Bisulfide

Whether we like it or not, we now live in a digital age. The Internet has assisted the growth of digital media, communication and now, social interaction. Everything appears to be moving online, and unfortunately that also means that unscrupulous and even illegal activity has also found its way into exploiting the digital medium. The sheer number of computers currently in use worldwide is estimated to be over the 1 billion mark and is continuing to rise. This means that the risk of digital criminal activity is growing and this trend looks like it is unfortunately going to continue. To catch cyber criminals and those who decide to break the law using computers there is a technique known as digital forensics (also known as computer forensics). This technique involves recovering data from computer hard drives, memory and networks that is often hidden or has previously been deleted or wiped by a user. Computer forensics is not only used to catch criminals, it can also prove the innocence of those accused. The electronic data is often dissected bit by bit, recovered were needed and often heavy decryption techniques are applied to decipher complex encryption algorithms. The techniques are also applied across other digital mediums including mobile phones, pdas and portable memory storage devices such as USB keys. If there is a digital footprint to be found, a digital forensic expert will eventually find it and put it into a format that can be used in court. This type of evidence is often very compelling and as such is sought after in many high profiles, serious cases.