Modern World Internet and Digital Forensics: Here Is Why It Is Essential
As the world transitions rapidly, businesses grow at a fast pace. Whether physical or virtual, on-site or online, cash or cashless, the internet is becoming a necessity for all of us. Without the internet, our lives are as meaningless as they were in the Stone Age.
Moving with that fast-paced life where everything is available on the internet, seven days a week and throughout the year, it is also necessary to keep the virtual environment safe, secure, and credible to build trust among the consumers who are accessing the resources available on the internet whether they belong to official purposes, merchandise or personal, we have to make sure that the information we have and the users are trying to access, is available all the time, keeping the visitors' information confidential which enhances the integrity and reliability of resources available online and their services.
Types of Attacks
There are multiple types of attacks that used to happen by attackers which in terms, which we used to call hackers or Threat Actors who initiate the attacks to meet their purpose, primarily financial needs. The hackers want to gain access to one's credentials to gain unauthorized access to the bank account for financial transactions, social networks to check user activities, and their mobile devices to gain unauthorized access to their official environment to initiate a reckon or Ransom attack. Following are examples of some attacks.
1. Phishing Attack
It is a socially engineered attack, used to get sensitive information such as credentials, credit card numbers, and account information.
2. Spear Phishing Attack
Same as a phishing attack, specifically targeted to individuals and businesses.
3. Man in the Middle Attack
As its name suggests, it involves secretly interfering with two parties' communications without letting them know that their data is no longer confidential. In this type of attack, the hacker may send malicious software or links to download malware that seems legitimate to the end user and party.
4. Malware
Any software installed into the system covertly without the end user's consent, intended to get sensitive information, is called Malware. Malware serves the purpose of spying on handheld devices regarding the user location, chats, voice recordings, secret sharing of classified data, unwanted installations of files and applications, and remote mishandling of devices are some examples for Malware purposes.
5. Brute Force Attack
When a hacker continuously attempts to use mock credentials to gain access to an authorized account or break into a secure environment, this type of technique is commonly known as a Brute-Force Attack.
6. Ransomware
It is malware that locks access to the system’s files and applications, storage media, and network. This can be achieved using encryption, making the files unreadable. In exchange for giving back the access to the intended user, hackers demand hefty amounts.
7. DDoS Attack
A DDoS attack is a distributed denial-of-service attack in which a hacker initiates a flood of unwanted traffic from bot machines to artificially make the server or services, unreachable or unavailable.
8. Digital Forensics
It is a branch of forensics that consists of recovering, investigating, analyzing, and presenting digital evidence produced from electronic devices or storage related to cyber attacks or cyber crimes. This involves modern specialized tools, techniques, and tactics to unfold information that can be used in legal proceedings and to understand and mitigate cybersecurity incidents.
Step of Digital Forensics
1. Identification
At first, it is required to find the evidence knowing where it is stored.
2. Preservation
In this phase, isolation and securing of the data takes place so that the data can’t be further modified and tampered with by any human being either by mistake or intention. This data then further used for analysis of the attack.
3. Analysis
After collecting firm evidence, special software and techniques are used to recreate or recover deleted files and user activities and identify artifacts left by attackers.
4. Documentation
Detailed reports were prepared for the investigation, and the attack scenario was recreated, demonstrating the attack process, evidence collected, and conclusions derived from the analysis. These reports play a vital role in legal proceedings and investigations.
Lastly, as per the documentation, summarize the scenario, conclude the events related to the attack, and implicate the settings or techniques that will be more than essential to avoid the same circumstances if an attack happens again.
Type of Forensics
Computer Forensics
This includes analyzing and recovering breached data stored on computers and their components, such as hard drives, flash drives, and memory cards. The aim is to recover or reconstruct the deleted or hidden files from the affected machine, recover lost and damaged data, and collect evidence for use in criminal or civil investigations.
Network Forensics
This investigation includes monitoring, analyzing, detecting, and keeping a network traffic log to identify cyber threats or live attacks. Network forensics plays a vital role in security, narrowing down the attack surface, authenticating the users using multi-factor authentication, and authorizing specific people to reach the sensitive assets of businesses, which are the essentials to keep the emphasis on.
Mobile Forensics
This includes investigating and recovering handheld devices such as tablets and smartphones. It also prevents device theft, recovers deleted files, and mishandles devices by some other third-party resource using malware.
Web Forensics
This includes web-based communications, such as emails, web server logs, web page handling, etc. The goal is to unravel the evidence of a cyber threat, investigate the breach if it occurs, and recover lost data.
Multiple websites use CAPTCHA, the most known and available test, to avoid automated bot responses for comment spamming on blogs and website registration. CAPTCHA stands for Completely Automated Public Turing Test to Tell Computers and Humans Apart. It is something linking image recognition tests that a human being can easily solve, but it is hard for most automated bots to resolve.
Memory Forensics
This includes recovering data from RAM that is not stored on any other device or storage media. It is also called Live acquisition.
Verdict
With the rapidly evolving technological advancements and demand for personal and professional internet usage, people in the modern age should be well-versed in avoiding basic attacks that can not only affect their privacy but also cause financial loss. Forensics is not only for professionals but also for personnel, as it can help mitigate bot attacks, reduce phishing, and secure the home environment when people use multi-factor authentication for their smart homes, handle CCTV access and monitoring, and manage bank and email accounts.
In essence, promoting digital forensics awareness among the public can contribute to a safer online environment, empowering individuals to take control of their digital security and mitigate potential risks effectively.
