With continually progressing digitalization in almost all
aspects of life, it has become insignificant for people to realize that
personal privacy is changing into an alienated facility for them. For
everything they do on digital media, using digital devices is being saved and stored
effortlessly. However, this has become a breakthrough facility for
investigation agencies to successfully solve crime mysteries. Here’s an insight
on what digital forensics is about and how it has helped in defacing people and
their suspicious or malicious acts.
What Is Digital Forensics?
Digital forensics that had started out as computer forensics
now encompasses the investigative use of all devices that carry digital data.
It is the process of extracting hidden, encrypted or deleted information or
even traces of it on a digital device k that leads to the clues in, or proving
of, a crime. It is a form of forensic science in which data or files in a
digital device, passed over a network can be uncovered and retracted; with the aim
of preserving data in its authentic form. The investigation follows a
structured system in which data begins with being extracted, then arranged,
identified, presented and finally proved in accordance to the events that have
passed in front of the respective authorities to deal with the crime.
While in its entirety, digital forensics can be used in
proving of several crimes, a few of them are murder, theft, assault and a lot
more.
Extracting Evidence
The analyst from a digital forensics investigation agency in Los Angeles will examine the finds prior to presentation to the
court. The extraction of the finds begins in two ways, the dead analysis and
the live analysis. The dead one involves a situation where the system is shut
down and is about finding of data stored, or hidden in the digital device along
with physical clues such as fingerprints etc in relation to the crime. Live
analysis includes the upfront assessment of a working system that has not been
shut down, using analytical tools. A primary focus of all forensic analysts.
How Digital Forensics Help
Internet is flooded with such news where people have been
convicted of a crime based on their internet search history. Apparently some of
them have been smart enough to delete the search history and fool the
prosecutors for long until the suspicion got strong and a digital forensic
analyst came along. Retrieving not just the history but also hard evidence
against the criminals.
Cybercrime has also gained undeniable spotlight over the
past few years due to the influx of technology usage through social media and
other aspects of digital media. This opens up an extensive pathway for malware
and cybercrime. Hackers can access another person’s system using any digital
network without even having to move an inch from their place. This leads to severe
privacy abrasion and criminal activities such as identity theft, access to
personal files and data, blackmailing, cyber assault, abduction and a lot more
of the kind.
However, with the help of forensic analytics, experts can
access networks and retrieve files and information shared or transferred over
it. This helps them in tracking the criminal even if he is hiding in a cave, if
the evidences have worked up against him.
This is not all but rather a drop in the ocean, of the help acquired
by experts using digital forensics in solving crime mysteries.