Digital Forensics - CompTIA Security+ SY0-701 - 4.8

Summary

This video discusses the importance of digital forensics in security events, emphasizing best practices for data collection, preservation, and legal holds. It highlights the need for following guidelines like RFC 3227 to ensure data integrity and proper documentation. The process includes acquiring data from various sources, maintaining a chain of custody, and preparing data for legal proceedings. The video also covers the e-discovery process, which involves collecting and producing electronic documents without analysis. Overall, it stresses the critical role of meticulous data handling in future legal contexts.

Takeaways

• 🔍 Digital forensics is crucial for understanding security events, future protection, and legal proceedings.
• 📜 RFC 3227 provides guidelines for evidence collection and archiving, detailing best practices.
• 📝 Proper documentation and note-taking during data collection ensure data integrity and legal compliance.
• 🔒 Legal holds are formal requests to preserve specific data, often initiated by legal entities.
• 🏛️ Data custodians must evaluate and acquire data specified in legal holds, ensuring proper storage.
• 📂 Data integrity and chain of custody are critical, using hashes and digital signatures to maintain unmodified data.
• 💾 Data acquisition can involve multiple sources, including disks, memory, firmware, and network devices.
• 🛡️ Acquiring data in its live form is essential, especially for systems with encryption technologies.
• 🗂️ E-discovery involves collecting and preparing electronic documents for legal use, separate from data analysis.
• 📊 Detailed reporting on data acquisition helps ensure future legal proceedings and internal understanding.

Q & A

What is the primary purpose of digital forensics in security events?

The primary purpose of digital forensics is to understand what happened during a security event, how to protect against similar events in the future, and to use the collected data in any type of legal proceedings.

Which RFC provides guidelines for evidence collection and archiving?

RFC 3227 provides guidelines for evidence collection and archiving.

Why is it important to follow best practices in digital forensics?

Following best practices ensures the data collected is reliable and can be used effectively in legal proceedings that may occur years after the data collection.

What is a legal hold and how is it initiated?

A legal hold is a process initiated by a lawyer or legal entity to inform custodians of the type of data that needs to be preserved and stored for potential legal use.

Who is typically responsible for evaluating a legal hold and acquiring the specified data?

The data custodian, who has access to the data associated with the request, is responsible for evaluating the legal hold and acquiring the specified data.

What is the importance of maintaining the integrity of data during digital forensics?

Maintaining data integrity ensures that the data remains unmodified and pristine, which is crucial for its admissibility and reliability in legal proceedings.

What is a chain of custody and why is it important in digital forensics?

A chain of custody is a chronological record documenting the handling and storage of evidence, which is important to verify the data's integrity and to show who accessed the data at any given time.

How can digital signatures and hashes be used to maintain the integrity of data?

Digital signatures and hashes can be used to verify that the data has not been altered, ensuring its integrity and providing a record of who accessed the data.

What is the significance of creating a detailed report on the data acquisition process?

A detailed report is crucial for internal understanding and for use in legal proceedings, providing documentation on how the data was acquired and stored, ensuring its integrity.

Why is it important to make copies of original data media during forensic analysis?

Making copies of original data media ensures that the original data remains unaltered and provides a backup for analysis, which is important for preserving the evidence's integrity.

What is e-discovery and how does it relate to digital forensics?

E-discovery is the process of collecting, preparing, reviewing, interpreting, and producing electronic documents. It often works in conjunction with digital forensics, focusing on data acquisition without necessarily requiring analysis of the data.

Outlines

00:00

🔍 Digital Forensics and Best Practices

This paragraph discusses the critical role of security professionals in collecting data during security events for digital forensics. It emphasizes the importance of understanding the incident, future protection, and potential legal use. Although the specifics of data collection are beyond the Security+ exam scope, the RFC 3227 provides guidelines for evidence collection and archiving. The industry has established best practices for the acquisition, analysis, and reporting of data, which are crucial for maintaining data integrity, especially since this data might be used in legal proceedings years later. The paragraph also introduces the concept of a legal hold, initiated by legal entities, which requires data custodians to store specific data according to legal requirements. The integrity of data is preserved using techniques like hashing and digital signatures, and a chain of custody is established to document access and ensure data remains unmodified. The paragraph concludes by highlighting the need for detailed documentation of the data acquisition process for future reference and legal use.

05:01

📚 Data Acquisition and Preservation in Forensics

The second paragraph delves into the intricacies of data acquisition in digital forensics, including the process of obtaining a snapshot of a system to capture all files and information. It underscores the importance of documenting the acquisition process, which is vital for internal understanding and potential legal proceedings. The paragraph describes the need for detailed reports that include an overview of the event, step-by-step documentation of the data acquisition process, and an analysis of the data structure. It also touches on the creation of conclusions drawn from the data analysis related to the security event. The importance of data preservation is highlighted, especially in the context of legal proceedings that may occur years later. The paragraph mentions the practice of making copies of original media for analysis to ensure the integrity of the original data and the significance of live data collection, especially on systems with encryption technologies. It concludes by discussing the e-discovery process, which involves collecting and preparing electronic documents for third-party use, often in conjunction with formal forensics processes.

Keywords

💡Digital Forensics

Digital forensics is the process of collecting and analyzing data from digital devices in a way that the evidence is admissible in a court of law. In the video, it is discussed as a critical practice for understanding security events and ensuring future protection. The script mentions that digital forensics involves following best practices for data collection and storage, which is vital for potential legal proceedings.

💡RFC 3227

RFC 3227 is a set of guidelines for evidence collection and archiving. The script refers to it as the document that outlines best practices for digital forensics, emphasizing its importance for those in the IT security industry who need to understand how to properly handle data for legal purposes.

💡Best Practices

Best practices in the context of the video are the recommended procedures to follow for the acquisition, analysis, and reporting of digital evidence. The script highlights the significance of adhering to these practices to ensure the integrity of the data collected, which may be used in future legal proceedings.

💡Legal Hold

A legal hold, as mentioned in the script, is a directive from a legal authority to preserve specific data that may be relevant to a legal case. It is a formal request that informs the data custodian about the type of data that needs to be retained, illustrating the intersection of legal requirements and data preservation in digital forensics.

💡Data Custodian

The data custodian, according to the script, is the individual responsible for managing and preserving the data subject to a legal hold. They play a crucial role in the digital forensics process by ensuring the proper handling and storage of the data, which is essential for maintaining its integrity.

💡Electronically Stored Information (ESI)

ESI refers to any data stored electronically, which may need to be preserved and collected as part of a legal hold. The script describes how an organization might have a separate area for storing ESI, emphasizing the importance of proper data handling and storage in digital forensics.

💡Chain of Custody

The chain of custody is a chronological record of the handling and storage of evidence, which is crucial for maintaining the integrity of digital evidence. The script explains how it is used in the digital world with hashes and digital signatures to document access to the data and ensure that it remains unmodified.

💡Data Acquisition

Data acquisition in the video script refers to the process of collecting data from various sources as part of a forensic investigation. It is the first step in the forensics process and may involve obtaining data from disks, memory, firmware, file systems, and network devices, as illustrated in the script.

💡Data Preservation

Data preservation is the act of maintaining the original state of digital evidence to ensure its admissibility in court. The script discusses the importance of preserving data, especially when legal proceedings may occur years after the event, and the use of copies for analysis to prevent altering the original data.

💡Live Data Collection

Live data collection, as mentioned in the script, is the process of gathering data from a system while it is still running. This is particularly important for systems with encryption or other security measures that could be triggered upon shutdown, thus potentially losing access to critical data.

💡e-Discovery

e-Discovery is the process of identifying, preserving, collecting, processing, reviewing, analyzing, and producing Electronically Stored Information (ESI) in response to a request for production in legal proceedings. The script describes e-discovery as a process that often works in conjunction with formal forensics, focusing on data collection rather than its analysis.

Highlights

Digital forensics is crucial for understanding security events and future protection.

RFC 3227 provides guidelines for evidence collection and archiving.

Best practices in digital forensics are essential for data acquisition, analysis, and reporting.

Data collected today may be used in legal proceedings years later.

Legal hold is a process initiated by legal entities to preserve specific data.

Data custodians are responsible for evaluating and acquiring data specified in legal holds.

ESI, or electronically stored information, must be stored in a separate area as per legal holds.

Data may need to be converted from proprietary formats for legal hold storage.

Preservation of data integrity is vital, especially for court-requested information.

Chain of custody is essential to document data access and maintain data integrity.

Hashes and digital signatures are used to ensure data has not been altered.

Data acquisition may involve various sources including disks, memory, firmware, and network devices.

Documentation of data acquisition process is necessary for legal proceedings.

Detailed reports on data acquisition help ensure the integrity and representation of original data.

Analysis of acquired data provides insight into the structure and usability of the data.

Preservation of digital data is important for potential future legal use.

Working from copies of original data prevents alteration of the original data source.

Live data collection is important, especially on systems with encryption technologies.

E-discovery involves collecting and producing electronic documents for legal use.

E-discovery may work in conjunction with formal forensics processes.

Transcripts

As security professionals, we are often

responsible for collecting data when a security event occurs.

This process of digital forensics

is not only important to understand

what happened during the security event

but also to understand how we can protect ourselves

in the future and be able to use this information in any type

of legal proceeding.

The specifics on how to collect this data and store this

information is a bit outside the scope of the Security+ exam,

but there is an RFC, number 3227,

which is the guidelines for evidence collection

and archiving.

If you wanted to read through a set of best practices,

they're all documented in this RFC.

The IT security industry has created

a number of best practices for digital forensics,

so it's important to understand what those best practices might

be for the acquisition, analysis,

and reporting of this data.

Because of how this data may be used in the future,

it's incredibly important to follow

these sets of best practices when

we're collecting data today.

It's very possible that the data you're collecting today

will be used in legal proceedings that occur years

from now.

So it's important that you follow the best practices

for this data collection and be able to take extensive notes

and information on how this data was obtained.

One type of data acquisition request is called a legal hold.

This is a process usually initiated

by a lawyer or some other type of legal entity,

and they will inform you in a document of the type of data

that needs to be stored and how much of that

data needs to be available.

These requests are usually sent to the data custodian, who

obviously has access to all of the data associated

with this particular request.

The custodian will be responsible for evaluating

the legal hold and understanding where to start

with acquiring that data.

In most cases, an organization will have a separate area

where all of this ESI, or electronically stored

information, will be held.

All of the data that is described in the legal hold

is acquired and stored in this repository.

And this may be a bit more involved

than simply copying a file from one place to the other.

The information you need to acquire

may be part of a much larger database

or may be stored in a format that

needs to be modified before storing it

as part of the legal hold.

For example, an email client might store data

into a proprietary format, and you

may need to convert that back to the text format of email

to be able to store it in a form necessary for this legal hold.

It's also important that all of this information

be properly preserved.

This is data that is being requested by the courts,

and you are responsible for making sure that data is safe

and is able to be provided to the court when requested.

One of the most important concepts

in this type of data collection is that the information remains

in its pristine or unmodified form during the duration

of this analysis.

This means, when the data is first acquired,

there needs to be a process in place

to ensure the integrity of that data going forward.

And of course, there will most likely

be multiple individuals who need to gain access

to this information as this particular event proceeds.

To better understand exactly who accesses this data

and to confirm that the data has not

changed during this process, we need

to put in place a chain of custody.

In the physical world, we would take evidence and place it

into a bag that could be sealed.

If anyone then accesses that evidence inside of the bag,

they would need to document that on the bag itself.

In the digital world, we can use hashes and digital signatures

to maintain the integrity of the data

and understand exactly who accesses that data

at any particular time.

This allows us to understand exactly how this data has

been stored during a particular time frame.

We know who accessed the data.

And we can confirm the data that we're

looking at in the future is exactly the same data that we

originally collected.

There may be times with a legal hold

when you know exactly what type of data you

should be collecting and how that data should be stored.

But in the case of a broader security event,

you may need to collect a lot of different types of data

from different systems.

And in those particular cases, you

will need to have a chain of custody for every bit of data

that you've collected.

The acquisition of this data is commonly the first step,

and we may need to obtain this data from many different types

of sources.

For example, the data might be stored on disk or in memory

of a system, it might be part of the firmware,

or it might be files that are stored

as part of the file system.

We may also find that this is an attack that took place

over a number of different systems,

so we may need to collect data from multiple devices.

We may need to gather information from servers

that are on the network.

There might be data stored in network devices.

There might be logs on a firewall

that we will also need to acquire.

If this is a virtual system, we may

want to take a full copy of everything

associated with that VM.

For example, you could obtain a snapshot of that system,

and that contains all of the files

and all of the information about that virtual machine.

And some of the most interesting information you'll acquire

may not be in the most obvious places.

For example, there's data that's inside

of log files inside of a system.

There may be data that's stored in a recycle bin

or some temporary storage area.

There might be browser bookmarks or saved logins

and other temporary files that can gather more details

about this particular event.

When dealing with this type of data,

it's not only important to acquire the data,

but it's also important to document

how that data was acquired.

We often create detailed reports on the data acquisition

process, not only to use internally

for understanding how this data was acquired, but in the future

if this is used for any type of legal proceeding,

we'll need a lot more information

on how this particular data was acquired and how it's stored.

This reporting process is going to give us

the documentation that we need.

We often start with a summary or an overview

of the entire event and the process

that led us to begin acquiring this data.

There then needs to be detailed documentation that

describes all of the steps that it

took to get the data from its original source

to the data that was acquired.

This allows a third party to look over the process later

and understand all of the integrity checks

that were put in place so they can feel comfortable

that the data they're looking at now

is a proper representation of the original data.

You might also be required to create an analysis

of the data that was acquired.

This is usually a factual description

of the structure of the data and how this data can be used

or understood by a third party.

And if we're using this data to provide insight

into the security event, we may want to create a conclusion.

We may analyze the data, have an understanding

of how this data relates to the security event,

and then make conclusions as to what happened with this data

during this particular event.

Acquiring data is obviously an important step

in this forensics process, but we also

have to think about how we're going to store this data.

And the preservation of this data

becomes especially important, especially when

these types of events turn into legal proceedings that can

occur even years down the road.

Since we are referring to a digital representation

of this data, it's very easy to make copies

from the original media and then use the copies in our analysis.

This not only ensures that we have a backup of the data.

It also prevents us from making any changes

to the original data source.

This is especially important with mobile devices,

which can be easily erased from a remote location.

So you want to be sure to make copies of those mobile devices

and work from the copies of that data.

For both our mobile devices and our desktop operating systems,

being able to collect data in a live form is a very important.

Skill this can be especially important on systems that

have some type of encryption technologies

that automatically lock themselves down when you

power off the system.

So if you are in a situation where you are acquiring data,

you may want to find ways to do that while the system is still

running.

And as we've already mentioned, this information

might be used years down the road in legal proceedings.

So we want to be sure to follow the best

practices for acquisition and the best practices

for preserving this data during that time frame.

This forensics process might also involve e-discovery.

This is the process of collecting, preparing,

reviewing, interpreting, and producing electronic documents.

As a security professional, you may

find yourself being asked to gather large amounts of data

and provide that data in a form that

may be used by a third party.

This e-discovery process is all about acquiring data.

It doesn't have any requirement that you

provide analysis of the data.

It's simply listing out the type of data

that needs to be acquired and putting that into your hands

to properly acquire it.

This e-discovery process often works in conjunction

with a formal forensics process.

So you might be asked to collect an image of a particular drive

and provide that drive to a digital forensics professional.

Creating the image of that drive is the only thing required

by the e-discovery process.

Once that image is handed over to the forensics team,

they might look at the data on the drive

and make determinations of whether the data is still

on that drive or whether the data may have been deleted.

And at that point, they can go through the processes

and procedures for undeleting or recovering that data

if required.