Computer Forensics Assignment: An Investigator Report
Question
Objectives: This assignment is designed to encourage the development of ability to apply a systematic approach in a digital investigation through the conduct of computer forensics procedures and the use of computer forensics tools, and to encourage the ability to identify the legal issues involved in a computer forensic investigation across jurisdictions. Please refer to the unit profile to see how this assessment item relates to the unit learning outcomes.
Answer
Executive summary
This computer forensics investigator harps on the importance of computer forensics and how it helps in recovering the data from the digital device providing massive level of context to it. It has managed to help in the civil as well as the criminal proceedings and help in internal set of investigations. The computer forensics investigator details in length the usages of computer forensics and how it has managed to be an answer for the various investigators. They have managed to unveil the various set of truths and track down the murkiest of cases. It has managed to ensure proper levels of reporting to ensure that it can utilize useful amount of information. The paper manages to deal with the investigators using computer forensics to dig in valuable amounts of data that provides them insight into the cases.
The computer forensics investigator harps on the importance of locating the truth and dealing with the proper set of challenges that the computer forensics throws to the investigators. In order to be competent enough to solve the cases properly, it is important that they manage to understand the workings of the technology. The paper deals with the importance of computer forensics have been helped to solve the case of the BTK killer Dennis Radar. Radar enjoyed in taunting the police during his killing sprees in the Wichita, KS. This paper analyzes how it proved to be his fatal downfall because it revealed the true identity to the police. This resulted in the arrest of Dennis Rader being ultimately arrested and was sent behind bars as he pleaded guilty. This aspect brought great amount of relief to the long- terrorized community. In this way, the paper throws light on the digital and computer forensics have prove to be an ultimate boon in helping the investigators come to conclusion by analyzing data.
Introduction
This computer forensics investigator concentrates on discussing the effectiveness of the computer forensics and how it has managed to unravel the crimes and help the investigators to analyze the data. Digital forensics has been regarded as the act where the data has been recovered from a digital device. It has ensured that a proper context has been provided by explaining the source as well as the purpose of the criminal proceedings that have taken place. The computer forensics assignment has managed to harp on the effectiveness of the digital forensics and how it has managed to preserve as well as record the state of the digital device. The computer forensics has managed to analyze the state of the digital device as well as report useful information to the investigators so that they are in a position to unravel the mysteries related to the civil and criminal proceedings. The assignment has managed to analyze how a forensic investigator will be able to dig into a device and tell whether the data has managed to disapprove the alleged action.
The example of the famous case of the BTK Killer, Dennis Rader has managed to harp on the effectiveness of the digital forensics. Radar who had managed to have his share of enjoyment in taunting the police was ultimately nabbed as a floppy disk managed to reveal his true identity. The police arrested him as he pled guilty. He was soon sent behind bars which brought a major sense of relief to the long terrorized community. There have been other examples like the cases of Dr. Conrad Murray’s lethal prescriptions as well as the Craigslist Killer, Philip Mark off that have been solved by the computer forensics. These examples have been able to emphasize the efficiency and effectivity of the computer forensics and help the investigators understand the data in an efficient manner.
Provide a detailed description of the case
Dennis Rader was otherwise known as a BTK killer, had some sort of an understanding with the Wichita, Kan police Lt. Ken Landwehr. The head of the task force of the multi agency was on the run to nab him. In the week prior to the arrest, Radar had managed to ask the police whether he will be able to communicate with the police via a floppy disk so that he would not be traced by the particular computer. Police had managed to reply by saying ok. However, much to the dismay of Radar, the disk was sent to the local television station (Scanlon 2016). The disk after it had been tracked was quickly traced through a computer set at the church. It led to major level of DNA testing that confirmed that Radar was actually the BTK. The name BTK was actually taken by him because he stands for bind, torture as well as kill (Scanlon 2016).
The police had later clarified that BTK sending that floppy disk is what helped them crack the case. It would have been extremely difficult for them to nab him if he had quit killing and had kept his mouth shut. The police would not have been in a position to be able to connect the dots. As professed by Scanlon (2016), the police arrested him and BTK was sent behind bars after he managed to plead guilty for his crimes of the first degree murders. It had managed to bring a lot of relief to the long terrorized community.
Reporting the people involved in the crime comprising the criminal(s), suspect(s) as well as the victim(s)?
After careful analysis by the investigation team in this computer forensics assignment the police personnel named Wichita Kan police Lt. Ken Landwehr, it was deduced that Dennis Rader was the suspect. He was known by the other name as the BTK killer and was immediately nabbed after he decided to communicate to the police via the floppy disk (Teing et al. 2018). On sending the disk to the local television station, the disk managed to trace Rader with the help of a computer at his church. Therefore the DNA test had confirmed that Rader was actually the BTK and he was nabbed. This proved that BTK was the suspect and later was proved to be the criminal. The victims were the 10 people he had murdered and had committed guilty (Teing et al. 2018).
Reporting the motivation as well as the criminal purpose, i.e. sinister aims that the criminal(s) intended to achieve;
The main motivation behind these crimes of murder of the 10 people that discussed in this that include the murder of the 9 year old boy as well as the 11 year old girl(Teing et al. 2018).. The primary motivation of BTK was to ensure a certain degree of control in deciding the circumstances the victims would die. He enjoyed the aspect of stalking after the proverbial capture of the prey (victim). The main motivation behind the assault as discussed in this computer forensics assignment was Dennis Rader (Blind, Torture and Kill). As propounded by Teing et al. (2018), these ghastly acts were to ensure that the insatiable thirst for the control as well as power could be controlled. Before any further crimes could be committed, he as nabbed by the police and was sent to jail for 10 counts of first degree murder (Lillis et al. 2016). The communication through the floppy disk had led to his downfall.
Identifying as well as reporting the type of evidences that were utilized in the criminal investigation of the case
The evidences that were used in the report were the floppy disk. Dennis Rader who was also known as BTK (Blind, Torture and Kill). Killer had managed to play the cat and mouse game with the detectives talking in hypothetical’s as well as referring to BTK as the third person. However the evidence that proved to be his downfall was the floppy disk. Rader had managed to convince the police that he would communicate with them via a floppy disk (Lillis et al. 2016). This would ensure that he would not be traced to any particular computer. As soon as a disk from BTK was actually sent to the local television station, he was immediately nabbed by the police. He had managed to confess his crimes that included the killing of the 9 year old boy as well as the 11 year old girl (Lillis et al. 2016). The investigator and the police Wichita Kan, police has observed they had taken a massive gamble by sending the floppy disk to the television station. However this risk reaped them large rewards as the DNA test showed that Dennis Rader was indeed the BTK. After from the massive scale of murders, he had managed to terrorize the Wichita area.
Reporting or identifying, based on evidence, the type and nature of the attack(s);
On the basis of evidence that have been found by the investigator and police Wichita Kan, it can be deduced that attacks were cold blooded murders where he had managed to plan his murders carefully. He had managed to murder 10 people who included the chilling deaths of the 9 year old boy as well as the death of the 11 year old girl (Ramadhani et al. 2017).He managed to plan all his attacks in meticulous manner allowing him to be able to kill during the daytime. He had managed to troll (the word he used he used for checking out various women) and stalked out a few, selecting his victims (Ramadhani et al. 2017). Most of his victims had been women who had been strangled mercilessly at their homes. The exception is the first kill which was attributed to the BTK killer.
As professed by Watson and Dehghantanha (2016), on a quiet suburban street during a cold winter morning in the January of 1974, the BTK begins his usual projects. He had managed to use the “huge kit” that had been categorically packed with cords, hoods as well as plastic bags. He had managed to use the latter so as to sever the various phone lines. He plans his attack meticulously and manages to wait at the door. Before the dog is able to exit, he manages to wait at the door and enters. Having properly done the surveillance of the property he expects to be able to find the mother as well as the daughter (Watson and Dehghantanha 2016). He sometimes loses a bit of control in case he manages to find the father as well as the son. However he quickly manages to regain the composure. Rader manages to pull out the gun as he binds the wrist and the ankles of the Air force flight engineer known as Joseph Otero, 38 years old. He manages to take Joseph Junior to his bedroom (Watson and Dehghantanha 2016). He covers the boy’s head and lets him suffocate. In this manner, he manages to carry out the strategies of his cold blood murders.
Identifying which were the forensic tool(s) that was/were used in this case
The tools that had been utilized in this case were many. Some of the most important ones are discussed:
X ways Forensics - X ways forensic investigator has been used in the process to track the BTK killer Dennis Rader. It has been regarded as the powerful investigation or document that has been designed to ensure the investigators are able to help track the criminals that indulge in pornography or in this case murder (Quick and Choo 2018). As professed by Scanlon (2016), it is a simplified user interface that has very less technical set of options and less amount of technical functionality. This ensures that the investigators have been able to clearly concentrate on the job at hand.
Encase – Encase as a tool has been inculcate in the process so as to recover the evidence from the floppy drive that was sent by the BTK killer Dennis Rader. After the drive was sent to the local police station, the DNA’s were matched and it helped the investigators to nab him. Encase as a forensic tool ensures that the investigator is able to conduct in depth analysis of the various user files such as the documents, pictures as well as able to analyze the internet history (Quick and Choo 2018).
Forensic Toolkit- Forensic Toolkit has various levels of uses that has managed to distribute the processing levels and is regarded as the only forensics solution that helps in providing the leverage to multi-thread/ multi core computers (Teing et al. 2018). FTK has managed to utilize 100 percent of its various hardware resources that has helped the investigators find the evidence and come to a conclusion quickly regarding the plausible criminal. The investigators of the BTK case had managed to utilize the Forensic Tool kit to nab the BTK killer. As critiqued by Teing et al. (2018), in forensic tool, indexing is done up front and also it results in filtering as well as searching more efficiently than other solutions.
Discussing how it has managed to affect the victim(s) as well as any consequences pertaining to the crime;
The massive level of onslaughts that had been carried by Dennis Rader seemed to meet a fatal end. Dennis Rader, also known BTK was in a state of shock as he had been duly nabbed by the police and the investigation officer Lt. Ken Landwehr (Prabakaran and Mitra 2018). . He was baffled that was lied to by the police. BTK was sentenced to consecutive life terms in the prison. It could well cap off the decades long level of investigation that he indulged in slayings. It had terrorized the Wichita area from the beginning of the 1970s (Prabakaran and Mitra 2018).
As opined by Berman et al. (2015) which is refered in this computer forensics investigator, the consequences suffered were therefore at a massive level. A minimum of 175 years without have any chance of parole was possibly the longest possible sentence that the Ju Gregory could have possibly delivered. The two day sentencing had managed to feature testimony from the various detectives who had graphically detailed the 10 killings that had occurred (Berman et al. 2015). The killings almost portrayed “Rader “to be a monster. Even though he had managed to issue an apology to the victim’s relatives, he was sentenced to imprisonment. Rader had managed to offer the Biblical quotes to the relatives of the victims.
Reporting the criminal punishment, if any;
As critiqued by Bornik et al. (2018), the criminal punishment that was awarded to the Dennis Rader for his hand in the 10 gruesome murders. It included the murder of the 9 year old boy as well as the 11 year old girl was imprisonment for 175 years without any parole (Carter and Carter 2016). He was sentenced to consecutive life terms in prison by the Judge Gregory Waller for the slaying he had committed and terrorizing the city and the Wichita area for several decades. It was the maximum life sentence that could be possibly awarded to him for his criminal offences without giving him a death sentence (Kang et al. 2018).
Report any of the other aspects pertaining to the case you would like to discuss, e.g. the court(s) having the jurisdiction? i.e. this case should/can be heard at which of the court. In your discussion, you need to
a. Critically evaluating the various forensic tool(s) and discussing the various categories in relation to functions, including acquisition, validation as well as verification, extraction, reconstruction as well as reporting;
The forensic tools that have utilized like the X ways Forensics, Encase and Forensic Toolkit have been able to understand the nature of the attack. As professed by Arshad et al. (2018), the investigators have been able to get a fair bit of idea on the basis of the data they had managed to collect through X ways Forensics (Arshad et al. 2018). It has helped the forensic experts to analyze the evidences in a critical manner. The cause as well as the origin of the attack could be ascertained with the help of the tools. The investigator on further levels of investigation and questioning of the criminal has been able to ascertain the plausible reasons of the attack.
b. Justifying the choice as well as the selection of that/those specific tools over the other set of tools;
The usage of python as well as metadata have been able to narrow down the various steps of research as they focus on code readability. It has helped the investigators to ensure proper levels of coding of the data that has been sent by BTK in the floppy drive. As opined by Gitto et al. (2019), the coding is done in fewer steps than the Java or C++.Metadata has also been extremely useful as it has helped in the understanding and effective analysis of the data by the investigators. It has inculcated the steps of context, quality, structure as well as accessibility. It can be easily used in sync with the needs of the analyst.
Discussing how the various computer forensic experts have managed to make use of the various nominated tools in the criminal investigation of the case that I presented.
The BTK killer had sent the file station with a 3.5 disk with the various level of communication instruction. The computer forensic experts had managed to use the metadata and able to track the file named Test. A.rtf. On the tracking of the file that has been embedded in the Microsoft proprietary Rich Text Format (RTF), the file had contained the first name of the BTK killer as well as the physical location from where he had saved the file (Quick and Choo 2018). In this way it had managed to provide a suitable platform for the analyst so as to be able to determine as well as refine the plausible conclusions of the attack.
Conclusion
The computer forensics investigator has been able to analyze the effectiveness of the computer forensics and how it has helped in unraveling the various cases that has plagued the world. It has managed to deduce the suitable platform that is provided to the various set of investigators in utilizing the forensic tools and come to a plausible conclusion regarding the various crimes. The famous case of the BTK killer Dennis Rader has been discussed and analyzed in the assignment. It has been able to conclude the effectiveness of the forensic tools in tracking the gruesome murder known as BTK (Blind, Torture and Kill). It has managed to conclude how he was categorically nabbed by the police with the help of a floppy disk that was sent to the local police station. The computer forensics investigator has been able to conclude the tools (python and metadata) that have been used in the process after providing the brief overview of the event. It has been able to analyze clearly the type of attack that was committed by the criminal Dennis Rader and the punishment that he had received for his act. The purpose behind the attacks has also been analyzed and concluded properly. The last part of the computer forensics investigator has managed to deduce the effectiveness of the various tools that has been used. Computer Forensics assignments are being prepared by our IT assignment help experts from top universities which let us to provide you a reliable assignment help online service.
Reference List
Scanlon, M., 2016, August. Battling the digital forensic backlog through data deduplication. In 2016 Sixth International Conference on Innovative Computing Technology (INTECH)(pp. 10-14). IEEE.
Teing, Y.Y., Dehghantanha, A. and Choo, K.K.R., 2018. CloudMe forensics: A case of big data forensic investigation. Concurrency and Computation: Practice and Experience, 30(5), p.e4277.
Lillis, D., Becker, B., O'Sullivan, T. and Scanlon, M., 2016. Current challenges and future research areas for digital forensic investigation. arXiv preprint arXiv:1604.03850.
Ramadhani, S., Saragih, Y.M., Rahim, R. and Siahaan, A.P.U., 2017. Post-Genesis Digital Forensics Investigation. Int. J. Sci. Res. Sci. Technol, 3(6), pp.164-166.
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Chung, H., Park, J. and Lee, S., 2017. Digital forensic approaches for Amazon Alexa ecosystem. Digital Investigation, 22, pp.S15-S25.
Prabakaran, S. and Mitra, S., 2018, April. Survey of analysis of crime detection techniques using data mining and machine learning. In Journal of Physics: Conference Series (Vol. 1000, No. 1, p. 012046). IOP Publishing.
Berman, K.J., Glisson, W.B. and Glisson, L.M., 2015, January. Investigating the impact of global positioning system evidence. In 2015 48th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (pp. 5234-5243). IEEE.
Bornik, A., Urschler, M., Schmalstieg, D., Bischof, H., Krauskopf, A., Schwark, T., Scheurer, E. and Yen, K., 2018. Integrated computer-aided forensic case analysis, presentation, and documentation based on multimodal 3D data. Forensic science international, 287, pp.12-24.
Carter, D.L. and Carter, J.G., 2016. Effective police homicide investigations: Evidence from seven cities with high clearance rates. Homicide Studies, 20(2), pp.150-176.
Kang, S., Kim, S. and Kim, J., 2018. Forensic analysis for IoT fitness trackers and its application. Peer-to-Peer Networking and Applications, pp.1-10.
Arshad, H., Jantan, A.B. and Abiodun, O.I., 2018. Digital Forensics: Review of Issues in Scientific Validation of Digital Evidence. Journal of Information Processing Systems, 14(2).
Gitto, L., Arunkumar, P. and Cina, S.J., 2019. Social Media and Medicolegal Death Investigation: Logged in… To the Morgue. Journal of forensic sciences.
Quick, D. and Choo, K.K.R., 2018. Digital Forensic Data and Open Source Intelligence (DFINT+ OSINT). In Big Digital Forensic Data (pp. 67-81). Springer, Singapore.
www.rasmussen.edu , 2019 Forensic Cases [Availble from https://www.rasmussen.edu/degrees/justice-studies/blog/cracking-cases-with-digital-forensics/, on April, 28th , 2019]
