Advanced Digital Forensic Investigations Unit 2 DB, Essay Example

Certain forensic tools help investigators to identify, copy, and rerun illicit system actions or to convalesce, repeat, and evaluate digital information from formatted mediums (Jones, 2008). Here, one open source and one certified postmortem analytic forensics tools are described. The advantages and disadvantages of each are investigated.

The open source tool is called Autopsy. The proprietary software is called EnCase^® Forensic. Some advantages and disadvantages of each are enumerated here. Autopsy is a browser that The Sleuth Kit runs on (Carrier, 2011). The Sleuth kit includes live and dead analytics, evidence search, and case management. One major advantage is that it is inexpensive and robust. A disadvantage is that, without Autopsy, The Sleuth Kit is dismembered and does not function as a unified whole. Another major advantage of Autopsy is that it is free.

EnCase Forensic is an all-in-one digital forensic suite by Guidance Software (Guidance, 2011). It features multiuser viewing, advanced analytics, and it is customizable. It offers and full range of automatic reporting, too. A major advantage of this industry recognized leader in forensic digital technology is that it comes with corporate quality customer support. The main disadvantage is the price. Any price above free is infinitely greater than zero. Another major advantage is that EnCase can help investigators detect whether a media has been deliberately tampered to hide incriminating data.

Here, one open source and one certified postmortem analytic forensics tools have been described. The advantages and disadvantages of each have been investigated. Such digital forensic tools help investigators gather evidence in illicit activities on a computer system.

References

Guidance. (2011). EnCase. Retrieved from http://www.guidancesoftware.com/forensic.htm

Carrier, B. (2011). Autopsy. Retrieved from http://www.sleuthkit.org/autopsy/

Jones, A. (2008). Building a Digital Forensic Laboratory. Butterworth-Heinemann.