Computer Forensics Assignment

Objectives

This assignment is designed to encourage the development of ability to apply a systematic approach in a digital investigation through the conduct of computer forensics procedures and the use of computer forensics tools, and to encourage the ability to identify the legal issues involved in a computer forensic investigation across jurisdictions. Refer to the unit profile to see how this assessment item relates to the unit learning outcomes.

Presentation on Forensics Tools

Group/Individual assignment. This assignment is a group assignment for on-campus students and an individual assignment for D.E. students. Each group consists of 2 or 3 students. The Group formation and registration guidelines are provided in this document.

Instructions. The aim of this assignment is to improve your industry-based practical research skills as well as to deepen your understanding of common forensic tools and how they are applicable to real-life problems. You need to research one recent (<7 years) crime and/or misconduct that requires computer forensics, such as (but not limited to) murder, kidnap, drug trafficking, intellectual property theft, industrial espionage, employment disputes, fraud, forgeries, inappropriate email and internet use in the work place. For the purpose of this assignment, you need to:

1. Provide a detailed description of the case, i.e. what happened?

2. Report who were involved in the crime, i.e. who were the criminal(s), suspect(s) and the victim(s)?

3. Report or infer the motivation and criminal purpose, i.e. what were the sinister aims that the criminal(s) intended to achieve;

4. Identify and report what type of evidences were used in the criminal investigation of the case;

5. Report or identify, based on the face of the evidence, the type of the attack(s);

6. Identify which forensic tool(s) was/were used in this case

7. Discuss how it has affected the victim(s) and any consequences of the crime;

8. Report what the criminal punishment was, if any;

9. Report any other aspects of the case you would like to discuss, e.g. which court(s) had the jurisdiction? i.e. this case should/can be heard at which court. In your discussion, you need to

a. Critically evaluate the forensic tool(s) and discuss their capacity in various categories of functions, including acquisition, validation and verification, extraction, reconstruction and reporting;

b. Justify the selection of that/those specific tools over other tools;

c. Discuss how computer forensic experts made use of the nominated tools in the criminal investigation of the case you presented.

On-campus students are required to present their work, as a group, orally during the tutorial of Weeks

7 and 8. The presentation has a maximum of 15 minutes duration and must contain all the aforementioned aspects of the case and the forensic tool(s). The minimum slides required for the presentation is 15.

D.E. students are required to submit a recorded presentation in week 6. The presentation has a maximum of 15 minutes duration and must contain all the aforementioned aspects of the case and the forensic tool(s).

All students, on-campus as a group and D.E. students individually, need to write up a report containing all the aforementioned aspects of the case and the forensic tool(s). The report needs to be 2,000 words in length with 10% leeway on either side, excluding title page, table of contents and references list.

Specifically, your report should include the following.

1. Title page: (each) student name (in your group), (each) student number (in your group), (each) student email address (in your group, use CQU email), title of your report, local lecturer/tutor, and unit coordinator. Not counted towards the word count.

2. Executive summary: Should be approximately 300 words.

3. Table of Contents (ToC): Should list the report sub-sections in decimal notation and should be autogenerated. Not counted towards the word count.

4. Introduction: Should be approximately 300 words.

5. Body of the report: Should be approximately 1200 words. Appropriate headings in the body of the report should be used.

6. Conclusion: Should be approximately 200 words.

7. Reference list: All references must be in Harvard Referencing Style. Not counted towards the word count.