Definition of Forensic Tools
Forensic is an application where investigation and analysis techniques are used to assemble and preserve the evidence that is found from a specific computing electronic equipment in such a way that they are suitable for presenting in a court of law. The main objective of computer forensics is to study a well-structured subject of the investigation while detailing a documented analysis sequence of evidence or proofs to figure out what has occurred on an electronic device and the persons who are responsible for it.
Generally, Forensic investigators usually follow a quality set of procedural rules like after physically isolating the electronic equipment in question is to make sure it should not be by chance corrupted, investigators make sure that a digital duplicate shared copy of that device is stored. Once the first media has been derived, it’s fast in a very safe or alternative secure facility to keep up its pristine condition. All Forensic investigation is finished on the digital copy.
Top 10 Types of Forensic Tools
To point out all the hidden private details that area unit has left when or throughout an occurrence, then the forensics is employed. The aim of forensics methods is to look, preserve, and analyze the data in a very detailed form on a computer system to seek out a potential proof for an attempt.
Below are a few best Forensic tools that are promising in today’s era:
1. SANS SIFT
SANS Investigative Forensic Toolkit (SIFT) is a Toolkit that is based on Ubuntu Server Live CD that contains a complete set of tools in which you wish to perform a rigorous forensic cybercrime or any incident responsive inquiry. This is a free available SIFT forensic toolkit that is similar to any advanced incident inquiry and a tool that suite is also an additional feature in the course of SANS’ Advanced Incident Response. It signifies that effective investigations and acknowledging to the intrusions is the only way to accomplish the cutting-edge and open-source-system tool that is easily out there and are often updated.
Features of SIFT are:
- Effective Memory Utilization
- Advanced tools and techniques
- 64-bit system
- Compatible to both Linux and Windows.
2. ProDiscover Forensic
It is one of the most significant Forensic Tool that will enable the computer to locate the data on the computer’s Hard Disk and will also protect the evidence it found and generate good quality of analyzed results for any legal procedures.
This tool also recovers the deleted files, checks the space in the device, dynamically allows search in the disks. This tool reads the data from a disk at a sector level, so no data loss happens in any critical incidents.
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Features of ProDiscover Forensic:
- It uses Perl Scripts to automate the forensic searches.
- Reads the data from disk.
- No data loss happens in critical issues.
- Fetches the data even if it is deleted or hidden without effecting the files’ Metadata.
3. Volatility Framework
Volatility Framework was publicly released at BlackHat, and by the academic research Centre, it is an advanced memory analysis. It also gives a unique structure that will enable to cut-edge research to immediate into the digital investigator’s hands. It is mainly used in military, commercial investigations, law enforcement, etc. in the entire world.
4. CAINE
Computer-Aided Investigative Environment is a Linux Live CD to meet up with the standards of forensic reliability. It is a semi-automated report generator to get the results in very less time. In the present version, CAINE is based on Linux and LightDM. It also has a user-friendly interface to work effectively.
5. X-Ways Forensics
X-Ways Forensic is a very advanced working Tool that runs faster; recovers deleted files, potable. It also offers features as it runs on a USB stick on Windows Server.
Its key features include disk cloning,2TB space in memory, recovering lost data, editing binary data structures etc.
6. Xplico
Xplico is a networking Forensic Tool that reconstructs the contents with a packet sniffer like Netsniff-ng. it extracts and reconstructs all web pages that are generally lost.
Some features of Xplico include:
- As it is a networking Forensic Tool, it supports IPv4, IPv6, HTTP, SIP, etc.
- It also supports Multithreading.
- It gives the output in SQL Database.
- There is no size limit on data entry and extraction.
7. The Sleuth Kit (+Autopsy)
The Sleuth Kit is a group of command tools that will allow checking the disk image and recovering any lost files from them. It analyses the volume and file system data. The plug-in built in this framework will allow you to incorporate new modules to build some automated scripts to get the result without any manual intervention.
Features of Autopsy include;
- Large Cases are examined with forensic investigators in multiple stages.
- It also extracts camera information and geological info.
- It also identifies shortcuts and access in the documents.
- It extracts web activity from a web browser to identify user actions.
8. Registry Recon
Registry Recon is a very advanced registry analysis tool. It examines the registry information from the data stored in the evidence, and in some cases, it also rebuilds its representation. It is not available for free; however, it charges some cost to use it.
9. Volatility
It is a memory forensic tool. This tool is a user-friendly tool, and it is available for free to use it. It helps in extracting the data from Windows trash files. The trashed data is recovered when data is lost, and it gets recovered from the hard disk at the Metadata level.
10. Bulk Extractor
It is a digital forensic tool to scan the disk data that include files, images, or directories. It is faster than other forensic tools and is used by the intelligence group or law enforcement agent to solve crimes related to cyber.
Conclusion
In this modern world, mobile phones and digital data have been emerging. So forensic tools are very important in any of the cases; however, we cannot take a risk in ignoring any such cases. The above tools are based on their advanced features, cost, effectiveness, reliability, and its promising features. So there are companies who are trying to upgrade the system with much more powerful upgradations in these tools to handle cybercrimes.
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