In this technological world, the use of mobiles, computer systems and internet have increased tremendously over the years. With this tremendous use of network and devices, the chances of a Cyber-crime occuring is bound to happen.
This is where Cyber Forensics come into the scene. In this article, a quick brief information will be presented on the objectives of Cyber Forensics, the different types of crimes that occur and also the solutions and preventive measures that can be taken. Before that lets see a short definition of Cyber-crime and Cyber Forensics.
Cyber-crime in simple terms is when an individual uses a mobile or a computer system to carry out illegal activities and frauds over the internet.
Cyber Forensics is a method of extracting and collecting data or information that could be a proof or evidence to a Cyber-crime.
Objectives of Cyber Forensics in cyber crimes
- Recover crucial data - recovering deleted data form various systems such as smartphones, computers can be very beneficial for forming evidence.
- Analyse and preservation - The data evidence that is found is analysed to check whether it is usable or corrupt, further proper data preservation steps are taken.
- Documentation - The evidence that is found after the recovery, and after analysing it, everything is documented and backups are made. The most valuable part of documenting evidence is that, it can be presented in court against the criminal.
- Motive behind the crime - Cyber forensics helps to understand why the crime was committed and the motive of the individual or a group.
TYPES OF CYBER-CRIMES
- Cyber bullying
- Cyber stalking
- Online extortion
- Phishing
- Vishing
- Smishing
- Identity theft
- Telecom frauds
- Ransomware
Solutions, Tools and Preventive measures
CERT or ICERT (Indian Computer Emergency Response Team) is an office that is in the ministry of electronics and information technology of the government of INDIA. CERT or ICERT has been designated and founded to serve and help worldwide when a Cyber-crime has occurred and various tasks and operations can be carried out such as:
- Collection, analysis and dissemination of information on cyber incidents.
- Forecasting and alerting various cyber crimes and security incidents.
- Emergency measures for handling cybercrimes and security incidents.
- Issuing guidelines, advisories, vulnerability notes about security practices, prevention, procedures.
Various Cyber laws can be put upon criminals that are connected with Cyber-crimes such as:
- Information technology Act 2000
- Indian penal code 1860
Tools such as:
- Autopsy - Autopsy is a GUI-based system that uses Sleuth Kit behind the scenes.
- Sleuth kit - It is a command line tool for analysis of forensic images.
- FTK imager - It is a data preview and imaging tool.
- Wireshark - wireshark is a packet analyzer used for network troubleshooting. analysis, software and communications protocol development.
- CAINE - Computer Aided Investigation Environment. It is a live Linux distribution so it can be booted from removable media. It is an environment in which various FTKs are present and can be used at will.
- Volatility - Volatility is an open-source memory forensics framework for incident response and malware analysis.
- Registry recon - This tool has the ability to rebuild deleted parts of the registry.
- Cellebrite UFED - UFED stands for universal forensic extraction device. This is the best commercial tool for mobile forensics.
Safety measures such as:
- Keeping a strong password
- Changing passwords frequently
- Having a real time protection software for system protection
- Updating protection software
- Avoiding answering emails, messages and sms from unknown sources.
All these can result in being safe.
Now that we know what types of Cyber-crimes could occur and their solutions, tools and safety measures. This can be very beneficial in preventing Cyber-crimes and also gaing knowledge of how Cyber forensics works.
