E-mail and social media investigations - Article Example

E-mail and social media investigations E-mail and social media investigation Question Phishing involves a criminal activity that aims at gaining sensitive information in a fraudulent way. Numerous ways are used to obtain the information fraudulently such as through scam emails that lure individuals into communication that leads to obtaining sensitive information such as an individual’s credit card information, driver’s license and even one’s social security details (Van, 2013). Spear phishing is an email scam that has the aim of obtaining access to sensitive information to a specific group or organization through trusted e-mails unlike phishing.

Pharming involves a hacker installing a spiteful code on a private computer or one’s server that later redirects to a webpage that was not expected and smishing involves the use of text messages to entice customers (Van, 2013).Question 2 The advantages of circular logging is that it helps provide recovery from any transaction failure or any form of system crash through that may occur (Van, 2013). The logs are retained until the integrity of the current transactions is ensured. The disadvantage, however, is that it is difficult to restore the database and roll it forward in case a failure occurs.

Question 3 When investigating an e-mail abuse, one needs to detect how the server registers and handles the email upon receiving it. This is because the e-mail can either in the form of a flat file or the users’ e-mail (Van, 2013). Question 4 The information available on social media may be used in investigation, since social media acts a snitch (Van, 2013). The information can be used through scrolling through the current updates and the feeds that the site might have. This means that the sites can be used as crime detection partners through provision of evidence.

Proof of integrity and validity can be accessed through finding the origin of the report and the reporters of the same (Van, 2013).ReferenceVan, N. (2013). Attribution of Spear Phishing Attacks: A Literature Survey. NY: PN Publishers.