Computer forensics involves collecting, analyzing, restoring, and reporting evidence from digital data. Courses cover various areas such as information security, law, network forensics, and incident response, and teach procedures for responding to cybercrime and using tools to collect and analyze information. Topics include cyber ethics, security policies, access control, network defense, and data storage.
Computer forensics is a broad field that deals with the collection, analysis, restoration and reporting of evidence from digital data. It encompasses both physical systems and network devices and requires knowledge of various laws and use of specific procedures to be successful. A person interested in the field can take computer forensics courses that provide an introduction to information security, or specialize in an area such as law, information assurance, network forensics, or incident response.
Introductory computer forensics courses provide an overview of the subject without specializing in any particular area. These courses cover the various laws and ethical issues involved with cyber forensics and discuss the various methods of gathering information for use as digital evidence. A person taking this course learns procedures for responding to cybercrime and gains experience in computer, file system, and network security. He or she also learns the various tools needed to collect and analyze information on physical storage devices and on a network.
Information Assurance is another type of computer forensics course and deals with creating and managing organizational security policies. Topics covered include access control methods, network defense, physical security, security standards, cryptography, risk management, and project management. After completing this course, you should have a foundation for the information covered in more advanced computer forensics courses.
Another popular computer forensics course focuses specifically on cyber ethics and computer law. Intellectual property laws, privacy issues, cyberterrorism and Internet censorship are commonly discussed. The objective of this course is to prepare a person to deal with the many legal and ethical challenges that exist in digital forensics.
Network forensics courses deal specifically with securing networks and collecting and analyzing evidence. Common topics include firewalls, virtual private networking, servers, network operating systems, computer file systems, and network data storage. Courses may also discuss introductory networking concepts, especially if they don’t assume prior networking knowledge. One can also learn about network monitoring programs commonly used in the field; however, it is also possible for the school to offer courses that cover a specific tool extensively.
Many computer forensics courses cover incident response exclusively, which focuses on the preparation, collection, analysis, and restoration of digital data. These classes cover data on physical storage devices and data obtained over networks. A student will learn how to collect data on physical systems from a hard drive, memory logs, antivirus logs, and other logs kept by the operating system. Live capture techniques as well as network monitoring software are covered for network data.
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