Cyber Forensic Investigation is a new and emerging field with dynamic growth in the demand for professionals. Its popularity and demand grow as the world evolves into an increasingly digital society. According to its impact on society, the current article will define some necessary information. Also, you will learn the skills and tools that a computer forensic needs to make a successful Cyber Forensic Investigation.
Table of Contents
What is a cyber forensic investigation?
Cyber Forensic Investigation is the process of investigating and analyzing cybercrimes through gathering and preserving evidence from computer devices for their presentation in a court of law.
What is the purpose of the cyber forensic investigation?
- Identifying who was accessing the computer system or network illegally.
- Discovering what kind of malware or malicious software program was used to penetrate the network.
- Recognizing what did happen with data and devices after hacking.
- Preserving any evidence in its most original form.
- Collecting information about suspicious events.
- Validating the digital information to reconstruct past events.
What is a computer forensics investigator?
A computer forensics investigator is a professional investigating cybercrime to recover lost or deleted data. Also, the investigator preserves and analyzes evidence from digital devices.
What is a cyber forensics analyst?
A cyber forensics analyst sifts through digital records and devices to find any evidence of cybercrime. Generally, the analyst works for law enforcement or private organizations that want to investigate the hacking. In addition, they are crucial because they have the power to examine a device for any malware.
Skills to make a Cyber Forensic Investigation success
- Coding: A computer forensics investigator needs skills like coding to recover and analyze data after a cyber-attack. Generally, the investigator requires to add some coding despite using automated methods that search metadata on any digital device hacked. In this way, the expert can identify the data damage and recover them without paying the ransom demand.
- Advanced knowledge of computers: Forensics investigators combine hardware, software, and operating systems knowledge to gathering and investigating the cause of any malicious acts. Even they know about information technology laws and the legal system as a complement to succeed in the process. Then, they use the computers as sources of evidence to find deleted files, browser history, or hidden processes.
- Networking: Computer forensics investigators must have high networks settings knowledge, their infrastructure, and how they work. Also, they should know about every policy and protocol security to identify when someone is breaking them.
- Communication: Investigators require to speak clearly to interact well with clients. Also, they need strong written and verbal communication skills to expose all the evidence in the court.
Why the company needs cyber forensics investigators?
Companies need cyber forensics investigators to help them to invent suspicious events that can damage their assets. These cyber professionals are the ones who specialize in finding the flaws in the security systems before it’s too late. They can also identify if a hacker is trying to target a company and take action to prevent them. The experts can collect digital evidence and analyze data for inconsistencies and breaches. Also, they can carry out cybersecurity investigations to find the actor of potential crimes.
Hiring someone with these skills helps companies discover what happened to their data after it is stolen or leaked. In addition, they can advise on how to avoid similar situations from happening in the future.
SIEM tools focused on Cyber Forensic Investigation
An investigator can use different digital forensics tools depending on their specialties and data sources. However, the focus of the current section is a popular tool that is used in companies for different purposes. “SIEM tools”
Many SIEM tools collect through the “Security Event Management” process all the data from various security devices and sensors. A SIEM detects malicious activities like viruses, malware, and hacking attempts to report them to security professionals. Also, it monitors all the information for any suspicious activities and stores it in a database. Affortunitly, it is possible because the SIEM identifies threats by comparing current events with past events in its database.
Generally, SIEM providers offer SOC as a service where their teams can do forensics investigations. However, only SIEM solutions that include a Unified Threat Management system (UTM) like UTMStack do Cyber Forensics Investigations. The UTM systems monitor the persons’ IP addresses and track their online activity. It tracks down on spammers the internet to find out who is doing harmful posts about the company. Also, it validates if a website is actively engaged in spamming activities or not.
Moreover, the current SIEM can analyze files, emails, network activity, incidents, and other potential artifacts. Therefore, analysts and forensic investigators can use a SIEM with these features to do a forensic investigation. However, companies need to install it in the computer system before the incidents to collect all the necessary information.