Gathering Evidence Discussion
For this assignment, you will discuss methods of gathering evidence in a forensic investigation.
Assessment
This activity supports the following course Student Learning Outcomes:
- SLO 2. Describe sources and types of digital forensic evidence.
- SLO 4. Discover digital evidence using open-source tools.
Requirements for this Discussion
- Review the posts that have been made in the forum so far, so that you can choose a different example or topic for your initial discussion post.
- Create a new topic in the forum for your initial discussion post. Choose one of the options below for your discussion topic. Prepare your initial discussion post according to the option requirements. This post must be in your own words and have good grammar and copy editing. You may NOT copy or substantially copy another person’s initial discussion post. If you want to make an initial post about the same topic as another person, you need to cite different sources and/or focus on another element of that topic.
- In your initial discussion post, cite at least 4 different sources. You may cite Wikipedia articles directly. Provide enough information in your citation for someone else to locate the original source. Any citation style (APA, MLA, Turabian, IEEE, ACM, LNCS, or something you make up) is fine as long as the citations are complete and consistent.
- Your initial post must be at least 500 words in length for full credit.
- Participate in the forum by posting at least two (2) replies to other students’ posts. These replies must be at least 200 words in length for full credit and should cite sources as appropriate. You MAY post replies to discussions from options other than the one you picked for your initial discussion post.
Option 1: Open Source Searches
For this option, consider potential sources of evidence outside the public records of Horry County, South Carolina. You may consider various commercial sources of information (such as data brokers), or you might choose to focus on public records available from other jurisdictions (local, state, or federal). For example, you could fulfill the 4 source requirement of this assignment by explaining how to find real estate information for four different counties (in South Carolina or in other states) and citing the corresponding systems.
Option 2: Digital Forensics Tools
For this option, locate at least 4 different digital forensic hardware devices that are currently on the market. Give a brief overview of what each device does and cite the URL of the manufacturer’s website. Forensic devices can be from any part of the digital forensics field except for devices used to analyze cell phones (which were covered on the previous assignment). Examples of forensic hardware devices include write blockers, forensic analysis workstations, and software applications for performing dead drive analysis.
Grading Standards
- An initial discussion topic is posted that covers one of the options (10 points).
- The initial discussion topic is at least 500 words in length (25 points).
- At least 4 sources are cited in the initial discussion post. (25 points).
- At least 2 replies are posted to other students’ discussion posts (15 points).
- Each of the required replies is at least 200 words in length (15 points).
- Sources are cited in replies as appropriate (10 points).
