Network and Operating System Investigation Research Paper

Network and Operating System Investigation - Research Paper Example The Internet banking facilities consist of funds transfer, online shopping, credit card transactions, prepaid vouchers of different mobile phone companies and much more. Moreover, an Internet service provider (ISP) provides internet services to corporate organizations, home users, and small business. If the security of an ISP is compromised, then the hacker may be able to access all the systems that are ultimately the clients of the company. Likewise, ISP also provides site-to-site VPN connectivity from where all the classified data is encrypted from one end to the other. Furthermore, government based organizations also provide information services on the Internet along with defense agencies that are controlled and monitored by the military, once hacked, the impacts can be devastating if the hackers become vulnerable. This can also result in disrupting relations between the two countries. Similarly, a multi-national organization wants to be top of the competition by endearing the com petitive advantage, in order to make its presence stronger, several online features made available, providing more opportunities for hackers and cybercriminals. Why IDS As per network dictionary, IDS is defined as â€Å"Intrusion detection system (IDS) is a type of security management system for computers and networks. An IDS gathers and analyzes information from various areas within a computer or a network to identify possible security breaches, which include both intrusions and misuse†. IDS are of many types and organizations choose the best possible type that suits their prioritized mission-critical systems. The types include network-based IDS, host-based IDS, and software-based IDS. These types are further categorized into signature-based IDS which is also referred to as misuse detection, and Anomaly Detection. The functionality of ‘signature-based IDS’ is dependent on known signatures. The word ‘known’ is important because threats that are detec ting so far are categorized as known threats and are called signatures. Signature-based IDS only detect threats similar to the defined available signatures and do not comply with any new threat. Whereas, Anomaly-based IDS detect unknown activities within the network and detect them as threats and vulnerabilities. Defining Computing Forensics Discussing computer forensics in the context of law enforcement agencies or incorporate security, it will lead to a conclusion of a subject that covers the utilization of computers to catalog physical evidence that is analyzed in other forensics techniques including biometric identification, analyzing DNA and dental evidence. Current technological trends have revolutionized the methods of storing data along with different advanced access mechanisms. These systems facilitate law enforcement agencies by providing instant access to these characteristics. Although, computer forensics also facilitates the investigation of crimes within themselves in order to gather evidence associated with criminal activities that breach the violation of an organizations policy. The data can be extracted from storage devices including hard drives, flash drives, and memory cards etc. (Computer Forensics – a Critical Need in Computer. (n.d.)) Digital Forensics for a Database In order to conduct data forensics, some of the particular methods are mentioned below: Data dictionary extraction is achievable in flat files and ‘redo’ log files.