Key concepts to grasp before delving into this blog post
- Cookie: A tiny file websites store on your device, holding information like preferences or login details.
- Token: Like a digital pass, it confirms your identity without revealing your password every time you access a site.
- Session: A temporary connection between you and a website, keeping track of your activities until you log out or leave.
Imagine you're at an online store (website). When you log in (session starts), it gives you a token (digital pass) and stores a cookie (tiny file) on your device. As you browse, the cookie remembers your preferences, and the token ensures the site recognizes you without asking for your password every time during that session.
digital forensics is like being a detective in the digital world. It's a specialized part of cybersecurity that focuses on investigating cyber incidents, crimes, and security breaches. Imagine it as gathering, saving, analyzing, and presenting digital evidence from things like computers, phones, servers, and networks.
The main goals are figuring out what happened, finding any bad actions, understanding how it affected things, and providing proof for legal or regulatory actions. Digital forensics is closely connected to responding to incidents, helping out at various points in the process.
Key Concepts in Digital Forensics
- Electronic evidence → includes files, emails, logs, databases, and network traffic from devices like computers and phones.
- Preserving evidence → is crucial, following proper procedures to prevent changes and maintain integrity.
- forensic process → Identification, Collection, Examination, Analysis, Presentation
- Identification: Finding potential evidence sources.
- Collection: Gathering data using proper methods.
- Examination: Analyzing collected data for relevant info.
- Analysis: Interpreting data to draw conclusions.
- Presentation: Clearly communicating findings.
- types of Cases → Used in cases like cybercrime (hacking, fraud), intellectual property theft, employee misconduct, and aiding in data breaches or incidents affecting organizations.
Web Browser Forensics
Web browser forensics is a special field that looks at the tracks left by web browsers. It helps understand what users do online and can reveal possible harmful actions.
Important Browser Forensic Artifacts:
- Browsing History: Records of visited websites with URLs, titles, timestamps, and visit frequency.
- Cookies: Small files with session details, preferences, and authentication tokens.
- Cache: Stored copies of web pages, images, and content, even after history clearance.
- Bookmarks/Favorites: Saved links to frequently visited websites or pages.
- Download History: Records of downloaded files with source URLs, filenames, and timestamps.
- Autofill Data: Info automatically entered into forms, like names, addresses, and passwords.
- Search History: Queries entered into search engines, along with search terms and timestamps.
- Session Data: Details about active browsing sessions, tabs, and windows.
- Typed URLs: Directly entered URLs in the address bar.
- Passwords: Saved or auto-filled passwords for websites.
Summary
- Digital forensics is a specialized branch of cybersecurity, involving the collection, preservation, analysis, and presentation of digital evidence.
- Key concepts include electronic evidence, preservation procedures, the forensic process, and handling various types of cases.
- Web browser forensics focuses on examining traces left by web browsers, revealing crucial artifacts like browsing history, cookies, cache, and more.