Electronic Investigation, Essay Example

Forensic investigators use various tools for evidence collection and detection. However, more preference is given to certified tools as compared to freeware. Some freeware tools that are available to public are ‘dec 64’ (used for recovering base 64 pictures), ‘digital image recovery’ (used for retrieving multimedia contents), ‘disk cat’ (used for making catalogues for better file management). Some certified forensic investigation tools are ‘Encase forensics’ (Operates on any technology platform for data retrieval), ‘X ways Forensics’ (Operated on a data mapping utility or retrieve lost or deleted data), ‘Forensic Tool Kit (FTK)’ (Operates on more than one workstation for investigation and evidence detection) (Forensic computing ltd. free computer forensic software downloads and security tools, n.d).

Forensic investigators use the method ‘keyword searching’ with the help of tools. It is a powerful method to extract or retrieve required data in less time and at the same time identifies and limits the scope of investigation. Keyword search is achieved at the optimal level by defining single keywords that is backed by a forensic tool. Moreover, indexing, which is an automated process, plays a primary role in a typical keyword search process, as it will be utilized to read the offsets of keywords when searched. Likewise, whenever forensic tools analyze the indexed data, it separates the keywords from the data that is located in the image (Keyword searching and indexing of forensic images, n.d). Conversely, when professional or certified tools are applied for keyword searching, certified digital forensics tools deploys advanced linguistic processing techniques that will provide comprehensive outputs that are not achievable by operating on freeware or simple tools (Odyssey digital forensics, n.d).

References

Forensic computing ltd. free computer forensic software downloads and secuirty tools. n.d Retrieved 10/15/2011, 2011, from http://www.forensic-computing.ltd.uk/tools.htm

Keyword searching and indexing of forensic images, n.d Retrieved 10/15/2011, 2011, from http://pyflag.sourceforge.net/Documentation/articles/indexing/index.html

Odyssey digital forensics n.d Retrieved 10/15/2011, 2011, from http://www.basistech.com/digital-forensics/custom-solutions/odyssey-digital-forensics/