Some computer forensics classes focus on cyber ethics and intellectual property law.
Computer forensics is a broad field that deals with the collection, analysis, restoration, and reporting of evidence from digital data. It covers physical systems and network devices and requires knowledge of various laws and the use of specific procedures to be successful. A person interested in the field may take computer forensics courses that provide an introduction to information security or specialize in an area such as law, information assurance, network forensics, or incident response.
A computer forensics course may offer instructions on how to recover data from a computer’s hard drive.
Introductory computer forensics courses provide an overview of the subject without specializing in any specific area. These courses cover the various laws and ethical issues related to cyber forensics and discuss the various methods of collecting information for use as digital evidence. The person taking this course learns the procedures for responding to cybercrime and gains experience in computer security, file systems, and networks. You also learn the various tools needed to collect and analyze information on physical storage devices and on a network.
Information security is another type of computer forensics course and deals with the creation and management of organizational security policies. Topics covered include access control methods, network defense, physical security, security standards, cryptography, risk management, and project management. After completing this course, you should have a foundation for the information covered in more advanced computer forensics courses.
Another popular computer forensics course focuses specifically on cyber ethics and computer law. Intellectual property laws, privacy issues, cyber terrorism, and internet censorship are frequently discussed topics. The purpose of such a course is to prepare a person to face the various legal and ethical challenges that exist in digital forensics.
Network forensics courses are specifically concerned with protecting networks and collecting and analyzing evidence. Common topics include firewalls, virtual private networks, servers, network operating systems, computer file systems, and network data storage. Courses may also discuss introductory networking concepts, especially if they do not assume any prior networking knowledge. It is also possible to know the network monitoring programs commonly used in the field; however, it is also possible that the school offers courses that extensively cover a specific tool.
Many computer forensics courses exclusively cover incident response, which focuses on the preparation, collection, analysis, and restoration of digital data. These classes cover data on physical storage devices and data obtained through networks. The student will learn how to collect data on physical systems from a hard drive, memory logs, antivirus logs, and other logs maintained by the operating system. Live capture techniques as well as network monitoring software are covered for network data.