Digital Forensics in Practice: Forensic Examination and Expert Witness Report

Task 1: Conducting Forensic Examination and Expert Witness Report

This Assignment assesses the following module Learning Outcomes (from Definitive Module Document): Successful Students will typically be able:

to independently conduct digital evidence aspects of an investigation in the terms of collection and acquisition

to critically analyse and evaluate digital evidence for reporting in a forensically sound manner

to apply knowledge in the current technological issues in digital forensics

Assignment Brief:

Digital Forensics in Practice

This is an individual assessment and carries 60% of the overall module assessment.

In this assignment will allow you to adapt digital forensic practices to multiple contexts and assess your understanding in conducting digital evidence in terms of collection and acquisition and the analysis and evaluation of digital evidence for reporting in a forensically sound manner.

It will assess your theoretical and methodological approaches to the digital forensic investigation.

Task 1:

You are required to carry out a forensic examination of the evidence file that you have been supplied with and forensically examine its contents. You will need to produce an expert witness report that describes the formal investigation methodology that you followed and presents your findings. It is therefore essential that you follow a formal investigation procedure.

You will have to describe in detail the methodology that you followed in order to analyse the evidence file. You will have to identify and describe the procedures for all the different phases of your investigation including the tools you used for the analysis.

Your findings should be presented in a factual way, following the guidelines that were discussed in class. Your findings should include any relevant information that was discovered during your investigation. You should illustrate your analysis with screen dumps of the tools you used as appropriate.

Your expert witness report should be no more than 2000 words.

Task 2:

You also need to produce contemporaneous notes that reflect the work you have undertaken and justify how you maintained the chain of custody. It is advisable you make use of a specialist tool to securely record your digital notes. Your contemporaneous notes should be submitted as an Appendix to the expert witness report and there is no word count for the notes.

You are expected to demonstrate an insight into the implications of the problem introduced in each task by using clear and concise arguments. The reports should be well written (and wordprocessed), showing good skills in creativity and design. Sentences should be of an appropriate length and the writing style should be brief but informative.

School of Physics, Engineering and Computer Science

You are expected to use appropriate peer reviewed sources for developing your arguments and the Harvard referencing style as per the University regulations.

Submission Requirements:

The final portfolio report is an academic report and as such the following report structure is expected:

Your report should be prepared as follows:

• The same font should be used throughout. We would prefer you to use 12-point Times, though any reasonable alternative (such as Arial) will be accepted.
• Lines should be single-spaced, with between 1/2 a line and a whole line of extra space after each paragraph.
• Margins: at least 20mm left and right; 25mm top and bottom. You are required to submit your report via Canvas in a PDF format using your student number as the filename.