Companies use a number of network tools and operations to support and safeguard their businesses. Computer forensics is one of them.

So, what is computer forensics and computer forensic analysis?

PCMag defines computer forensics as “the investigation of a computer system believed to be involved in cybercrime. Forensic software provides a variety of tools for investigating a suspect PC. Such programs may copy the entire hard drive to another system for inspection, allowing the original to remain unaltered.”

In addition, “network forensics deals with the capture and inspection of packets passing through a selected node in the network. Packets can be inspected on the fly or stored on disk for later analysis.”


The Different Types Of Computer Forensics

As the above description might lead you to guess, there are various types of forensics that support the different situations your business could encounter.

Ethernet Forensics
Ethernet forensics is a method that uses monitoring tools or sniffers to supervise bit streams from your entire network or from specific times or types of network traffic. This data is connected directly to a host address. Ethernet data capture puts a host’s network interface card into promiscuous mode to copy all of its traffic. It should be noted, though, that this content could be encrypted.

Internet Forensics
From Web browsing and email traffic to peer-to-peer and chat traffic, the Internet could bear evidence of illegal information or network access. Internet forensics is used to capture this type of data and prove the exact origin of potentially incriminating material or determine who is using a specific computer.

TCP/IP Forensics
Network data and packets generated by TCP are directed by IP and marked with source and destination information for routers to interpret. But, to be done correctly, your routers need to know where to send the packet information, which is often done by routing tables. To identify users associated with harmful activity, authentication logs are also a source of important information. These data sources are essential to track an attacker on your network.

Proper Network Connection

Gaining access to complete network traffic is essential for successful computer forensics and analysis. SPAN ports may not capture complete network traffic data if they become oversubscribed or aren’t available. In addition, forensic tools may need to monitor multiple network segments simultaneously or aggregate or replicate data to multiple network tools. A network TAP provides you with the flexibility you need to accomplish any of these objectives.

If you’re going to safeguard your business and network, a forensics tool is a valuable asset to connect to your network. Especially if you operate in an industry that collects or uses sensitive information, leveraging such computer forensic analysis tools is a smart, proactive business decision.

Want to learn more about the many network tools that help you manage your network? Download What Your Network Is Missing: 7 Tools To TAP