Course Overview
This course will provide a foundation in the field of Computer Forensics. The student will learn how to obtain and analyse digital information for possible use as evidence in civil, criminal or administrative cases. Topics include applications of hardware and software to computer forensics, computer forensics law, volume and file system analysis, computer forensics investigations, and computer forensics in the laboratory. Hands-on exercises guide discussions and reinforce the subject matter.
This course is designed as an introductory course in computer forensics. Students will first understand the need for computer forensics. Students will learn best practices for general incidence response. The course will then focus on the tools and techniques to perform a full computer forensic investigation.

Who Should Attend?
The course has been designed for IT personnel, administrators, computer support staffs and an end-user who are aware the importance of data in their storage. No previous repair or data recovery experience necessary. This training is intended to be introduced to the latest data recovery techniques and solutions.
Data Recovery – Schedule
Day 1
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09.00am – 10.00am
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Introduction to Computer Forensics
- Course overview
- Understanding the need for computer forensics
- Defining computer forensics
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10.00am – 10.30am |
Breakfast
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10.30am – 12.45pm
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Computer Hardware
- Understanding the computer components
- Digital Media
- Hard disk basics
Computer Forensic Incidents
- Introduction
- The Legal System
- Criminal Incidents
- Civil Incidents
- Computer Fraud
- Internal Threats
- External Threats
- Investigative Challenges
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12.45pm – 02.15pm
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Lunch
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02.15pm – 05.00pm
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Digital Incident Response
- Digital Incident Assessment
- Initial Assessment · Type of Incident · Parties Involved
- Incident / Equipment Location
- Available Response Resources
- Securing Digital Evidence
- Chain of Custody
- Potential Digital Evidence
OS / Disk Storage Concepts
- OS / Disk Storage Concepts
- Disk Based Operating Systems
- OS / File Storage Concepts
- Disk Storage Concepts 1
- Demo Creating a file and writing it to FAT/NTFS
- Disk Storage Concepts 2
- Slack Space
- File Management · File Formats
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Day 2
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09.00am – 10.00am
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Digital Acquisition & Analysis Tools
- Digital Acquisition & Analysis Tools
- Digital Acquisition
- Terms Defined
- Demo Generic Hash Demo / Crypto Demo
- Demo Hashing a File
- Digital Acquisition Procedures 1
- Demo Winhex Software
- FTK Explorer / OsForensic
- Demo Osforensic Acquisition
- Digital Acquisition Procedures 2
- Digital Forensic Analysis Tools
- Demo Autopsy
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10.00am – 10.30am
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Breakfast
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10.30am – 12.45pm
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The Forensic Toolkit
- Forensic hardware
- Hardware write/blockers
- Hard drive acquisitions
- Processing the scene
- Lab 1: Hard drive acquisition
E-mail Analysis
- Viewing e-mail
- Webmail
- POP
- IMAP
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12.45pm – 02.15pm
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Lunch
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02.15pm – 05.00pm
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File Signature Analysis
- File signatures
- File extensions
- Differences between
- Identifying differences
- Reading: Instructor Handouts
Forensic Examination Protocols
- Forensic Examination Protocols
- Demo Create Disk Images
- Demo Data Recovery Exercise
- “The 20 Basic Steps”
- Demo File Carving Exercise
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Day 3
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09.00am – 10.00am
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Other Windows Artifacts
- Common windows artifacts
- Recycle bin
- My Documents
- Recent files
- Installed programs
- Lab 8: Basic Computer Forensics Lab
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10.00am – 10.30am
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Breakfast
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10.30am – 12.45pm
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Image Restoration
- Live Acquisition
- Recovery and Searching
- Password Cracking and Encryption
Data Carving
- Data recovery: identifying hidden data, Encryption/Decryption,
- Steganography,
- Recovering deleted files.
- Digital evidence controls: uncovering attacks that evade detection by Event Viewer, Task Manager.
- Windows GUI tools, data acquisition, disk imaging, recovering swap files, temporary &cache files
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12.45pm – 02.15pm
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Lunch
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02.15pm – 05.00pm
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Anti-Forensics
- Traditional methods
- Overwriting Data and Metadata
- Cryptography, Steganography, and other Data Hiding Approaches
- Decrypting EFS
- Non-traditional methods
- Targeting forensic tool blind spots
- Targeting forensic tool vulnerabilities
- Targeting generic tool/lib vulnerabilities
Digital Evidence Presentation
- Processing a complete forensic case
- Preparing a forensic report
- Digital Evidence Presentation
- The Best Evidence Rule conclusion
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