National Cyber Warfare Foundation (NCWF)

This guide maps out the investigative process and introduces the essential utilities every analyst should know.

The post Digital Forensics: Getting Started Becoming a Forensics Investigator first appeared on Hackers Arise.

Welcome, aspiring forensic investigators!

Welcome to the new Digital Forensics module. In this guide we introduce digital forensics, outline the main phases of a forensic investigation, and survey a large set of tools you’ll commonly meet. Think of this as a practical map: the article briefly covers the process and analysis stages and points to tools you can use depending on your objectives. Later in the course we’ll dig deeper into Windows and Linux artifacts and show how to apply the most common tools to real cases.

Digital forensics is growing fast because cyber incidents are happening every day. Budget limits, legacy systems, and weak segmentation leave many organizations exposed. AI and automation make attacks easier and fasterю. Human mistakes, especially successful phishing, remain a top cause of breaches. When prevention fails, digital forensics helps answer what happened, how it happened, and what to do next. It’s a mix of technical skills, careful procedure, and clear reporting.

What is Digital Forensics?

Digital forensics (also called computer forensics or cyber forensics) is the discipline of collecting, preserving, analyzing, and presenting digital evidence from computers, servers, mobile devices, networks, and storage media. It grew from early law-enforcement needs in the 1980s into a mature field in the 1990s and beyond, as cybercrime increased and investigators developed repeatable methods.

Digital forensics supports incident response, fraud investigations, data recovery, and threat hunting. The goals are to reconstruct timelines, identify malicious activity, measure impact, and produce evidence suitable for legal, regulatory, or incident-response use.

digital forensics specialists analyzing the hardware

Main Fields Inside Digital Forensics

Digital forensics branches into several focused areas. Each requires different tools and approaches.

Computer forensics

Focuses on artifacts from a single machine: RAM, disk images, the Windows registry, system logs, file metadata, deleted files, and local application data. The aim is to recreate what a user or a piece of malware did on that host.

Network forensics

Covers packet captures, flow records, and logs from routers, firewalls and proxies. Analysts use network data to trace communications, find command-and-control channels, spot data exfiltration, and follow attacker movement across infrastructure.

Forensic data analysis

Deals with parsing and interpreting files, database contents, and binary data left after an intrusion. It includes reverse engineering malware fragments, reconstructing corrupted files, and extracting meaningful information from raw or partially damaged data.

Mobile device forensics

Targets smartphones and tablets. Android and iOS store data differently from desktops, so investigators use specialized methods to extract messages, app data, calling records, and geolocation artifacts.

Hardware forensics

The most specialized area: low-level analysis of firmware, microcontrollers, and embedded devices. This work may involve extracting firmware from chips, analyzing device internals, or studying custom hardware behavior (for example, the firmware of an IoT transmitter or a skimmer installed on an ATM).

Methods and approaches

Digital forensics work generally falls into two modes: static (offline) analysis and live (in-place) analysis. Both are valid. The choice depends on goals and constraints.

Static analysis

The traditional workflow. Investigators take the device offline, build a bit-for-bit forensic image, and analyze copies in a lab. Static analysis is ideal for deep disk work: carving deleted files, examining file system metadata, and creating a defensible chain of custody for evidence.

Live analysis

Used when volatile data matters or when the system cannot be taken offline. Live techniques capture RAM contents, running processes, open network connections, and credentials kept in memory. Live collection gives access to transient artifacts that vanish on reboot, but it requires careful documentation to avoid altering evidence.

Live vs Static

Static work preserves the exact state of disk data and is easier to reproduce. Live work captures volatile evidence that static imaging cannot. Modern incidents often need both. They start with live capture to preserve RAM and active state, then create static images for deeper analysis.

The forensic process

1. Create a forensic image

Make a bit-for-bit copy of storage or memory. Work on the copy. Never change the original.

2. Document the system’s state

Record running processes, network connections, logged-in users, system time, and any other volatile details before power-down.

3. Identify and preserve evidence

Locate files, logs, configurations, memory dumps, and external devices. Preserve them with hashes and a clear chain of custody.

4. Analyze the evidence

Use appropriate tools to inspect logs, binaries, file systems, and memory. Look for malware artifacts, unauthorized accounts, and modified system components.

5. Timeline analysis

Correlate timestamps across artifacts to reconstruct the sequence of events and show how an incident unfolded.

6. Identify indicators of compromise (IOCs)

Extract file hashes, IP addresses, domains, registry keys, and behavioral signatures that indicate malicious activity.

7. Report and document

Produce a clear, well-documented report describing methods, findings, conclusions, and recommended next steps.

Toolset Overview

Below is a compact reference to common tools grouped by purpose. Later modules will show hands-on use for Windows and Linux artifacts.

Imaging and acquisition

FTK Imager — Windows tool for creating forensic copies and basic preview.

dc3dd / dcfldd — Forensic versions of dd with improved logging and hashing.

Guymager — Fast, reliable imaging with a GUI.

DumpIt / Magnet RAM Capture — Simple, effective RAM capture utilities.

Live RAM Capturer — For memory collection from live systems.

Image mounting and processing

Imagemounter — Mount images for read-only analysis.

Libewf — Support for EnCase Evidence File format.

Xmount — Convert and remap image formats for flexible analysis.

File and binary analysis

HxD / wxHexEditor / Synalyze It! — Hex editors for direct file and binary inspection.

Bstrings — Search binary images with regex for hidden strings.

Bulk_extractor — Extract emails, credit card numbers, and artifacts from disk images.

PhotoRec — File carving and deleted file recovery.

Memory and process analysis

Volatility / Rekall — Industry standard frameworks for memory analysis and artifact extraction.

Memoryze — RAM analysis, including swap and process memory.

KeeFarce — Extracts KeePass data from memory snapshots.

Network and browser forensics

Wireshark — Packet capture and deep protocol analysis.

SiLK — Scalable flow collection and analysis for large networks.

NetworkMiner — Passive network forensics that rebuilds sessions and files.

Hindsight / chrome-url-dumper — Recover browser history and user activity from Chrome artifacts.

Mail and messaging analysis

PST/OST/EDB Viewers — Tools to inspect Exchange and Outlook data files offline.

Mail Viewer — Supports multiple mailstore formats for quick inspection.

Disk and filesystem utilities

The Sleuth Kit / Autopsy — Open-source forensic platform for disk analysis and timeline creation.

Digital Forensics Framework — Modular platform for file and system analysis.

Specialized extraction and searching

FastIR Collector — Collects live forensic artifacts from Windows hosts quickly.

FRED — Registry analysis and parsing.

NTFS USN Journal Parser / RecuperaBit — Recover change history and reconstruct deleted/changed files.

Evidence processing and reporting

EnCase — Commercial suite for imaging, analysis, and court-ready reporting.

Oxygen Forensic Detective — Strong platform for mobile device extraction and cloud artifact analysis.

Practical notes and best practices

a) Preserve original evidence. Always work with verified copies and record cryptographic hashes.

b) Capture volatile data early. RAM and live state can vanish on reboot. Prioritize their collection when necessary.

c) Keep clear records. Document every action, including tools and versions, timestamps, and the chain of custody.

d) Match tools to goals. Use lightweight tools for quick triage and more powerful suites for deep dives.

e) Plan for scalability. Network forensics can generate huge data sets. Prepare storage and filtering strategies ahead of time.

Summary

We introduced digital forensics and laid out the main concepts you’ll need to start practical work: the different forensic disciplines, the distinction between live and static analysis, a concise process checklist, and a broad toolset organized by purpose. Digital forensics sits at the intersection of incident response, threat intelligence, and legal evidence collection. The methods and tools presented here form a foundation. In later lessons we’ll work through hands-on examples for Windows and Linux artifacts, demonstrate key tools in action, and show how to build timelines and extract actionable IOCs.

Keep in mind that good forensic work is disciplined, repeatable, and well documented. That’s what makes the evidence useful and the investigation reliable.

If you need forensic assistance, we offer professional services to help investigate and mitigate incidents. Additionally, we provide classes on digital forensics for those looking to expand their skills and understanding in this field.