Digital Forensics Information Visualisation

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Abstract: Digital forensics is the process in which a computer is forensically examined in order to ascertain what it has been used for, and to examine whether any contraband material has been stored on the device. As this is a creative process, relying heavily on the skills and intuition of the examiner, it is difficult to provide tool support. It is possible, however, that the exploratory and interactive nature of information visualisation can be utilised in tool format to increase the efficiency of digital forensic investigations. This paper will discuss potential approaches to utilising information visualisation in digital forensics. Keywords: digital forensics, information visualisation, computer security Introduction Digital forensics …show more content…

These systems analyse the flow of traffic across a computer network and are designed to alert the network administrator to any anomalies on the network which could point to an intrusion attempt. In a large network, this flow of traffic can generate huge logs in the Intrusion Detection System. These are next to impossible for a person to manually analyse, and as such visualisation techniques are often applied. In this way, the user can quickly see when traffic on the network begins to differ from what is expected as …show more content…

This will allow the user to quickly see when certain activities occurred on the device, and whether they were in close proximity to any other events of importance. The exploratory nature of this program will allow the user to discover whether any events may be linked to each other, and if they may have occurred as the direct consequence of another event. The software is written to automatically import a dataset which has been pre-processed using the Autopsy [8] software. This software analyses a device image and extracts key information such as software installation times, EXIF data etc. This information is then stored in an SQLite database. It is this database that is used by our software. Autopsy is used to pre-process the device image as this is a complex task, and attempting to include this functionality in our software would be a duplication of effort and take a substantial amount of time to implement. In addition to the Autopsy dataset, the software allows the user to add their own events to the dataset. This is useful, as the user may have external knowledge which is not reflected by the dataset. By including this knowledge, new patterns may become evident, such as website visits which show the device owner was planning to commit a crime for a while before it

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