Digital Forensics Explained

The field of computer forensics has experienced significant growth recently and those looking to get into the industry have significant opportunity for upward mobility. Focusing on the concepts investigators need to know to conduct a thorough investigation, Digital Forensics Explained provides an overall description of the forensic practice from a practitioner’s perspective.

Starting with an overview, the text describes best practices based on the author’s decades of experience conducting investigations and working in information technology. It illustrates the forensic process, explains what it takes to be an investigator, and highlights emerging trends. Filled with helpful templates and contributions from seasoned experts in their respective fields, the book includes coverage of:

• Internet and email investigations
• Mobile forensics for cell phones, iPads, music players, and other small devices
• Cloud computing from an architecture perspective and its impact on digital forensics
• Anti-forensic techniques that may be employed to make a forensic exam more difficult to conduct
• Recoverability of information from damaged media
• The progression of a criminal case from start to finish
• Tools that are often used in an examination, including commercial, free, and open-source tools; computer and mobile tools; and things as simple as extension cords
• Social media and social engineering forensics
• Case documentation and presentation, including sample summary reports and a cover sheet for a cell phone investigation

The text includes acquisition forms, a sequential process outline to guide your investigation, and a checklist of supplies you’ll need when responding to an incident. Providing you with the understanding and the tools to deal with suspects who find ways to make their digital activities hard to trace, the book also considers cultural implications, ethics, and the psychological effects that digital forensics investigations can have on investigators.

Dr. Greg Gogolin is a father, as well as a professor at Ferris State University in Big Rapids, Michigan. Greg spent almost twenty years in information technology before becoming a professor at Ferris State University in 1999. While at Ferris State University, he has been the primary author of the bachelor of science degree in information security and intelligence and the master of science in information security and intelligence.

Prior to Ferris, he worked as a programmer, database administrator, systems analyst and project manager at small and multinational corporations. Dr. Gogolin actively consults in information technology and is a licensed private investigator specializing in digital forensics cases. He has degrees in arts, computer information systems, applied biology, computer information systems management, and administration and holds a doctorate from Michigan State University. He has current CISSP, EnCE, and PMP certifications, and is particularly thankful to have the opportunity to teach some of the brightest students in the world in the bachelor of science in information security and intelligence and the master of science in information systems management programs at Ferris State University in Michigan, and the master of science in cyber security at the University of Maryland University Center.

Dr. Gogolin has published in Information Security Journal: "A Global Perspective, Digital Investigations, Digital Forensic Practice" and has made chapter contributions to IGI Global’s Mobile Technology Consumption: Opportunities and Challenges; Virtual Worlds and E-Commerce: Technologies and Applications for Building Customer Relationships; and Nova Science Publisher’s Crime Rates, Types, and Hot Spots, as well as other periodicals. He has presented at many conferences and collaborates on information security and digital forensic issues worldwide. His current research interest is a National Science Foundation-funded inquiry into the recovery of data from damaged media. He is also actively building relationships with other universities worldwide, including Saxion University of Applied Science, the Netherlands.