Getting hit by a cyberattack is not a matter of “if” but “when”. Defending against them isn't easy, but it's doable, especially if you know where they came from and how they happened, using digital forensics software to ensure your company doesn't suffer the same fate twice.
The digital age requires digital tools. And since anything digital can be hacked, the digital tools we use must be protected.
However, securing digital tools is not easy. It's also not a one-time process. Ongoing protection involves not only preventing attacks but also addressing those that have been prevented after carefully analyzing how they occurred.
This is where digital forensics comes to the rescue with various digital forensics solutions. But what are they and how can they provide mitigation and protection against even the most devastating cyberattacks?
The Basics: Digital Forensics Defined
All criminal acts, even those committed online, leave behind digital traces. Any individual or organization that has been subjected to a cyberattack needs to gather evidence if they want to bring the perpetrators to justice. This is where digital forensics, a branch of forensic science that deals with the identification, acquisition, processing, analysis, and presentation of electronic data, comes to the rescue.
Digital forensics extracts data from electronic evidence, processes it into useful information, and presents the results to the prosecution. All of these processes require the use of forensic techniques and tools - both hardware and software - to ensure that the results are admissible in court.
Now that you know what digital forensics is, let's take a closer look at the tools you may need to perform it.
Digital Forensic Software: Work Is Easier Done with the Right Tools
Digital forensics software are solutions that help analysts and cybersecurity investigators collect forensic data from digital devices, convert it into standard formats for analysis, and filter it to identify relevant information.
Today's experts use a wide range of digital forensics tools, including hardware and software, but both must analyze data sources without tampering with them. Examples include file analysis tools, which extract and analyze individual files, and registry analysis tools, which gather information from systems that record user actions in registries.
Different Software for Different Investigations
The digital forensic software that companies need depends on what kind of investigation they need to perform. Here’s an overview.
Computer Forensic Software
Organizations need computer forensics software to analyze data stored on computers and other digital devices. Such programs are commonly used to investigate cybercrime, data breaches, and intellectual property theft.
Network Forensic Software
Network forensics monitors and analyzes network traffic to detect and investigate security incidents. It requires software to analyze network intrusions, data leaks, or malware infections.
Mobile Forensic Software
Mobile forensics software extracts and analyzes data from mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets. They are crucial for criminal investigations and court cases involving mobile data.
Database Forensic Software
Companies require database forensic software to uncover evidence related to data leakage, unauthorized access, or data manipulation.
Cloud Forensic Software
Cloud forensics focuses on the investigation of data stored in cloud environments. Cloud forensics software is required to analyze cases involving cloud services, such as data breaches or compromised accounts.
Digital forensics professionals use cyber forensics software to accelerate data collection and analysis to gain the insights they need for cybersecurity and business process decisions. They typically go through five steps: identification, extraction and preservation, analysis, documentation, and presentation.
Who Performs Digital Forensics?
Several job titles involve performing digital forensics, including computer forensic analyst, systems analyst, security consultant, information security analyst, and IT auditor. Let’s tackle them one by one.
Computer forensics analysts:
They help investigate cybercrimes and other attacks. They use software to recover deleted or encrypted files, prepare digital evidence for use in court, and interview people involved in the crime to learn more information. Sometimes they also discuss cases with law enforcement professionals to offer technical expertise and advice on evaluating digital evidence.
Systems analysts:
They evaluate the use of technology in the organization and identify areas where improvements can be made. Sometimes they examine new hardware and software to recommend to their companies, find ways to improve technology use, and develop training manuals for target users. They may also access existing systems to make sure they are functioning properly and analyze data from a variety of sources, including databases and communication systems.
Security consultants:
They identify cybersecurity threats that could hit the organization and respond to any of them. They test cybersecurity systems to identify weaknesses, recommend ways to strengthen cybersecurity measures, and examine new risks that emerge over time. They may work for one company or serve several, giving them access to databases that could prove valuable in a criminal investigation.
Information security analysts:
They assess how effectively an organization's cybersecurity measures protect sensitive data. They identify possible network risks, investigate the sources and causes of security breaches, and install programs to protect data. Sometimes they also examine new malware and cyberattacks for criminal investigations.
IT auditors:
They analyze network systems to identify potential weaknesses. They also observe IT usage to ensure that all programs are operating efficiently, conduct automated data processing (ADP) audits, and develop new infrastructure for the IT department. They also prepare internal audit reports detailing their observations for criminal investigations.
The above five professionals often use digital forensics software to perform their tasks more efficiently. However, despite their extensive know-how and experience in performing their duties, a forensic analyst can still make mistakes.
Conclusion
Digital protection and threat mitigation, as you learned here, is impossible without digital forensics. And like everything else these days, organizations can ease every technical process with the help of the right tools. In the case of digital forensics, that means using digital forensic software.
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