Posted: April 24th, 2025

Digital Forensics in Vulnerability Assessment

I have added the first rough draft to help. also added the outline in a screenshot

Explore the idea; examine its significance and feasibility. Conduct preliminary research on the idea. Review the relevant literature. Examine the gap areas in research and identify issues you want to address.

include more details on vulnerability assessment. Also, remember to include a bible verse 

1. Introduce the topic
2. Explain your rationale for selecting the project
3. Describe the significance of the project
4. State the objective of the project and project outline
5. Describe the methodology to be adopted
6. State the timeline for the project completion

Include references in APA format.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uoBZbEbmTPshttps://www.volersystems.com/design-tips/122-data-acquisition-basics/%22https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PxrlD3MEJQE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PxrlD3MEJQE  

• Review the APA style guidelines for research paper
• The research paper submission should not exceed 7,000 words
• Abstract should be between 150-250 words
• Select A4 size; page orientation should be portrait. Specify “1” margin on all sides.
• Number all pages consecutively. Start every chapter on a new page.
• Provide double spacing
• You should use Times New Roman Font- “12” for text and “10” for footnotes. Use a larger font size for section headings.
• Be clear and precise. Express your ideas in a logical way.
• Abstract should reflect the essence of the project
• The introduction should provide the overview of the topic and highlight its significance
• Clearly, indicate the objectives of your project.
• Describe all the methods used such as interviews, questionnaires in the methodology section.
• Ensure that literature review is in your own words. Analyze other person’s contribution to the topic. Identify the gaps in the literature. Emphasize on the likely contribution of your project to the existing literature on the topic.
• Describe your findings from the analysis in the results section. As this is the most critical part of the project, ensure that there are no errors in analysis. Make proper inferences from analysis and findings.
• The conclusion section should summarize your objectives, findings, and learning’s from the project. Provide useful supplementary information in the Appendix.
• Avoid plagiarism. The research paper submission should reflect your understanding of the topic. The majority of the paper should be in your own words and reflect your own ideas.
• Give credit for all referenced work. Provide appropriate citation and references for all quotations.
• Ensure that papers referenced are relevant and not outdated.
• Your paper should be reader friendly. Use footnotes to explain difficult terms.
• Don’t use text from Wikipedia in footnotes
• All tables and figures must be suitably numbered and titled. Give appropriate credit.
• On completion, go through the entire project. Ensure there are no proofing errors and you have adhered to all guidelines related to the project.

7

Cyber and Digital Forensics

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Institution

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Date of Submission

Digital Forensics in Vulnerability Assessment

During digitally enabled threats, a digital forensic helps in the detection, evaluation, and remediating of threats within Information systems. Practice includes a number of stages of research and uses different methods to conduct searches and analyse data that has legal concerns with regard to every stage. This report categorizes the phases of forensic investigation; it suggests how vulnerability can be assessed using digital forensic; it will also contrast the difference between various forensic methods and their legal implications. Further, the report will also discuss the unknown aspects surrounding successful data recovery in different operating platforms (Nelson et al.,2022).

Phases of Forensic Investigation

Digital investigations can therefore be understood going through a number of steps or stages in order to be completed fully;

a)
Identification: In this stage, people are asked to acknowledge the extent and type of the case. When dealing with digital evidence, the investigators have to find out the specifics of the crime and the ones required for dealing with the evidence.

b)
Preservation: During this phase, forensic experts make sure none of the evidence that is available can be altered in any manner or the data in it get corrupted in any way. This is commonly the process of making byte-by-byte clones of the storage media.

c)
Collection: Data is then gathered on the basis of numerous electronic devices like computer, cell phones, server etc. Most of the time, the programs used for copying the data but are fully forensics friendly, the programs include EnCase or FTK Imager.

d)
Examination: In this phase, forensic analysts use some type of software to help them scan through the information that they have gathered. They look for the content, which was removed or is otherwise unavailable, like files that were deleted, data that was concealed or evidence of intrusion (Nelson et al.,2022).

e)
Analysis: To understand the series of events that occurred and other areas that might have been exploited the data collected is then again processed. It may be done in several methods such as reconstructing timeline, correlating the logs, and recognizing of malicious software.

f)
Reporting: Records are made in a report which presents the methods employed, findings accrued and the conclusions made. The report plays a very important role and is used as material in legal cases (Volonino et al.,2020).

g)
Presentation: The last stage includes the preparation for the submitting the evidence to the court or to the interested parties in a way that the evidence presented will be rightfully understood and recognized.

Strategy for Using Digital Forensics to Assess Vulnerabilities

In order to apply the principles of the digital forensics in evaluating the susceptibility levels of the different elements of an information system, a strategic approach, therefore, should be formulated;

·
Proactive Forensic Readiness: It is therefore recommended that forensic readiness plans be put in place by organizations in order to ensure that data collection and preservation becomes business as usual. This is especially important in that it does not take much time and resources in case of a real forensic investigation.

·
Continuous Monitoring and Logging: If network and systems’ activities are monitored more frequently, and their logs described in more detail, it can be easier to identify anomalies and what might pose a threat (Nelson et al.,2022).

·
Vulnerability Scanning and Penetration Testing: These techniques can be complemented with the forensic tools for purposes of finding out the areas that are vulnerable to attack ahead of time. There are tools that can also be used to determine whether vulnerabilities have been exploited or not for remedial actions to be taken.

·
Incident Response Integration: It is critical that digital forensics is integrated in to the incident response plan that enables the fast collection of data and analysis in the case of an attack (Volonino et al.,2020).

Comparing Forensic Techniques and Legal Implications

Forensic techniques vary widely, each with specific legal implications:

·
Disk Imaging: This can be explained as the process of making a replica of another storage unit. Although helpful in the documentation of evidence, it has to be done cautiously so as not to manipulate the raw information. Some of the legal issues that one has to consider are where one requires a warrant or a court order particularly where the law of the country of operation is stringent on privacy.

·
Memory Analysis: This technique involves dumping and analysing the volatile memory of a computer also known as RAM. Particularly, it helps in malware detection and analysing its activity. However, it is here the legal justification of acquisition of what may contain very important information in the memory is founded.

·
Network Forensics: Centred on the surveillance of network traffic in order to identify and investigate network and system intrusions. Some legal issues are related to the adherence to the law, for example, wiretaps laws and data privacy regulations that may come into light when attempting to follow the exploiting relations in network-based attacks (Casey, 2021).

Data Recovery Techniques Across Operating Systems

Data recovery techniques differ based on the operating system:

·
Windows: You might have heard of some of these tools by names such as Recuva and Disk Drill are used in the recovery of deleted files. Another important feature of the NTFS file system is linked to the possibility of the recovery of broken files. However, the recovery process is made more difficult by the fact that the Windows operating system tends to write data over them.

·
Linux: Linux operating systems for instance employ file systems such as EXT4 which have mechanism known as journaling for restoring data. They include TestDisk and PhotoRec among others. It will be seen that unlike the Windows operating systems, most of the Linux systems allow user level direct access of disk partitions or at least provide easier ways by which one can attempt to recover lost data.

·
MacOS: The HFS+ and APFS file systems used by MacOS have built-in encryption and file management properties that make the procedure slightly harder. File recovery tools include Disk Drill for Mac and R-Studio among others. The problem with MacOS is that the system is very closed, thus use of third-party recovery tools may be problematic (Volonino et al.,2020).

Conclusion

Finding possible threats or weaknesses especially in information systems requires a digital forensic. As a result, organizations need to be familiar with the various phases of forensic investigation to build better security measures and improve security status. The comparison made to various forensic methods show that legal issues have to be incorporated because digital evidence has to be admissible in the court. Furthermore, having an understanding of how data can be recovered under various operating systems helps forensic analysts in selecting the right tools and methods for conducting an investigation thus increasing the efficacy of the process.

References

Casey, E. (2021). Digital Evidence and Computer Crime: Forensic Science, Computers, and the Internet. Elsevier.

Nelson, B., Phillips, A., & Steuart, C. (2022). Guide to Computer Forensics and Investigations. Cengage Learning.

Volonino, L., Anzaldua, R., & Godwin, J. (2020). Computer Forensics: Principles and Practices. Pearson.