No, it’s not another Crime Scene Investigation TV series.

Computer forensics do relates to crime investigation, however.

A knol by Integrity Security about computer forensics explains that today, computer forensic investigators have been a powerful resource for attorneys and prosecutors in both civil and criminal proceedings, helping to catch online predators, hackers, fraudulent bank schemes, and even the domestic cheating spouse.

What is computer forensics? According to the knol:

Computer forensics is a form of forensic science pertaining to legal evidence found in computers and digital storage media sources… Computer forensics involves the preservation, identification, extraction, documentation and interpretation of computer data.

Acquiring evidence is the main key in computer forensics. According to the knol, the most common source of evidence is the computer hard drive. There are actually many possible sources for evidence – a laptop, a cell phone, a USB memory stick, a digital voice recorder, and even a stick of memory RAM.

I particularly interested in how an evidence is collected from the hard drive, as explained in the knol:

1. Acquiring the evidence

Using a ‘write blocker’ device to protect the hard drive’s data integrity, investigator starts data acquisition that is stored in forensic computer containing acquisition software.

2. Performing analysis

Computer forensic analysis is the process an investigator deploys special tools, programs, and scripts to search through billions of bytes of information. Years of data, even those that have already been deleted, can be extracted and investigated.

A computer forensic investigator must take careful measures to ensure rules, regulations, and protocols are followed before the investigation commences. A single procedural violation could render a strong case resulting in a failed prosecution.

Child pornographers and cheaters – beware.

Image by Integrity Security.