DIGITAL FORENSICS – THE UNDERCURRENT!

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DIGITAL FORENSICS – THE UNDERCURRENT!

Has the age of scientific evidence arrived? Or so it seems. With 98% of all interactions moving on the digital mode and horde of other transactions / documentation & communication happening only on the digital mode, theoretically everything is traceable and can be forensically examined. In the technological age there is forensics in everything. Do the tools match the requirements is the question? Have we been moving in the right direction forensically?

Hoodwinking forensics has become the favourite game of the Digital Age. Forensics has come of the closet is a part of our service, infrastructure and business operations. From system logs to anomalous behaviour everything is tracked to even the health of the machines. Forensic hoodwinking was in full display in the Stuxnet operations on the Natanz nuclear complex, where uranium enrichment was manipulated with nothing unfamiliar playing on the monitors and dashboards.

With all Digital Forensics tools and processes of foreign origin, we are dutifully a user, support being provided by the same vendor. What they want to give even for a price and what not, is an open ended question. In 1993, the National Security Agency, US, used the Clipper chip, an encryption device with an acknowledged backdoor for phone encryption. The proposal touched off a public debate. The Clipper chip was never adopted. The cyber investigations where digital is the only evidence mostly reaches a dead end. The recent ransomware attack on US municipalities are a case in point.

With the jurisdiction issues not getting sorted out, business companies on an encryption spree, still being unknown the real realms of privacy, 5G, IPv6 and still in the future quantum computing, the present trends show a closing window for Digital Forensics. Open criminal investigations may take a beating. The intelligence agencies globally have transformed themselves into Digital Forensic Enterprises to provide the cutting edge intelligence and not to end up as lame ducks.

WITH DIGITAL FORENSICS IN PLACE CYBER SECURITY, DIGITAL INVESTIGATIONS AND INTELLIGENCE GATHERING GET A MASSIVE IMPETUS.

Sanjay Sahay

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