CYSE 407

Digital Forensics

This course introduces the basic concepts and technologies of digital forensics. Students will learn the fundamental techniques and tools utilized for collecting, processing, and preserving digital evidence on computers, mobile devices, networks, and cloud computing environments. Students will also engage in oral and written communication to report digital forensic findings and prepare court presentation materials.

At the end of this course students will be able to:

  1. Recognize the duties of a digital forensic investigator and the requirements of a lab environment.
  2. Utilize data collection tools and methods necessary for recovering and identifying different digital forensic artifacts left by attacks.
  3. Utilize appropriate methods to preserve the integrity of digital evidence and acquire a forensically sound image.
  4. Analyze different types of digital evidence to extract the related information important to a case under investigation.
  5. Prepare evidence, findings and results of analysis in a digital forensic report.

Course Material

 

For this assignment, we were to act as if we were hired to create and run a brand new digital forensics lab for a mid-sized police department, and come up with a plan for the lab for the next 3 years. We needed to have a Lab Accreditation Plan, Lab Calibration plans, a Lab Maintenance Plan, and a Lab Floor Plan that we designed. We also needed an inventory list that contained the necessary hardware, software, and physical materials for the lab, physical security measures, definitions of abbreviations used within the lab, and a detailed list of staff needed for the lab as well as their tasks and responsibilities within the lab.

For this assignment, we were to act as a forensic expert to investigate alleged contact between US and Russian officials. The owner of the laptop in the assignment and phone has “lawyered up” and is not saying anything about what they were doing or any meetings that may have happened. My task was to perform a forensic analysis on the laptop and cell phone of a high ranking US government official. and write your official report to the prosecutor as evidence that may go to court in the future.

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