Computer Forensics (data recovery) Technology Research Paper

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Computer Forensics (data recovery)
Introduction
Computer forensic is the practice of collecting, analyzing and reporting on digital data in a way that is acceptable in a court of law. It is mainly used in the detection and prevention of crime or disputes where evidence is stored digitally. However, one of the main concepts of computer forensics is data recovery. It is essential to collect data in any of the storage devices before it is analyzed and presented in court for evidence. Thus, data recovery presents the first step for forensic experts in obtaining evidence. More so, the analysis of data greatly depends on how the data was recovered. Therefore, this paper seeks to explain data recovery in details and explain its relevance to computer forensics.
Data recovery only becomes essential where data has been deleted or distorted. Thus, the common methods of distorting data include physical damage to the storage devices, deletion, burning of computer equipments, and re-location of the storage device. However, according to the Force, Financial Action Task document (2012), steganography and delay distortion are complex distortion methods used during huge money laundering transactions. Nonetheless, Yuri (2104) argues that criminals are normal people who are not ICT experts. Therefore, they are more than likely to miss something opening the door for investigators to break in and recover partial or whole data. As a result data recovery in computer forensics should focus on what was intended to be hidden. This is because data distortion is a result of believing in security-through-obscurity.
There exists various data recovery techniques used by forensic experts. These methods range from the very simple ones to the most complex ones. For instance, hardware repair is a simple technique used to recover data in damaged hard disks. On th...