosen for this essay is the HashTab Shell Extension to Windows, HashTab provides OS extensions to calculate file hashes.…… [Read More]

Virtualization Technologies Virtualization Refers to

A virtualized environment also meets the requirement of offsite backup storage and geographical compliance requirements.

Virtualization is also important to an organization with a mobile workforce because it enhances data concentration hence posing less risk of data loss compared to having the data dispersed on removable media, portable computers or embedded devices while out in the field. If the organizations security staff carefully constructs applications that restrict access and services to only the tasks and data that an employee requires to accomplish a given activity, then data exposure will be limited in the event that a device has been compromised.

On the other hand, a virtualized environment possess disadvantages to the business environment that may see to it that the organizations treasured business secrets are compromised and operations may come to a standstill.

Virtualization technologies may bring about system complexities to an organization's computer facilities compared to the traditional non-virtualized…… [Read More]

Information System Employed by the

In addition, expect an in-car camera increase, to expand "an effort to protect officers from unwarranted complaints (CPD, 2007)."

• Expect an increase in the availability of hardware devices based on any increase in system or application users. Consider the hardware users for Santa Barbara in a parallel comparison: The Santa Barbara "population includes all full-time employees and also includes eserve Officers, volunteers, Explorers, temporary employees, and a small number of users that work at other city, county, and state departments that have access to portions of our systems."

• Expect an increase in capacity for data storage. With an expected increase in population, the CPD can expect a larger pool of transactional data for recording and updating.

• Expect a need for new software development and software integrations. To continue to improve its information technology program, the CPD will continue to develop new software to expand on mapping systems,…… [Read More]

Threat Has Reached an Advanced Stage Where

threat has reached an advanced stage where workstations are now sending out Personally Identifiable Information (PII) to numerous known hackers' IP addresses. Therefore, the response team must respond in a steadfast fashion. This incident response plan will provide the most organized and well-defined approach for handling this threat and tracking the sources of the attack. This plan describes and identifies steps that will be taken to determine the cause, isolate and conduct damage control, eradicate, and recover from the cause of the incident as soon as possible. The incident response team will be charged with the responsibility of implementing this plan.

Incident esponse Team

An incident response team will offer a quick, orderly, and effective response to the improper disclosure of confidential information to hackers' IP addresses. In this case, the mission of the incident response team will be to prevent a serious loss of public confidence by giving and…… [Read More]

Personal Statement Have Been Working

Upon graduation from Florida State University, I began searching for a more advanced position in another company. In addition, I began to examine other avenues for continuing my education. I found both within a year of each other; I began studying in the Managerial Information Systems Master's program at Nova Southern University, and found a position as a Technical Support Analyst at Embarq, a Fortune 500 company. My accomplishments here were built directly on the knowledge and experience I had previously acquired; I analyzed the business systems, it operations, and user needs, and developed and implemented strategies to address inefficiencies I discovered. Over a two-year period, I led over 150 installation projects, maintaining a 125% efficiency rating. I was also specially selected by management to head a critical installation project for a key client. My performance led to this client's decision to integrate a new piece of equipment into their…… [Read More]

An indepth analysis of Risk Management Strategies and Benefits in Cloud Computing

isk, isk Management Strategies, and Benefits in Cloud Computing

SITUATIONAL ANALYSIS

PEMISE STATEMENT

KEY DEFINITIONS

SEVICE AND DEPLOYMENT MODELS

BENEFITS OF CLOUD COMPUTING

SECUITY ASPECTS

Storage

eliability

Virtualization

Trust

Physical Security

Legal Compliance

CLOUD COMPUTING ISKS

ISK Management STATEGIES

Vendor Evaluation

Centralized Information Governance

Other Organization-Level Measures

Individual-Level Security Measures

Cloud computing model

Cloud computing service and deployment models

ISO/IEC broad categories

The emergence of cloud computing has tremendously transformed the world of computing. Today, individuals, organizations, and government agencies can access computing resources provided by a vendor on an on-demand basis. This provides convenience, flexibility, and substantial cost savings. It also provides a more efficient way of planning disaster recovery and overcoming fluctuations in the demand for computing resources. In spite of the benefits it offers, cloud computing presents significant security concerns, which users must clearly understand and put strong measures in place to address them. Users are particularly…… [Read More]

Cloud Computing Will Be Discussed to Show

cloud computing will be discussed to show that the good outweighs the bad. Furthermore, it will be further discussed that the government is looking into using cloud computing because it will cut IT cost down and increase capabilities despite the fact people are concerned with security issues that this may bring to the public.

In completing a dissertation, it is very hard to go through the challenges that it requires. From the start and until this moment, I had gone through many challenging stages. The challenges that I faced were deciding the topic, reading various journals and articles, narrowing down focus within a large area, getting information on cloud computing, which all required time and effort. Despite the strong tasks that I faced, I finally made it and the 'final product' is about to be released. I feel extremely happy to have this chance to learn through the process since…… [Read More]

Threatening Email the Law Enforcement

This is why computer evidence -- such as the email itself -- cannot outweigh the underlying crime. What is being investigated is a threat against human life.

While investigating this threatening email and Westfall (the main suspect), it is important for the investigator to heed the law; suspects still have all the legal rights and protections afforded them per the United States Constitution (eyes & Brittson 2007). "eading emails, intercepting communication, searching and copying computer data may land you in hot water if you do not have the proper permissions, or authority to do so" (2007). All investigations including computer crimes must follow certain forensic procedures in order for evidence to be admissible as well as to avoid civil and criminal liability. The Fourth Amendment, Electronic Communications Privacy Act (18 U.S.C. § 2501 et seq.), Electronic Communications Privacy Act (18 U.S.C. § 2701 et seq.), Pen egister and Trap and…… [Read More]

Security Issues of Online Communities

This researcher rejects the existence of online communities because computer mediated group discussions cannot possibly meet this definition. Weinreich's view is that anyone with even a basic knowledge of sociology understands that information exchange in no way constitutes a community.

For a cyber-place with an associated computer mediated group to be labeled as a virtual settlement it is necessary for it to meet a minimum set of conditions. These are: (1) a minimum level of interactivity; (2) a variety of communicators; (3) a minimum level of sustained membership; and (4) a virtual common-public-space where a significant portion of interactive computer mediated groups occur (Weinreich, 1997). The notion of interactivity will be shown to be central to virtual settlements. Further, it will be shown that virtual settlements can be defined as a cyber-place that is symbolically delineated by topic of interest and within which a significant proportion of interrelated interactive computer…… [Read More]

Kelogger Scam Police Foil 420 Million Keylogger

Kelogger Scam

Police Foil $420 Million Keylogger Scam

Measures to deter these types of crimes

Categorize the type of modern attack(s) or computer crime(s)

Technologies to deter the threat

Summary of similar success stories

Measuresto deterthese types of crimes:

The white color and computer crimes can be tacked using sophisticated measures and appropriate controls. The cyber security is notably related to the virtual control of the computing services and IT infrastructure but at the same time it also requires that that the physical premises and controls are also in place. The effectiveness of IT infrastructure and security measures requires any institution including the financial services providers to act in accordance with the legal requirements. The security policy of the corporation should incorporate physical and virtual measures of control. In case of keylogger scam it is observed that the act is not possible only through an outsider's job. It required an…… [Read More]

Cloud Computing

Brodkin, J. (2008). Gartner: Seven cloud-Computing security risks. Infoworld, pp. 1 -- 3.

Carlin, S. & Curran, K. (2011). Cloud computing security. International Journal Of Ambient Computing And Intelligence (IJACI), 3 (1), pp. 14 -- 19.

Cloud Computing Benefits, risks and recommendations for information security. (2009). [e-book] Available through: ENISA https://resilience.enisa.europa.eu/cloud-security-and-resilience/publications/cloud-computing-benefits-risks-and-recommendations-for-information-security [Accessed: 24 Mar 2014].

Cloudsecurityalliance.org. (2011). Top threats to cloud computing: cloud security alliance. [online] Retrieved from: https://cloudsecurityalliance.org/research/top-threats [Accessed: 24 Mar 2014].

Feng, D., Zhang, M., Zhang, Y. & Xu, Z. (2011). Study on cloud computing security. Journal Of Software, 22 (1), pp. 71 -- 83.

Grobauer, B., Walloschek, T. & Stocker, E. (2011). Understanding cloud computing vulnerabilities. Security & Privacy, IEEE, 9 (2), pp. 50 -- 57.

Jamil, D. & Zaki, H. (2011). CLOUD COMPUTING SECURITY. International Journal Of Engineering Science & Technology, 3 (4).

Jasti, A., Shah, P., Nagaraj, R. & Pendse, R. (2010). "Security in multi-tenancy…… [Read More]