Informative Articles About Digital Forensics Litigation Support
The Sarbanes-Oxley Compliance For Corporates
Auditing is a major concern of any company. Every organization should comply with rules and regulations set forth by the US government. One such regulation is Sarbanes-Oxley Act which applies to public companies. The Sarbanes-Oxley Act was enacted as a reaction to a number of corporate and accounting scandals. These scandals shook the confidence of the public because they cost investors millions of dollars when the share price of the affected companies collapsed. This Act does not apply to privately held companies though. The Sarbanes-Oxley Act was passed into law in 2002 to protect investors by improving the accuracy and reliability of corporate disclosures. The requirements of Sarbanes-Oxley are that a public company must have written policies and procedures that are followed to protect the interests of its stock holders. This law totally changed the standards of all US public company boards, management and public accounting firms.The SOX orders strict reforms to improve financial disclosures from corporations and prevent accounting fraud. The Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX) requires that if a company records client personal information, it must be maintained in a secure manner. In the event any client’s personal information is compromised each client who may have been affected must be informed within a reasonable period of time. The Act Creates a Public Company Accounting Oversight Board to enforce professional standards, ethics, and competence for the accounting profession Strengthens the independence of firms that…
Read MoreThe Process for Recovering Electronic Evidence
There are two primary steps in the process of recovering electronic data; “acquisition” of the target medium, and a forensic byte-by-byte analysis of the data. Computer forensic science was created to address the specific and articulated needs of law enforcement to make the most of this new form of electronic evidence. Computer forensic science is the science of acquiring, preserving, retrieving, and presenting data that has been processed electronically and stored on computer medium. Rather than producing interpretative conclusions, as in many forensic disciplines, computer forensic science produces direct information and data that may have some significance in a case. This type of direct data collection has wide-ranging implications for both the relationship between the investigator and the forensic scientist and the work product of the forensic computer examination. Using customized computer forensic tools, the target medium is acquired through a non-invasive complete area-by-area bit-stream image procedure. During the imaging process, it is critical the mirror image be acquired in a DOS environment. Switching on the computer and booting into its operating system will subtly modify the file system, potentially destroying some recoverable evidence. The resulting image becomes the “evidence file,” which is mounted as a read-only or “virtual” file, on which the forensic examiner will perform their analysis. The forensics software used by CFI creates an evidence file that will be continually verified by a Cyclical Redundancy Checksum (“CRC”) algorithm for every…
Read MoreElectronic Discovery Services
Electronic data discovery is a collection of huge chunks of data that is either lost due to some accident or deleted due to some reason. Such electronic data retrieved is used in litigation cases where electronic data is evidence. Electronic document discovery services for law firms and corporate clients involved in litigation are no longer a matter of requesting printed copies of documents. New and extremely valuable data can be found in accounting systems, Email or databases if one knows where to look. This retrieval requires processing and review of large volumes of desperate data, many times eliminating the expense of converting irrelevant data. Electronic discovery enables you to streamline e-discovery by providing a window into your case data before data processing and review. It helps you gain control and transparency by determining filtering guidelines. Electronic data discovery includes retrieval of e-mails, voice mails, instant messages, e-calendars, audio files, data on handheld devices, animation, metadata, graphics, photographs, spreadsheets and other types of digital data. E-discovery can also be in the form offline discovery carried out on a particular computer for a particular case. Computer forensics is an electronic data discovery service that includes the collection, preservation, analysis, and presentation of computer-related evidence. Computer evidence can be useful in criminal cases, civil disputes, and human resources/employment proceedings. Computer forensics is a specialized form of e-discovery in which an investigation is carried out on the…
Read MoreHard Drive Recovery Services
With the advent of technology there is a broad range of problems we encounter on a daily basis. The current trends allow us to store a huge amount of data in the form of files on computer hard drives. Hard drives have replaced the earlier cumbersome piles of papers that were susceptible to damage easily. With hard drives on computers we can save humongous chunks of data that can be retrieved at an unimaginable speed. However, there is a possibility of this data being lost, the drive not accessible, the drive getting corrupt and other unexpected snags. Hard drives being the most valuable assets of a company should not be messed with. If you chance to lose data due to a hard drive crash, a state of the art means by Data Triage Technologies assists you to recover data from corrupted drives. In the absence of back ups such data recovery is invaluable. How is data retrieved? Hard drive data recovery is the process of retrieving lost data from hard drive. This retrieval is due to the inaccessibility of data through normal recovery processes. Notwithstanding the fact that your hard drive has crashed or locked up for some reason, Data Triage has hard drive recovery services that can recover the data using a variety of hard drive data recovering techniques. Why does a hard drive crash? Reasons can be many when it comes…
Read MoreRole of the Computer Forensics Expert Witness in the Litigation Process
Computer Forensics Computer forensics are used in criminal investigation, civil litigation, hacking, embezzlement, industrial espionage, insurance fraud and law enforcement or Internet/company property abuse. Computer forensics focuses on acquisition, restoration and analysis of digital data. In business world, computer forensics can be used to restore corrupted or lost data, resurrect outdated software environment, and analyze common security breach activities. A Computer Forensics Expert A computer forensics expert is an experienced personnel who can access a compromised computer, duplicate all files and directories and document all steps taken during the recovery and discovery process. A computer forensics expert is an experienced personnel who can maintain the integrity of data, preserving the chain of control and following a proven methodology of review. A computer forensics expert can track deleted files, hidden files, files created by the system such as an automatic backup of a document, or fragmented files that are scattered throughout the storage devices. A computer forensics expert is an experienced personnel who can document the location of electronic data, its nature, format and other identifiers. A Computer Forensics Expert Witness A computer forensics expert witness is an experienced personnel who is adept at handling the tools of computer forensics, resolving matters in corporates and litigation processes by contributing to the evidence pool, establishing truth for more efficient and rapid resolution, judgment or settlement. Digital data that is lost, stolen, deleted or otherwise manipulated…
Read MoreNetwork Security Auditing
The word audit brings a lot of scenes to your mind. A lot of unpleasantness is associated with this word. Network security audit does ring a bell of tax audit though in an altogether different sense. In the regular tax audit you can see people physically accessing your files and network security audit they crawl into the virtual world of computer network. Network security auditing is an approach to auditing networks in order to ensure their safety. In the entire information systems audit framework, the audit of networks is one piece of a big puzzle. The other pieces of the puzzle are audits of application software, data base etc. A Network Security Auditor’s job is to gather certain information and understanding of this information about the network to review in order to complete the audit of network security. The first step in this Network Security Audit is to determine the expanse of the network. A typical way to do this is to examine the network diagram. This diagram shows all the routes available on the network. A Network Security Auditor had to ensure the accuracy of this diagram. Businesses change and the network diagram needs to be updated with these changes. An auditor has to observe the processes that exist in the organization to update and maintain the diagram accurately. Concentration at particular areas in the network such as data centers where ERP…
Read MoreWhy Do You Need A Computer Forensics Expert Witness
Since the turn of the millennium for personal and business purposes computers have become ‘the most must have contraptions’ and the usage and dependence on the Internet continued to move upwards. 80% of all corporate data is now being stored electronically and allowed to stay in electronic format. Then came the bad news. As the use of computers escalated, so did the computer crime. According to the Crime in America statistics website, in 2009 alone, computer crime increased by 22 percent. These crimes needed a computer expert, an investigator to fathom the depth of the crime and an expert who can present the computer evidence methodically in the court of law to convict him. The computer expert, the computer forensic specialist and a Forensics Expert Witness have now new avatar as a Computer Forensics Expert Witness A Computer Forensics Expert Witness is a Computer Forensic investigator who can investigate. A Computer Forensics Expert Witness is a specialist within Computer Forensics and E-Discovery and can testify regarding the accuracy and findings from the computer forensics. A Computer Forensics Expert Witness may work in close conjunction with a Computer Forensics investigator, or he himself would work as both. Computer Forensics investigator is the specialist who can methodically investigate, discover and analyze the available, deleted, or hidden information that can be put to use as irrefutable evidence in a legal case. A Computer Forensics Expert Witness…
Read MoreDoes Your Company Have A Computer Incident Response Team (CIRT)?
Computer Incident Response Team is an expert group that handles computer security incidents. Whenever a new technology arrives, it is invariably dogged by misuse like the first worm in the IBM VNET and Morris Worm that hit Internet and paralyzed it. This led to the formation of the first Computer Emergency Response Team at Carnegie Mellon University under U.S. Government contract. With the massive growth in the use of Information and Communications Technologies thereafter, the Computer Incident Response Team (CIRT) has come to stay as an essential part of large organizations. No matter how well your network is protected, there are always incidents you are not prepared to deal with, by yourself. It may be because the problem is beyond your technical know-how for the necessary action to be taken. Security policy of a company is not complete until procedures are put into place for the handling and recovery from the incidents. The best solution is to include a Computer Incident Response Team (CIRT) within the company’s incident response procedures. What is a Computer Incident Response Team (CIRT)? A Computer Incident Response Team (CIRT) is a group of people who can promptly and correctly handle an incident. A Computer Incident Response Team (CIRT) can quickly contain, investigate and recover from an incident that poses a threat to the security of an organization. A Computer Incident Response Team (CIRT) is usually comprised of members…
Read MoreHow The Computer Criminals Control Information – Types of Computer Crime
As computer-related crimes become more prevalent, understanding the types of computer-related crimes provides law enforcement an insight for investigative strategies. The first insight is knowing the types of computer crimes. Computer as the Target This computer crime includes theft of intellectual property. The offender accesses the operating program under the guise of the system’s manager. The intruder accesses the contents of computer files in the system through the trap door that permits access to systems should there be a human or technological problem. Here, the offender uses the computer to obtain information or to damage operating programs while committing the following computer crimes: Theft of marketing information, like customer lists, pricing data, or marketing plans Blackmail based on information gained from computerized files, like the medical information, personal history, or sexual preference Sabotage of intellectual property, marketing, pricing, or personnel data Sabotage of operating systems and programs with the intent to impede a business or create chaos in a business operations Unlawful access to criminal justice and other government records Changing a criminal history, modifying want and warrant information Creating a driver’s license, passport, or another document for false identification Changing tax records or gaining access to intelligence files Techno-vandalism through unauthorized access to damage files or programs Techno-trespass violating the owner’s privacy as in criminal trespass Computer as the Instrumentality of the Crime Here, the processes of the computer facilitate the crime.…
Read MoreComputer Forensics Services Against Computer Vandalism
Computer crime, cybercrime, e-crime, hi-tech crime or electronic crime generally refers to criminal activity where a computer or network is the source, tool, or target of a crime. Although computer crime and cybercrime are more properly restricted to describing criminal activity in which the computer or network is a necessary part of the crime, they are also used to include crimes like fraud, theft, blackmail, forgery, and embezzlement, in which computers, information technology or networks is used. A computer is an excellent device for record keeping, particularly given the power to encode the data and can be used as a source of evidence. This evidence can be obtained and decoded, which can be used by the criminal investigators with the technical help provided by Computer Forensics Services. Computer Forensics Services makes use of analytical and investigative techniques to identify, collect, examine and preserve evidence or information that is magnetically stored or encoded against such crimes. A forensic investigation by Computer Forensics Services can be initiated as part of criminal investigation, or civil litigation, through the sophisticated digital forensic techniques. Computer Forensics Services like Data Triage Technologies provides digital evidence when data has been lost in the instances like: Employee internet abuse Unauthorized disclosure of corporate information and data Industrial espionage Damage of the system in an accident Criminal fraud and deception cases Criminal cases where criminals have used computers to store information Investigation…
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