Introductory description

Cyber security teams are routinely called on to investigate incidents ranging from the downtime of critical resources such as servers and networks, to complex cyber-attacks which lead to loss of resource, reputational damage and potential fines. Digital investigation is the process of identifying and analysing the causes of incidents and providing a robust and comprehensive response and explanation to stakeholders on the cause of an incident and the steps that can be taken to mitigate against it occurring again in the future.
The endpoint of a digital investigation is often a report which must clearly, cogently and convincingly attribute the root cause of the incident, whilst at the same time be easily understood by lay audiences which range from members of a court to chief executives in an organisation. This ability to organise important information and present it professionally and clearly is a key skill within the cyber security domain.

Module aims

Outline syllabus

This is an indicative module outline only to give an indication of the sort of topics that may be covered. Actual sessions held may differ.

• Digital Evidence. The nature of evidence, chain of custody, contamination.; specific features of digital evidence, fragility and integrity, hashing; capturing, preserving, replicating.
• Interpreting. structure of digital material in a variety of forms; structure of stored material; volumes, partitions, filesystems, deleted material, persistence of earlier material; other sources of stored digital material (phones, cameras etc).
• Tools and techniques. Validation and verification, scientific process; selected standard tools (imaging, carving, triage), capabilities and limitations; open source, commercial.
• Investigation. briefing document. Record keeping, contemporaneous notes, negative / absence and positive / presence findings. Valid inferences, testing of non­standard techniques in novel situations. Analysing memory forensics, analysing network forensics. Anti-forensics.
• Presentation. Eye­witness, expert witness testimony, responsibility.
• Incident response and management. Preparation, trusted toolset; issues, maintaining power vs cutting power, transmitting devices, live systems, encrypted storage.
• Intrusion detection methods. intrusion response, management and handling; intrusion analysis, monitoring and logging.
• Judicial systems. Jurisdiction (national vs international context), agencies; cyber­specific issues, geo­locale of actor, agent, data, communications, agency cooperation; the scope of criminal, civil and enterprise investigations; ACPO guidelines.

Learning outcomes

By the end of the module, students should be able to:

• Critically evaluate relevant digital forensic characteristics of selected digital electronic devices
• Apply scientific techniques to investigate digital artefacts against a realistic brief
• Analyse evidence uncovered through an investigation
• Report on digital forensic evidence against a given legal context

Indicative reading list

Casey, E., 2011. Digital evidence and computer crime: Forensic science, computers, and the internet. Academic press.
Choo, K.K.R. and Dehghantanha, A. eds., 2016. Contemporary Digital Forensic Investigations of Cloud and Mobile Applications. Syngress.
Nelson, B., Phillips, A. and Steuart, C., 2014. Guide to computer forensics and investigations. Cengage Learning.

View reading list on Talis Aspire

Research element

There is a strong emphasis on the development, growth and enhancement of individual research skills so as to provide participants with the high level research knowledge, skills and competencies needed to undertake an independent, original piece of research. The module content draws upon and highlights research within the domain and the module assessment requires participants to perform further research before preparing a response to the assessment task.

Interdisciplinary

Although the module is largely dedicated towards the development of discipline-specific technical, professional and analytical skills, there is a small emphasis on the interdisciplinary nature of the subject. An incident investigation can be requested in any domain and this module highlights and demonstrates this by drawing on investigations within accounting firms, high-tech industries and public bodies.

International

The module is designed in such a way that it can be taught anywhere in the world. Learning materials and examples will be drawn from a range of disciplines, cultures and countries covering the whole range of subjects and disciplines taught in WMG. Judicial process varies between countries and this module emphasises this throughout by drawing on examples of how the legal process applies in different countries as well as examples of investigations that involve multiple judiciaries.

Subject specific skills

Participants will develop an advanced applied understanding of how to manage a digital investigation regardless of whether it is a criminal or civil/corporate matter.

Transferable skills

Communication, teamwork, digital literacy, intercultural awareness, professionalism, organisational awareness