Digital Forensics Challenges Assignment Help

Research Topics: Digital Forensics Challenges

Limiting the focus to no more than 3 of the current challenges facing Digital

You are required to write a 7-8-page research paper, double-spaced, on “Digital” Forensics Challenges . The paper has to be well referenced, you need to do academic research on the topic then, the research will lead to a conclusion of what current Challenges in Digital Forensics are. 

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Introduction

Digital forensics is the scientific process of probing computer-based crime and it involves a series of activities like identification of the nature of the crime, recovery, validation of the crime and finally providing evidence. The ranges of digital forensics include a number of modern devices like mobile phones, laptops, external memory cards and other hard drives. With the help of advanced forensic science, cybercrime experts employ different scientific tools in order to accumulate evidence and solve the issues. However, at the time of carrying out the investigations, digital forensics confronts a number of serious challenges. The major challenges associated with digital forensics are a technical challenge, resource challenge and legal challenge.

The concept of digital forensics

The rapid growth of the internet and the availability of a number of low-cost digital devices have changed the way of people's interaction in offline and online. As a result,the rate of abuse and wrongdoings using technology are also increasing by leaps and bounds (Shariati et al., 2016). The role of digital forensics is to look at the digital components and devices so that evidence can be presented after the identification of the crime complying with the court's law. The methods of investigation associated with digital forensics are carrying out cross-drive analysis, recovering deleted documents associated with the crime, stochastic forensics and so on. By using digital forensics technique cybercrime experts strive to transfer data to his own system so that he can investigate the nature of the crime. Following this technique, forensics experts examine the extent of the crime and accumulate the necessary evidence in order to carry on the investigation properly (Wang & Zhang, 2016).Digital forensics experts back up necessary data so that they are not lost when the investigation is under-process. After analyzing those data they finally prepare evidence. In a nutshell, digital forensics helps the experts to solve a number of cybercrime and presenting suitable evidence in order to convict the offenders.

Challenges of digital forensics

Challenge1: Technical Challenges

The advent of the internet and the development of technologies have changed people's way of interaction. Although technology bears a number of advantages,numbers of crimes using digital tools are increasing day by day (Stratton et al., 2017). Forensic investigators have to face a number of challenges related to technology and these diverse ranges of challenges include steganography, encryption, covert channel, data wiping, tail obfuscation, attack on digital tools, and attack on forensic investigators and so on.

Steganography is a scientific technique and using this technique some offenders often hide important data in a non-secret file in order to reduce the potential chances of detection. Offenders use this technique to hide their payloads inside their system. While carrying on an investigation, digital forensics experts face the serious challenge of tracing that hidden information in order to accumulate evidence in order to prove the crime (Daryabar et al., 2017).

Encryption is a kind of computing system by which any type of data can be transformed into encoded version and only those who possess the decryption key can access those data (Lageson&Maruna, 2018). Offender takes the recourse of encryption method in order to make evidence inaccessible so that their crime can never be detected. For an investigator, it is extremely challenging and time-consuming to decrypt those data.

In recent times, a number of criminal use covert channels for stealing necessary data from a computer that is highly secured. Using covert channels offenders are extracting a number of necessary information in an illicit and unauthorized manner. Frequently, attackers use covert channels to transmit sensitive data befooling the network security mechanisms. Another most important aspect associated with this channel is that it cannot be easily identifiable.

By using a number of modern techniques and digital tools cybercriminals make temporary data invisible and it is very difficult for an investigator to trace that information easily.

By adopting the tail obfuscation method offenders sometimes mislead the investigators by supplying baseless information. As a result, forensic experts have to miss necessary information that they need in proving evidence (Holt et al., 2015).

Offenders sometimes hide necessary information within the storage and as a result, those data become invisible within a normal system. Attackers use a number of methods and kits technically known as rootkits in order to hi9de malware inside a personal computer. However, it is extremely difficult for an investigator to trace those rootkits. Even, most of the users have very little idea of how they can get rid of those rootkits. Using this data hiding technique cybercriminals hide network ports, drivers associated with the computer systems and files.
Recently, cybercriminals are well acquainted witha number of anti-forensics techniques and they adopt adiverse range of defensive measures in order to keep themselves untraced. Therefore, for lack of any new tool, it becomes extremely difficult for an investigator to trace those offenders.

Challenge 2: Resource Challenges

Depending on the rate of cybercrime, the entire amount of data is too high to store properly. For an investigator, it is extremely challenging to go through those huge amounts of resources in order to prepare evidence. This enormous amount of data makes the process of investigation lengthy and time-consuming. As the aim of digital forensics to investigate a crime as quickly as possible in order to avoid a number of difficulties, it is very challenging for a cyber-crime expert to render a quick solution of the crime. As most of the activities of the users have been stored in volatile memory, the reliability of getting authentic resources from a volatile memory is very less because of its ephemeral nature. So, an investigator has to look into the issues of manipulation and modification of data while probing because there are lesser chances of getting authentic data from a manipulated resource (Maras, 2015). Another important challenge related to the resource is that an investigator cannot carry on the investigation depending on those sources that are damaged or fragmented. It is pertinent to note that digital evidence tends to disappear very quickly. So an investigator has to carry out the entire process of investigation within a very short time in order to reduce the risk of manipulation or contamination. But the real challenge for a digital crime investigator is to manage that enormous amount of data. A digital forensics expert has to take the help of a series of necessary tools in order to validate the authenticity of the data. It is only after the authentication, an investigator can present the evidence associated with the crime.

Challenge 3: Legal challenges

Since data security plays a major role in the hiding of the sensitive information, there should be some legal issues which make a protective shield to prevent any theft of personal or sensitive data. Despite being many laws implemented by the government of any country, there are some still limitations. The presentation of the electronic evidence in the courts has been a major problem. There are many challenges related to legal issues with respect to digital forensics. Nowadays, cybercrimes are dangerously developing in the fields of various Information Technology (IT) and its other related fields (Losavio et al., 2018). The main legal challenges faced by the experts are the following:

Enormous Volume and the Speed of data

Since evidence is not concentrated in a single person and spreads from one person to another by the means of social media sites, face to face discussions and other means, so there should be more and vast knowledge of expertise machines, tools and knowledge which is a major and time-consuming problem to reconstruct the evidence as the evidence may be spread to the cybercriminals (Karie& Venter, 2015). The development of different standards and measures are a preventive tool for theft and criminal activities but it is a major and more time-consuming problem as a result of which the sensitive, as well as the personal information, may be fetched by the miscreants. However, proof of evidence is a major problem. Nowadays people are using social media networks for their entertainment related activities. A sudden investigation of criminal related activities by the cyber protecting officials can violate the laws of public and thereby results in impatience, anxiety and anger and so on.

The defensive measures undertaken by the cyber officials such as hiding of the sensitive information, creation of firewall to prevent stealing of personal information, requires high skills and the expert knowledge of forensic sciences which is a threat to the legal issue and the security experts need best as well as the expertise tools for their proper investigation. The technique used to extract the information from the digital devices needs to comply with the legal consideration. Nature of the digital media, internet and forensic information are not restrained just by the geographical boundaries, therefore, legal issues are associated with the multiple jurisdictions (Watson, Steve &Dehghantanha, 2016). International cooperation is a very important issue and cybercrime can occur leaving the trail in many parts of the world and across multiple national boundaries. It is very important to protect the privacy of the people and businesses during the examination. Sometimes, judges and juries have less technical knowledge; therefore, it is a challenge to present the data in a clear and understanding manner. Legal professionals have a lack of knowledge and they tend to have a lack of confidence in the ability of technical specialists to create evidence which is admissible in the court. As stated by Sammons (2015), many digital forensic processes are utilized by the investigators; however, no best practices handbooks are available for the people. In the UK, computer crime and forensic investigations are covered by the same laws, whereas, in the US Electronic Communications Privacy Act has its own limitations on the ability of law which enforces civil investigators to access and intercept evidence. According to (Pichan, Lazarescu&Soh, 2015), laws dealing with many of the digital evidence have two major issues, authenticity and integrity. Integrity can ensure the act of acquiring and seizing digital media which can modify the evidence. On the other side, authenticity means the ability to confirm the information integrity which can match the original evidence.

Recommendation

An effective and efficient capability of digital forensic sciences
All the forensic examinations, results, conclusions are to be carried out under the supervision of sound knowledge and highly skilled technical forensic experts who may identify, predict, analyze and implement the correct and accurate results. The achievements of results should be legally sufficient.

Proper scientific management of quality techniques

All the scientific examinations carried out under the expert supervision of the senior forensic experts must implement a high quality of the management system to govern scientific methodologies and high quality of the services. Here the implementation of the quality procedures and practices will enhance and enable that the results are being of high and efficient quality.

Appropriate and essential qualifications in this field

The people employed in digital forensics must be able to conquer and achieve the work-related objectives and must be qualified as per the direction of the prescribed department. The people employed in digital forensics must possess the required and essential qualifications in which they work in the concerned department.

Conclusion

The present report is about a number of challenges associated with digital forensics. Digital forensics is a scientific method of investigation and it is really a very important method for combatting against cybercrime. The advent of the internet and easier availability of digital devices have changed the way of communication. In the age of digital communication, cybercriminals employ a number of techniques in order to keep their identity hidden. In fact, the rate of cybercrime has been increasing very rapidly and it is extremely challenging for an investigator to collect evidence from a number of resources. The aim of digital forensics is to make the process of the investigation faster and in order to achieve this objective investigator are facing a number of challenges. The report discusses three challenges in detail and those challenges include technical challenge, resource challenge and legal challenge. The report has also presented a number of recommendations for overcoming those challenges.

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