The Conflict between Forensic Analysis and Business Process - Assignment Example

1- Computer Forensic Analysis Computer forensic is a branch of forensic science employed in the application of analytical techniques to collect, preserve, recover and chronicling evidence located on a computers hard drives and other sources of Electronically Stored Information such as external drivers, thumb drives, voice mail server and floppy, CDs and DVD, therefore analyzing electronic data for legal purposes to present admissible evidence in a court of law. Computer forensic reveal any penetration unauthorized of corporate data, misused from employees or espionage from others also assessment and analyze damages or deception cases. Computer forensic has been existing for a long period of time and computer has stored data that could be used as evidence for many years. In fact digital forensic was performed in the beginning by government agencies however now it has become common in the commercial sector. 2- Identifying sources of digital evidence: More and more digital world become much common than any subject dealing with crises, threats and computer intrusion and unauthorized use of corporate computers. Computer forensic is the basis of the electronic document in interpreting data to reconstruct files and events. Emergence the computer forensic was a result of the transition by the business world from paper record keeping to electronic document storage. Even though just a few of organizations have the management structure in their place to investigate and identify the evidence. Collecting Digital evidences is a big filed I am not going to cover all part of the evidences but mostly go through the part regarding to the corporation. Digital evidences can include for example computers, hard driver, USB memory device (Removable media) and cell phone, camera or internet history include web page cookies temporary internet files internet history can noting the behavior pattern for the user and monitor any malicious attempt, text files, Documents, spreadsheets, servers, graphic file could be download image from the internet or scanned documents Penetration Companys computer network and lunching attacks into the system that case network downtime or releasing viruses or malicious code. This is a serious crime (the criminal justice system) has taken attention by strengthening computer crimes laws, track down and prosecute guilty people who intrude into companies or other people network and steal data. On the other hand the digital evidence is a little less tangible than most physical evidence because it can changed and damage so easily and impossible to notice that the information has been changed or event to retrieve the data back like the original position but still difficult specially when we find sometime the security person who is the first responder to destroy or wipe out the evidence when they access to the incident and lose the opportunity to present the hacker to justice. 3- Preserving and analyzing the evidence Collecting and preserving evidence is the most important task for investigator and that is the fundamental step to the successful legal process is to preserve all possible evidence according to the accident includes any documents, equipments. And computer forensic staff can assist the company to preserve several of electronic media such as hard drives, magnetic tapes, PDAs. In addition, they can develop the system of the company to be leading corporation by manage its electronic data efficiently by support the company with computer forensic experts to uncover the truth by identify, secure and analyze discoverable electronic evidence and handling electronically stored information also retrieving deleted files, identifying hidden data and extracting password protected and encrypted information and assist the company to obtaining the vital evidence to winning its case. Because they have the ability to condense and show the complex technical electronic information, Analyzed data can be prepared for use in many positions such as declarations, interrogatories, depositions, computer expert witness testimony, and rebuttal. Computer forensic manager has strong duty inside the company he should be able to develop and manage the staff. Managing the risks on projects and comprehension technical analyses, provide good services such as digital evidence preservation, retrieving data and database examination, he is skillful by dealing with electronically stored information and locating electronic evidence, retrieving deleted files, extracting password protected and identify hidden data. 4- Advantages of digital evidence When we look to the advantage of the digital evidence we find it relatively new field dealing with evidence especially criminal matters that is usually work with physical evidence but electronic evidence has been a helpful tool wherein important data needed for a case that has been lost, deleted or damaged can be retrieved. The main advantage of computer forensic is the ability to search and analyze a huge quantity of data quickly and efficiently also is able to search keywords in a hard drive in different languages which is beneficial since cyber crimes can easily go through the internet. Another advantage for the computer forensic is that retrieves the valuable data which has been deleted or lost by offenders which can use it as substantial evidence in court. Legal Experts can produce data in court that were impossible in the past. Disadvantage The first disadvantage of the digital evidence is the cost for the computer forensic experts when the company tried to hire some of them it should pay for them per hour and definitely analysis and reporting date usually takes over than 15 hours but depend on the natural of the case but the company still needs to pay high value. Another disadvantage is that when the experts work to retrieving and analysis data they will go over the companys information and may inadvertently disclose private documents. 5-Business process: The business process is a collection of activities occurring within a company designed to produce a particular output to the costumer and market and select clearly the inputs and outputs. Always business process emphasis on meeting the needs of the customer and delivering a good service that will fulfill that need and most often any business process attempt to function in a logical sequence to achieve the ultimate goal. Any business process should involve exact steps lead to successful process First step is acquisition of raw materials for the business operation by securing the high quality of materials by efficient price to achieve a higher amount of profit. Second step is that after acquisition the materials the business process must has attention to establishing a workable maintenance program for the production machinery and setting reasonable production goals also training employee Third step in the business process focuses on the sales and marketing and most often it is necessary to develop and implement creative strategies for making buyers aware of the product. 6- Reengineering and information technology Business process reengineering is in the management and computer science aim to improve the approach means of elevating efficiency and effectiveness of the business process that exist within and across organizations and known as business process redesign or business process change management .in addition, reengineering in business is a fundamental thinking and essential redesign of business process to achieve extreme improvement in cost and quality, service, speed. Business process should work to combine between a strategy of promoting business innovation with a strategy of making major improvements to business processes therefore the company can become successful and strong to compete in the marketplace. Companies to fulfill successes in the business world must has strategy work with the technology that is concerned with the use of computer systems and other forms of communication technology in the business because the Information technology became as a major enabler for new forms of working and collaborating within an organization and across organizational borders. Multimedia communication systems is an advance technology for corporations, which has many advantages as sending and receiving audio and video data which help us to make decisions easily by using electronic mail, file transference, or arrange video conference. Using advance technology allows the corporations gain important advantages, improving the accuracy of exchanging information by avoiding human mistakes and saving cost with improving the organizational efficiency and effectiveness by eliminating delay. 7- Workflow and software engineering The workflow consists of a sequence of connected steps and it is designed to achieve processing intents of some sort, such as physical transformation, service provision, or information processing. Workflow used to describe organizational structure for the companies and may be viewed as one primitive building block of organizations. Workflow application development still needs methodological guidelines that drive the developers in the complicated task of producing effective applications. Actually it is important to identify the model of business processes to design the interfaces towards existing cooperating systems, and to manage implementation features in an integrated way. A workflow application is a software application which is a related to business process that requires a series of steps that can be automated via software or may require human intervention, such as an approval or the development of custom text. Basically workflow and application readiness can reduce and manage many expensive errors can occur or any costly delays, software downtime, and lost productivity in the system. Workflow Management is a Web based process management solution that gives IT total control over application readiness which help the company to be able to standardize, control, and streamline the IT processes, reducing costs and maximizing productivity. Summary Computer forensic has become a vital tool in providing evidence in cases such as computer misuse and attacks against computer system or fraud, theft, blackmail, forgery, and embezzlement, in which computers, information technology or networks is used, all of these threats organizations, companies and sectors have suffered from it many time when the services has been electronic treatments over the world, furthermore in commercial world every transaction or processes became stored in the computer or any electronic evidence instead of files or documentations. That led the corporations to have an attachment with the information and communication technology. In this case engendered the need in the enterprises to retention programs to manage electronic documents. Every commercial enterprise has a primary goal which is usually that generation profits from the sale of goods and services to accomplish this goal and it is important for the companies sector the activities of a number of departments and staff to use the most efficient methods this is the real challenge which faced all organization, companies, and sectors to do enormous developing efficiently in the processes that can be applied to the business effectively. When we look for the computer forensic activities and the greatest job for this science by managing and preserving electronic data for legal purposes and retrieving the mislaid data back and protect the system from penetration unauthorized of data, all of these functions are great value for the commercial and business processes. Every department and staff member in any company should perform their functions as efficiently as possible by variety of ways specially by computing programming to allow staff members to become more efficient with experience in the digital operations to make better using of the IT systems by develop successful methods to achieve greater process efficiency. And computer forensic perform appropriate job for the business process by authentication, examination, analysis, interpretation and documentation of digital information and gathering the digital information or monitoring the network traffic. Therefore forensic staff usually has knowledge about the latest technological developments and techniques which requires special skills and expertise that go beyond normal information collection. A few of enterprises have a specialized group dealing with digital evidence gathering and assist case teams during searches, raids or inspections, and analysis of digital evidence. And other companies that do not have staff working in this field they give some of their officer which they are working in the IT department. Finally we cannot separate between computer forensic and the business process because they are the important key for any prosperous sector commercial aim to achieve successful managements, operations, services and obtain good profits. References 1- http://www.electronicevidenceretrieval.com/eer_computer_forensics_defined.htm This reference includes a comprehensive definition of computer forensic. Apart from the definition it also includes a general overview of the term computer forensic. This referenced has been preferred over others because everything is written here in a well structured manner. http://www.datatriage.com/computer_forensics.php A detail of computer forensic including a definition is provided in this reference. The article in this reference starts with a definition followed by its use and the role of computer forensic experts. This reference is full of information regarding computer forensic and that is why it is chosen over others. 2- http://www.forensic-computing.nhs.uk/resources/Sources_of_Digital_Evidence.pdf This article is written by Forensic Computing unit of United Kingdom. It provides a detail regarding different kind of digital evidence sources starting from text files to server logs. http://infohost.nmt.edu/~sfs/Students/HarleyKozushko/Papers/DigitalEvidencePaper.pdf This is an article that is available online as pdf file. It is written by Harley Kozushko. A critical analysis of Intrusion Detection System and its role as a digital evidence is provided in this reference. This reference is being used because it includes a discussion of Intrusion Detection System as a source of digital evidence. Scene of the cybercrime: computer forensics handbook By Debra Littlejohn Shinder, Ed Tittel- 2002 This a great book to cover all security and attack the digital world which has 10 chapters each one is deserved to read but I went to chapter 10 ( collection and preserving digital evidence ) which defining evidence and the rules of evidence with sufficient explanation . 3- http://www.iaac.org.uk/Portals/0/Evidence%20of%20Cyber-Crime%20v08.pdf This is a publication of Assurance Advisory Council (IAAC) in UK. It includes discussion regarding digital evidence and its relationship with digital investigation and aims of management. This reference is preferred because of its authenticity as it is published by a renowned government agency. Scene of the cybercrime: computer forensics handbook By Debra Littlejohn Shinder, Ed Tittel- 2002 Available online: http://www.dvara.net/HK/Syngress%20Scene%20of%20the%20CyberCrime.pdf In this great book there are ten chapters regarding digital attacks and related topics. I have taken information from chapter ten. I could not provide all the information as there is word constraints. http://www.datatriage.com/index.php This reference contains a brief discussion regarding the roles and duty of forensic experts and managers. This is not a great website to refer, but information is provided in this reference in very simple language and that is why it is preferred. 4- http://www.anushreepatil.ewebsite.com/ Main reason of choosing this as a reference is that it includes an overview of advantages as well as disadvantages of computer forensic. Moreover there are history and a general overview of computer forensic in this reference. http://internationalcompetitionnetwork.org/uploads/library/doc342.pdf This reference covers scope of the digital evidence by introducing the importance of digital evidence gathering and goes ahead to the legal authority. It also describes the tools which are used in the digital evidence. Finally part of this reference is regarding legal issues concerning to the digital evidence. 5- Business Process Change: A Managers Guide to Improving, Redesigning, and Automating Processes (The Morgan Kaufmann Series in Data Management Systems) by Gary A. Rummler and Paul Harmon This book written by (Gary A. Rummler and Paul Harmon) is about business process change and has described the smart manager how can analyze the business process and improve the system also has methods for companies to achieve their goal efficiently. http://www.sparxsystems.com.au/downloads/whitepapers/The_Business_Process_Model.pdf This paper has definition about The Business Process Model. It also provides a good logical concept by describing the business process goal, output, input and workflow with some clear figures. http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-a-business-process.htm This is a simple and quick website with brief demonstration of the important information about the business process. 6- http://www.iaes.org/journal/iaer/aug_00/olalla_pdf.pdf These papers have good notion about information technology in business process reengineering. They talks about The Concept of BPR followed by the information technology and The Role of IT in BPR. It covers and explains every part in details. http://www.brint.com/papers/bpr.htm This reference is all about business process redesign. It contains some definitions and the relationship between the business process and the information technology. It also indentifies some important parts of BPR. 7- http://issi.dsic.upv.es/publications/archives/f-1059127783047/iptw99_short_.pdf This is a paper that discusses about the workflow management systems, workflow process, software engineering and workflow lifecycle. Each section has been discussed in more detail. http://www.sap.com/usa/services/consulting/pdf/SAP_Quality_Center_by_HP.pdf This reference is talking about quality management and IT software applications for the business process. This paper has shown how the applicants participate by increasing the quality in the company and control the management. http://www.morebusiness.com/running_your_business/technology/d935705343.brc This website set for building the business. It has articles about Ten Workflow Automation Myths. In this article there is discussion about the workflow in the business process which is important to guide the business in a proper direction. http://media.techtarget.com/searchDataManagement/downloads/Business_process_change.pdf This is chapter one from Business Process Change: A Managers Guide to Improving, Redesigning, and Automating Processes (The Morgan Kaufmann Series in Data Management Systems) by Gary A. Rummler and Paul Harmon about business process change and showed the change in many period of time with the difference and the improvement. http://searchdatamanagement.techtarget.com/generic/0,295582,sid91_gci1265459,00.html this website has information from Business process change: A guide for business managers and BPM and Six Sigma professionals, 2nd Edition, by Paul Harmon book provides a brief history of corporate business process change initiatives. Read More