Computer Shut Down?

Anyone who has been around computers a lot will definitely experience its shutting down. There are dozens of reasons why a computer shuts down and each reason stems from a whole lot of PC issues. If one want to avoid it then it's better to know first what kind of shutting down is going on.

There can be several factors that can cause a computer to shut down automatically. Virus is one of the factors that could have corrupted the system files and device drivers. If this happens, then the PC would have to be started on safe mode by using the administrator account. The system will need a scan by using anti-virus software to diagnose and remove the infected files. Other problems that can cause a PC to automatically shut down may be overheating, due to dirt and dust or the power supply.

If the computer shuts down because of overheating, it can be prevented by applying thermal gel over the CPU. This gel will not cause the machine to short circuit but it is safe to use and effective in keeping the computer's internal temperature low. If the PC shuts down because of dirt and dust, then its fan needs to be checked if it is working properly.

The fans blades have to be checked and a blower, soft brush or vacuum cleaner can be used for cleaning the dust. If the reason if power supply, then maybe there is a loose plug from the power supply or it could be that a required and proper power voltage regulator is not being used and the electric current has been randomly fluctuating in the area. It's better to stop using the PC temporarily in this situation because random power fluctuation can damage the PC's power fuse.

For troubleshooting the problem of computer shutdown, the issue has to be resolved by following some steps. The PC has to be started first and then the Control Panel has to be opened. Performance and Maintenance icon has to be clicked. Power Options has to be clicked and then the APM tab. The box of Enable Advanced Power Management Support should be checked and then clicking the OK button.

An advanced configuration power interchange is present in some computers that shows completed message on the screen before the PC shuts down. It its not there, then the one that has a HAL should be used; it is installed in computers that support APM only. The ones without this do not turn off even when they are shut down. PCs with ACPI have an ACPI-compliant BIOS that allows the PC operating system to turn off its power supply automatically.

These causes are not wide range and there may be other many reasons that can cause a computer to keep shutting down. Finding the real cause can take some time. It will be much better to get a professional's opinion on how best to fix the problem.

People Finders

People finder websites are sites where you can search for information about people who have been lost or you just want to get in touch after a very long time. They are a totally new passion that has emerged online recently.

Earlier, locating people was an extremely expensive affair as you had to dole out hundreds of dollars to a professional who was hired to do the same. But with the advent of the People Finder, you can get all the information you need at an extremely reasonable rate or even absolutely free.

The main aspects of information that such a service can provide include Addresses,Phone numbers, Emails, Birth records, Death records, Marriage records and Criminal records just to name a few of them. You just require a name to begin your search of course it will be an added advantage if you can give them a zip code and state to make the search faster and narrower.

These online search providers are not only intended to trace lost relatives or friends, but are also very helpful in tracing criminals in hiding. They can also be used to find prospective people for new career openings. All the information that you require is provided in two versions. The former is a version that is absolutely free and provides only partial information about the person. The latter version which charges a small fee is a better option as it provides all the details that you want about the person in question.

There are numerous such sites that are available today and you do not have to think twice about the reliability of such sites. The main search engines have extremely reliable sites which are very prompt about their work. And the biggest benefit is that these sites are very prudent and extremely safe. You can thus search in the comforts of your own home without any complications or effort.

You just need to click on your mouse and you will find at your service numerous search engines which will help you attain your goal easily. Thus a People Finder has become a real boon to search out the whereabouts of any person that you want to get information about.

Crime Investigation

Often computer fraud and misuse can be difficult to detect. Helping companies to identify computer and mobile phone abuse in the workplace is essential in combating the accessing of inappropriate websites, computer fraud and the loss of Intellectual Property. The industry of computer crime investigation as a result has continued to grow, and many clients are turning to investigations specialists to provide expert guidance in identifying whether any misuse has occurred.

These companies should follow all Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) guidelines on handling and preserving digital evidence and be ISO9001 and ISO27001 certified. ISO 17025 will also soon be a requirement. Alongside undertaking their own investigations many will also work with other organisations' in-house computer teams to assist with complex tasks that these companies may not have the resources or knowledge to undertake internally.

A mobile phone forensic investigation uses techniques consistent with ACPO standards to retrieve text and picture messages, call logs, photos, videos, internet history, address books and any other types of associated information that could be utilised in an examination.

Any forensic phone investigator should work from a properly certified mobile phone forensic lab, and the team of analysts should be specialists in the varying types of phone hardware and software. They should also be aware that each phone model is different, and requires a targeted, specific technique for forensic purposes.

All computer misuse investigations should be handled properly and comprehensively to eliminate the threat of legal challenges. This may, for example follow allegations of intellectual property theft or inappropriate use of company computers that could lead to contract terminations.

If the situation should arise, always contract a team that can give expert witness evidence in court or at a tribunal, and outline the processes and procedures involved in the investigation and any conclusions that were reached. The company should have a proven track record in delivering professional expert witness services in court - ensuring that any highly technical issues that form part of the examination are presented in an easily understood way.

In a computer crime investigation, communication is key. Clients should expect regular updates and, following completion of the examination, the analyst should present their clients with a jargon-free document detailing the extent of computer misuse, if any, that has been found.

Registry Fix

The whole working of a system depends on the registry of an operating system. Since after the introduction of Windows 7 and its volumetric increase in users raised more concerns over Windows 7 registry fix. This registry fixing only could make the system stable, also it makes the system running quick to the requirement of the user.

Windows registry is a storage database for all related to software, hardware and few functional related files. While using system many of us install regularly many software programs, games etc. Many times for various purposes we might download some files from internet too. During this process of installing and at the same time while we delete some of installed programs, some parts of those files still left on the system registry. These lefts out bits and pieces of files cause impact on smooth running of system. Windows 7 is not an exception from this registry problem and reacts badly.

For this purpose there are various registry repair tools are available. These tools mainly run a scan on the system to find out such faulty files on the registry. Then after locating these faulty files registry repair tool will clean them all on your decision.

Windows 7 is often vulnerable to this registry problems and leads to corrupt registry in major cases. This is quite fatal to the system running. This could make Windows 7 no longer a reliable one. This registry fixing in Windows 7 will clean up the entire faulty registry and reinstates its speed to the required extent. Windows 7 system registry problem causes to freeze computer. This sudden freezer often damage other software and hardware associated during that course of time. Not only this, Windows 7 registry problem result in error messaged too to the system. These error messages often will be seen while starting system, while doing some work, or during a game etc and this could hamper the running operations badly. The blue screen often termed as death screen is a fatal result of this system registry problem in windows 7. The blue screen is a serious problem and needs an immediate action in correcting it. All these are system registry problems in Windows 7 and this only can be secured through system registry software. This Windows 7 registry fix needs an immediate action if not fatal to many files and system. All this can be fixed with security software or a system registry tool. Once after loading a system registry tool, it will take care about all the Windows 7 system registry problems and keeps the system running safe and fast.

Registry For Windows 7

To fix registry problems for Windows 7 one must know well about Microsoft registry in full depth. Registry system in Microsoft is all about the system information database. All the software and hardware details including their set up details will be placed in folders correspondingly in the system registry. The important valid point here is, if any of these folders or files relates to this software or hardware are corrupted will result in working of system. This resulting will affect speed and total working of system and this is system registry error.

Malicious software could result pretty badly to Windows 7 registry and influences badly on system working. This malicious software changes many default settings in Windows 7. These are few fatal situations may happen in windows 7 if not fixed the registry problems.

Microsoft installed a registry in windows 7 which got a editor in it to clean the altered or changed registry due to malicious software. While before using Microsoft registry editor in Windows 7, proper evaluation of damage and what is to be done planned in advance. Key values and settings are vital factors in this editing. When malicious software changed the key settings find out clearly what is right one and what way it was changed. By understanding this you can make corrections to the changed settings properly with this knowledge in Windows 7. Guess work could spoil total settings in the registry, so proper understanding is needed.

The editing process can be started by going to RUN and typing "regedit" in it. Registry editor allocated folders for each hardware and software utilities. These folders are assigned with proper key names and values. While changing corrupted registry correct them or change them with right values in windows 7. Many instances doing this edit part needs right knowledge and right idea if not chance to whole registry get corrupt, so proper guidance to be taken if not sure about what to be done.

Here going with a right software tool is always suggestible to fix registry problem in windows 7. Many times people are quite clueless about key names and values of system registry. In such situations a third party tool for fixing Windows 7 registry is always advisable. These kinds of tools not only correct the corrupted registry it also stops the next time possible corruption and changing of registry.

Registry For Windows 7

To fix registry problems for Windows 7 one must know well about Microsoft registry in full depth. Registry system in Microsoft is all about the system information database. All the software and hardware details including their set up details will be placed in folders correspondingly in the system registry. The important valid point here is, if any of these folders or files relates to this software or hardware are corrupted will result in working of system. This resulting will affect speed and total working of system and this is system registry error.

Malicious software could result pretty badly to Windows 7 registry and influences badly on system working. This malicious software changes many default settings in Windows 7. These are few fatal situations may happen in windows 7 if not fixed the registry problems.

Microsoft installed a registry in windows 7 which got a editor in it to clean the altered or changed registry due to malicious software. While before using Microsoft registry editor in Windows 7, proper evaluation of damage and what is to be done planned in advance. Key values and settings are vital factors in this editing. When malicious software changed the key settings find out clearly what is right one and what way it was changed. By understanding this you can make corrections to the changed settings properly with this knowledge in Windows 7. Guess work could spoil total settings in the registry, so proper understanding is needed.

The editing process can be started by going to RUN and typing "regedit" in it. Registry editor allocated folders for each hardware and software utilities. These folders are assigned with proper key names and values. While changing corrupted registry correct them or change them with right values in windows 7. Many instances doing this edit part needs right knowledge and right idea if not chance to whole registry get corrupt, so proper guidance to be taken if not sure about what to be done.

Here going with a right software tool is always suggestible to fix registry problem in windows 7. Many times people are quite clueless about key names and values of system registry. In such situations a third party tool for fixing Windows 7 registry is always advisable. These kinds of tools not only correct the corrupted registry it also stops the next time possible corruption and changing of registry.

3 Effective Tips

If you're interested at computer programming and solving white-collar crimes - introducing computer forensics (CF), a field of study that requires those mentioned skills earlier in order to retrieve lost data from crime suspects' computers and other digital devices as court evidence.

It has a specific study route that you can choose various CF certifications including:

· GIAC Certified Forensics Analyst (GCFA)

· Certified Computer Examiner (CCE)

· Certified Computer Forensic Examiner (CFCE)

· Encase Certified Examiner (EnCE)

· AccessData Certified Examiner (ACE)

No matter which certifications you choose, you have to get pass your certification in order to become a certified computer forensics investigator - how?

Tip No.1: Develop a test taking strategy

As if you're given questions or problems regarding a case study, try hard to delve into the problem - most of the questions are analytical questions and you need more time for your test preparation. Don't expect that you can get free test preparation questions online.

Therefore, you can search for it via Amazon.com or any online bookstores. If you have received those preparation questions from companies that offer such certifications, make use of your time and effort to get those questions done on time. You have to try requesting for such items from these companies as they might provide related resources for their candidates.

Tip No.2: Polish your report writing skills

Answering analytical-type questions can be very technical. Hence, you need to tone down your technical approach so that your report suits all kind of readers including your examiners, or other groups of people that do not have computer forensics background. If you have poor writing skills, please don't hesitate to look for an English tutor - that would be the best investment for your career planning.

Besides that, answering questions as well as your report have to be precisely written - of course, without grammar errors. Thus, you have to construct a plan before writing your report. You have to develop a habit of proof-reading your report.

Tip No.3: Avoid procrastination - form a study group or look for a study partner

Most practical test consists of analytical questions and report writing and you need to allocate enough time to answer all the questions. By forming a study group or a study partner, you can concentrate on revising what you've learned in your computer forensics certification training course. If you couldn't find a study partner from your area - try finding one by posting a notice via free online classifieds such as Craigslist.org. This is also a way of looking for former CF certificate holders as your study partner.

Scottish Ancestors

More and more people are becoming interested in their family history and trying to trace their ancestors to see where they lived and what they did. Over 100 years ago many families tended to stay in the same area of a country be it Scotland or anywhere else but in these modern times families tend to be constantly moving not just around one country but from one country to another and so trying to trace your family tree can become a bit more complicated.

If you stay in the US, Canada, Australia or anywhere else in the world and whilst researching your family tree you come across a Scottish ancestor do not despair for there are lots of different ways you can try to find out more about them. Most of these research techniques have only recently became available thanks to the wonders of science and the internet.

One of the most obvious places to start your research is to use Google to see if the name of your ancestor yields any useful results. This simple search could yield a variety of information on your Scottish ancestor if you are lucky including newspaper articles, ship passenger lists, old photographs or even family websites set up by distant cousins who have became interested in genealogy and posted their findings online.

Not everyone is lucky however using Google but then there are lots of other sites such as Ancestry, Genesreunited and One Great Family that you can use to see if parts of your family tree have already been researched. These sites can save you a lot of time and energy as well as putting you in contact with distant relations. It is always quite interesting to see how far traveled your family tree is.

If you are looking to view Scottish birth certificates, marriage certificates, death certificates or census information then Scotlandspeople is the best site to visit. Scotlandspeople has over 80 million records and is the official government site for Scottish genealogical data. Information and records are constantly being added to the site and only recently they added Catholic Parish Registers and more family records are expected to be added in the coming year.

Online forums such as Rootschat and the ones at Ancestry and Genesreunited are a great way of discussing any problems you encounter with other family genealogists many of whom will have encountered similar issues in the past and may be able to offer you suggestions on how to overcome your problem.

As interest in genealogy continues to grow through programs such as Who DO You Think You Are? then more and more historical data will be unearthed and made available online to meet the demand. Ancestry have made a lot of military records and documentation online and other sites are scanning newspapers and all sorts of other document which contain information which would be of use to genealogists in their search to trace their ancestors whether they be Scottish or not and so although Scotland may be miles away from where you stay the information is all available at the touch of a button.

Forensics Career

Computer Forensics is a field that continues to grow in record numbers year after year. As computer technology becomes ever more ubiquitous, the effectiveness and relevancy of this specialization becomes more useful in criminal cases. Common crimes that are investigated using computer forensics are: identity theft, online fraud, embezzlement, child pornography, and hacker activity. The amount of identity theft, unethical activity, and embezzlement going on in the white color business world becomes more sophisticated, which makes this particular aspect of computer forensics more relevant in today's world.

So, lets back up a step and give you a basic definition of what computer forensics is all about. Computer Forensics analysts gather digital evidence that can be used in a court of law. They spend their time gathering particular incriminating evidence from computers, and other devices such as PDA's and cell phones. Individuals in this career may have different sub specialties, but the end goal is usually the same and that is to gather evidence to support a case.

Typical Duties For Computer Forensics Analysts

On a typical day, you may spend time searching through files, looking for keywords or dates of interest where activity relating to the alleged crime may have occurred. You may also need to search through Internet history files to find out For example, if you are looking for evidence of the consumption of child pornography, you may need to search through historical data on their Internet usage, including deleted pictures, files, or emails that might include incriminating evidence. If you find that they have been visiting known sites that convey this material, it can be used in your official findings or downloaded to a disk for evidence in a court of law.

Child pornography is just one of many uses of Computer Forensic Analysts. Law enforcement agencies need to have these tech savvy, specially trained individuals on staff in order to find evidence of other cyber crimes as well. You may spend a day investigating a ring of identity theft victims who have fallen victim through phishing scams or other related attempts to gain sensitive bank account information. Some of these operations may have several people involved in identity theft rings. Tracing IP addresses, which provides locations where a computer being used in the scam is a common practice. This information can then be passed to the law enforcement officers in the field to obtain a warrant and confiscate computers at a particular residence or place of business. Computer Forensics is also used widely in violent crimes and homicide cases where emails or files on a computer can be used to incriminate a suspect.

Employment & Career Options

Most individuals work in either a law enforcement office such as a local police department or the FBI. Another option is to find employment with a private computer forensics agency. The FBI has a team named CART, which stands for Computer Analysis and Response Team, which has a primary function of computer forensics tasks related to large national level cases. It is common in these types of cases for a suspect and a victim to reside in other states, due to the nature of the Internet. It is for this reason that FBI agencies work closely with local law enforcement offices in an effort to solve cases and gather evidence.

Others may choose to work in private firms, which are often contracted with to monitor criminal activity that may be going on inside a large corporation. Common examples of crimes investigated in large companies range from embezzlement to sexual harassment cases. Where there is a will to commit crime through the use of computer technology, there is a need for a trained computer forensics analyst to solve the crime.

Mean by Computer

The term forensics is often associated with the tangible objects that became part of a crime. But since law-breaking is no longer limited to delinquent acts but have been embraced by the machines as well, there is now a term called computer forensics.

This is investigating and analyzing through the use of computers to get legal evidences. This is in relation to the computer-related crimes that are now possible such as theft of intellectual property, fraud, and so many others. The experts on this field have a wide array of techniques that can recover the deleted files, decrypt codes, or retrieve the damaged information in the machine. However, before you become one of the computer forensics specialists, it is important that you know the ins and outs of both computer hardware and software since you would not deal on data inside the computer alone.

The experts in computer forensics ensure that as much as possible, no evidence will be compromised while they are still investigating the crime. Moreover, they should have the ability to prevent malware infection while they are under the process of investigation. They are also responsible for keeping all the information private especially if it is related to the details regarding an attorney and a client. These are just some of the responsibilities of a machine forensics expert.

Various steps are taken when identifying and retrieving the evidences that may exist on the system. Aside from protecting it from any damage, alteration or viruses, it is also important that they recover all the files even those that were already deleted. In case there are also files protected by data security, encrypting these data is also part of the process as well. All of the things that they will discover on the computer system must be printed at the same time after they have finished the analysis.

Internet Addresses

All computers attached to an IP network (such as the Internet) are uniquely identified by a 32-bit number, usually expressed in decimal notation and with each byte (or octet) separated by a period. Because each portion of the address specifies two bits, the decimal range is between 0 and 255 for each of the four bytes. For example:

10.191.31.10

If you ever see an IP address expressed in decimal notation with a number ING higher than 255, the address is not a valid IP address.

This address must be unique to the specific computer to which it is assigned- no other computer can have this address if it is attached to the same internetwork (i.e., the Internet). If two computers ever do have the same address, unpredictable routing errors will result. IP addresses are analogous to house addresses in that no two are ever the same and each element (in the case of house addresses, elements would be states, cities, streets, and numbers) is increasingly specific.

Subnets

IP addresses are not simply assigned at random. All computers on the same data link network are within the same subnet, or range of IP addresses. For instance, if you have an office Ethernet of 25 computers, all 25 computers would have IP addresses within the same short range.

The following example explains how IP addresses are assigned and how networks are submitted, or divided into IP networks. Let's say that BT&T. a telephone company and Internet service provider (ISP), has been assigned th 10 address range. Within that range, BT&T is able to split up and sell ranges of IP addresses.

Now let's say that American Internet, a regional ISP that serves the east coast, purchases from BT&T high-capacity network connections and the right: to act as a second-tier Internet service provider. BT&T assigns the 191 range of its 10 address range to American Internet, which is now free to assign any addresses more specific than 10. 191.

Digital Widgets, a small company that makes a digital version of the ubiquitous widget and has 200 computers, leases a Ti service and the ability to assign its own IP addresses within the company from American Internet. American Internet gives Digital Widgets the 64 address range so that Digital Widgets is free to assign any IP address more specific than 10.191. 64 to their own computers.

Sara, the forward-thinking network administrator of Digital Widgets, assigns the IP addresses 10.191.64.1 to the router attached to the Ti line. She assigns the address 10. 191.64.2 to the corporate server and sets up DHCP on the server to automatically assign the remaining addresses to client computers as they attach to the network.

DHCP is a protocol that dynamically assigns IP addresses to clients as they request them. DHCP is explained in the last section of this article

When Sara boots her networked client computer, it automatically receives the IP address 10.191.64.3 because it was the first computer to request a DHCP lease.

Website Knows

Most websites prominently display some for of privacy policy that describes what kind of information the site collects about its visitors and what it does with that information. This makes perfect sense when you supply your name and/or email address and/or other pertinent personal information to the site, such as when you're creating an account or making a purchase. But what does a website know about you if you don't register with it? To understand this you need to know a bit about how web browsers and web servers interact.

A web server is the software application that hosts a website. Your web browser communicates with the web server to fetch the HTML pages, images, videos, etc. that make up the website. This communication is done using a "protocol" (a set of commands) called HTTP, which is short for "Hypertext Transfer Protocol".

An interesting feature about HTTP is that it's mostly a plain text protocol. In other words, the commands are human-readable words and phrases. Here, for example, is the simplest HTTP command for fetching a single web page from a web server:

GET /index.html HTTP/0.9

This command says "Please GET the page '/index.html' and, by the way, I only understand version 0.9 of HTTP".

The web server would typically respond with a status code, some extra information, and the contents of the page in question.

A web browser normally sends additional information along with the request for a specific page. This information is sent to the web server using headers, which are name-value pairs. A modern browser would send headers like these:

GET /index.html HTTP/1.1

Host: http://www.yahoo.com

Referer: http://www.google.com/search?q=best+directory

Accept-Language: en-US, en, fr-CA, fr

User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.9.0.15) Gecko/2009101601 Firefox/3.0.15 GTB5

These headers tell the web server:

* That the visitor was directed to the website from a google.com search (the "Referer" header -- yes, it's misspelled, that's the way it is in the protocol and it can't be changed) for the term "best directory".

* That the visitor reads English and French (the "Accept-Language" header).

* That the visitor is using the Firefox browser (the "User-Agent" header).

When combined with the IP address of your computer (which the web server gets directly from the network connection the browser makes), this information can tell the webmaster a lot about the visitors that are browsing the site. None of it is personally identifiable information, but it's definitely useful. Webmasters can even tell which part of the world you're coming from based on your computer's IP address.

You can control how much of this information makes it to the web server. If you use the Firefox browser, for example, there are add-ons (extensions) that let you disable or otherwise mask these headers.

For the most part, though, these headers are actually useful for the webmaster and there's no need to block most of them. The only ones that should concern you are the cookies (markers) that web servers can insert into an HTTP conversation. Cookies have their use, but they're also a privacy concern when misused by website owners. Luckily, a good cookie blocker is all you need to fix that problem.

Forensics Degree

Computer crime is on the rise and there is a huge need for people that can solve this type of crime. The typical criminal activity usually includes burglary or physical attacks of some nature, but hacking into computers to steal ones identity or get information on their online banking is on the rise. To combat this stituation many colleges are now offering courses in computer forensic training.

The type of forensics training you would complete depends on the type of career interested in. These classes have different levels, with the first requiring that you have basic understanding, or preferably, experience with the Windows Operating System. The second level of training would take you through to a degree in computer science.

Of course, the more technical the career the more advanced the classes so if you wanted to work an upper job in computer forensics, expect that you will need to complete many more classes and perhaps, a second degree. However, the more education you have the more opportunities you have regarding a great career.

In addition, some careers would require you to complete forensics training on specific systems. This might include taking classes for network administration, Windows, and security. To save time and money, it would be best to look at all the career options for computer forensics so you can narrow your choice down to the one you want to pursue. With that, you would know exactly the computer forensics training required.

After graduating with your certification or computer science degree, the fun part starts of choosing your career. Again, there are so many possibilities, such as working closely with law enforcement personnel for criminal prosecution, or perhaps computer investigations. With your completed education, you become the expert, the person of authority that would be in charge.

Most often, people that go into computer forensics have some idea of the type of job they want to do but what happens many times is that after graduation, the true scope of career opportunities is revealed. With so many organizations looking to hire someone with computer forensics training, you would have no problem securing the job you want and at a nice pay rate.

Your future could be changed in a positive way simply by completing computer forensics training. The certification or degree you now hold is your key to the future. Having completed the courses, you could work virtually anywhere you want.

This means you could work locally, nationally, or internationally. In addition, you could work for a smaller company or go to work for a Fortune 500 corporation, or even go to work for a government agency. No matter your choice, you would enjoy benefits of job security and lucrative income.

Investigators

Computer forensics courses may be new to some of us out there. One of the reasons may be because the course is not made known to the public as much as a career such as doctors, nurses, teachers and policemen. Everyone knows what forensics is but what they do not know are the branches in forensics and this course is one of the branches.

Technology is getting more and more advance each day and the job scope gets larger and larger each and every single day. Investigation involves investigating the possible crimes at any crime scenes involving the use of computers or any digital devises as evidence. Here, you may find the basic things that an investigator does. Investigator first needs to prepare evidence and chain of custody forms.

• Evidence forms will contain the name of the device, the measurements, model, and serial numbers. This form is to ensure that there will be no confusions of devices and that particular device is for one particular case and will not be mixed up.
• Chain of custody forms answers the five questions of "what", "when", "who", "where", "why" and "how" of the particular evidence.

After filling up those forms, the investigator will have to analyse on how to retrieve the data from the device. There are several things that a computer forensic investigator has to follow and below are a few examples:

• not to boot a computer when it is off
• not to off a computer when it is on
• protect the evidence from getting destroyed by using a write protection software

When analyzing the data, the investigator has to make sure that every section of the device is checked. If it is regarding an email account, the data obtained has to be not only from the inbox but also sent files, drafts, spam mails, trash bins and other links provided by the email address provider. If it is the whole computer, then there is the necessity to check the temp files, recycle bin, recent link file, internet history, printed files, and also retrieve deleted files by using trustworthy software.

Common Situations

Computer forensics plays a vital role in recovering and revealing the hidden clues. A very famous case is the BTK Killer where investigators had assisted the police to discover a serial killer, Dennis Rader, through a floppy disk that Dennis sent to the police. Investigators found within the documents implicated an author name "Dennis" at "Christ Lutheran Church". This evidence helped to lead to the serial killer's arrest. Sound like watching CSI? Yes, it is.

By now, you should realise how wide the scope of work can be. Let's us look at some of the common situations in which it is used:

1) Unauthorised disclosure of corporate data (by accident or design)

There's always a chance that employees will disclose corporate data without authorisation to third parties or competitors. The chance increases when employees are unhappy, dissatisfied, or being fired. As corporate information such as business plans, customers database and product roadmaps are private and confidential, a computer forensics is needed to assist in protecting and lock down the potential leak of sensitive data. If such incident happens, he will help to uncover the person responsible.

2) Criminal fraud

The above BTK Killer case best describes how computer forensics is used in assisting criminal fraud uncovering. As you Google, you will come across how computer forensics had helped in uncovering evidence in the prosecution in high-profile murder cases as information technology had become a necessity in everyone's daily life irrespective of what profession you are in, whether legal or illegal. Apart from that, a knowledgeable and skilful investigator plays a key role in Court when presenting digital evidence for legal proceedings as these are not something which many of us can understand.

Other common situations include employee internet abuse, damage assessment and analysis, industrial spying, and other more general criminal cases. All these are where wrong-doings and crimes are committed through computers and digital storage media. These are also where evidences are found by computer forensics investigators.

Place in Top

Pursuing career in computer forensics is not as easy as just going into a college, get a degree and get a job. If you think that way, then you will not be able to get a high-paid job. I am sure everyone likes the sound of "high-paid job" but do you have what it takes to get what you like? One simple way to ensure you getting "high-paid job" is by getting into a top school. So, how are you going to do it? What do you need?

First of all, you need to have interest in this field. The importance of interest lies in doing what you like and liking what you do. If you do not like computer or any of the application at all, you will not excel in the courses. College entrance requires you to send in your resume and if they see that your hobby is more to drawing, dancing, singing or swimming instead of what they expect such as playing computer games, developing computer systems, playing Sudoku which develops the ability to be analytical or repairing computers; the chances of you getting into one of the schools has already been reduced to 50% only.

Second of all, you will be required to have high scores in your SAT Reasoning Test especially in the Maths section. Having a lot of mistakes reduces the chances of the college entrance. Therefore, ensure that your Maths and Science subject is good and as much as possible get a distinction in those two subjects. Without being able to excel in both subjects, it will be impossible to excel in the degree courses as well thus will reduce the opportunity to be accepted in top schools.

Finally, ensure that you have the skills to play around with the software, hardware and understand the function of every electronic devises that is normally involved in investigating crimes. To test your skills, try to pick up any spoilt electronic devises such as a computer or a digital camera. Try understanding them and repair them with the guide from any books available to you. If you find yourself having the patience to repair it until it is functioning well, then congratulations to you because you know you have the skills. But if you find yourself not having the patience to repair and instead wanted them to be easier, then you know that you do want to repair, you just want to be a superman who can do everything. Wanting to become a superman will not ensure you entering a top school but being a superman will.