Computer Forensic Laboratory: Aims, Functionalities, Hardware and Software

Abstract

The Internet and other computer resources became also means for criminal activities. Regardless the types of crimes investigated, law enforcers seize from crime scene a large quantity of equipments and media containing evidences for investigation. After a forensic examination of the evidences, a forensic report is issued by computer forensic examiners. In order to recovery and analyze the evidences seized with higher accuracy, a well structured computer forensic laboratory is essential. In this paper, we present the basic elements of a standard computer forensic laboratory as well as the tools associated with it, not only in terms of functionalities and aims but also in terms of hardware and software. For the software part, we present commercial and free solutions.