Cyber Forensics Basics

Cyber forensics is the practice of collecting, preserving, and analyzing digital evidence to understand what happened during a security incident.

What Digital Forensics Involves

Forensic investigators examine hard drives, memory, logs, and network traffic to reconstruct the timeline of an attack and identify how a system was compromised.

Preserving the Chain of Custody

Evidence must be collected and documented in a way that proves it wasn't altered, using write-blockers and detailed logs so findings can hold up if the case goes to legal proceedings.

The Forensic Investigation Process

A typical investigation moves through identification, preservation, collection, examination, analysis, and reporting, ensuring findings are thorough, accurate, and defensible.

Common Forensic Tools

Tools like Autopsy and FTK are used for disk analysis, Volatility for memory forensics, and various log analysis platforms help investigators piece together evidence from different sources.