Case Study on "Digital Forensics: Issues and Developments"

Case Study 4 pages (1284 words) Sources: 4

[EXCERPT] . . . .

The regional teams has to work with the U.S. Secret Service and gather evidence to create forensic pictures and to analyze that data with a particular network of computers known as the Clustered Computing Analysis Platform (C-CAP). The criminals in question used truly sophisticated methods and data configurations and thus the experts who were faced with the task of analyzing this data had to meet the task in question using the most cutting edge tools. "Since existing tools used to discover compromised credit card and financial account numbers produced many false positives, the DIID team also developed a new tool called CCFinder. CCFinder is more effective than previous tools at finding and validating account numbers and eliminating duplicate numbers" (cert.org, 2014). This can be so damaging because it essentially causes all the investigators to run around in circles during their investigation -- making no real accomplishments.

This is also so problematic because the investigators are dealing with unfathomably large amounts of data. Thus, this particular case meant that all experts involved had to push for a new form of technology which would provide a higher standard of data analysis. The CCFinder didn't disappoint in a wide variety of ways, particularly in the fact that it established something known as a "pedigree" which demonstrated where each number was found and which also provides a path for how they were traded (cert.org). Thus, one of the most valuable aspects that CCFinder offered was the intensive simplification: "CCFinder was a big deal when we were working with 3 million account numbers,' said team member Matthew Geiger. "Then we quickly went from there to 45 million in the TJX case" (cert.org). Such amounts of data could be staggering for any other investigation team -- so staggering that it would become unmanageable and ultimately cause the investigation to fail. CCFinder was able to prevent human error, and allow for better tracking in cases like these -- cases where there is an element of human espionage.

As the best experts in the realm of data analysis will admit, the tactics of criminals are just getting better and better, and they're streamlining them at some of the most staggering rates of speed. CCFinder has been found to be effective and such an important tool because it extracts code clones in C, C++, Java, COBOL, and other source files (Kamiya, 2002). This is a tool which has been tested for over a decade and has found to be resourceful even when dealing with some of the most intensive and intricate forms of code. It has been able to locate clones and used metrics to correctly pinpoint the traits of the systems at large (Kamiya, 2002). CCFinder has been compared to other such techniques in this day and age and has been able to withstand the test.

Thus, the arena of digital forensics continues to grow and evolve, making it a truly nuanced and demanding field. As experts and users in the field watch it grow and develop more and more cases will emerge helping to shed light upon the nuances and individual rights issues and data analysis issues as they emerge.

References

Cert.org. (2014). TJX & Heartland. Retrieved from Cert.org: http://www.cert.org/digital-intelligence/case-studies/tjx-heartland.cfm?

FBI.gov. (2011). Digital Forensics. Retrieved from fbi.gov: http://www.fbi.gov/news/stories/2011/may/forensics_053111

Kamiya, T. (2002). CCFinder: A Multilinguistic Token-Based Code Clone Detection System for Large Scale Source Code. IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering, 654 -- 670.

Liptak, A. (2014, June 25). Major Ruling Shields Privacy of Cellphones. Retrieved from nytimes.com: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/26/us/supreme-court-cellphones-search-privacy.html?_r=0&module=ArrowsNav&contentCollection=Politics&action=keypress&region=FixedLeft&pgtype=article

Noyes, K. (2014, August). And there he stood, with a smoking datum in his hand. Retrieved from fortune.com: http://fortune.com/2014/08/28/digital-forensics/ READ MORE

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