DIGITAL FORENSIC INVESTIGATION, COLLECTION AND PRESERVATION OFDIGITAL EVIDENCE

With computers, and other electronic devices being involved in an increasing number, and type, of crimes the electronic trace left on electronic media can be a vital part of the legal process. To ensure acceptance by courts, accepted processes and procedures need to be acquired and demonstrated which are not dissimilar to the issues surrounding traditional forensic investigations. Forensic technology makes it possible to: identify privacy issues; establish a chain of custody for provenance; employ write protection for capture and transfer; and detect forgery or manipulation. It can extract and mine relevant metadata and content; enable efficient indexing and searching by curators; and facilitate audit control and granular access privileges. In recent years, digital forensics has emerged as an essential source of tools and approaches for facilitating digital preservation and curation, specifically for protecting and investigating evidence from the past. Institutional repositories and professionals with responsibilities for personal archives can benefit from forensics in addressing digital authenticity, accountability and accessibility. Digital personal information must be handled with due sensitivity and security respecting available standards while demonstrably protecting its evidential value. A digital forensic investigation is a special case of a digital investigation where the procedures and techniques that are used will allow the results to be entered into a court of law. Computer forensics is a new and fast growing field that involves carefully collecting and examining electronic evidence that not only assesses the damage to a computer as a result of an electronic attack, but also to recover lost information from such systems to prosecute criminals. With the growing importance of computer security today and the seriousness of cyber-crime, it is important for computer professionals to understand the technology used in computer forensics. Keywords: Computer forensics, image acquisition, digital preservation, data recovery