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What are the duties of a digital forensics expert?

Published on: 7 Dec 2022

Digital forensics plays a key role in cyber security, ensuring businesses are protected from attacks and a comprehensive incident response strategy is in place if a breach does occur.

Professionals working in digital forensics face the important challenge of keeping organisations safe from cyber attacks. Whether it’s working alongside law enforcement to gather evidence or defending a company against an attempted data breach, these highly skilled analysts play a vital role in fixing vulnerabilities and creating a safer environment.

If you’re looking to start your career in digital forensics, it might be useful to understand the different methods professionals use in the field. Below are just some of the key ways professionals help businesses keep on top of cyber security.


Detecting and blocking malware
Malware and spyware are malicious types of software that allow cyber criminals to illegally access a digital system. Usually, this is done to steal information, so businesses have to be prepared to avoid their data being hijacked.

Digital forensics professionals are well-equipped to detect and remove malware from a system. They will follow up with a report, detailing the type of malware found, what data was compromised and when the infiltration occurred.

The information provided by digital forensics is vital to expedite legal action and the professional’s investigation report constitutes legally admissible evidence.


Identifying areas of weakness
Having antivirus software installed is, unfortunately, just not enough to prevent a determined cyber attack from taking place. Companies that hire in-house digital forensics professionals are safer than the rest.

Digital forensics experts are able to assess the level of security your business has and recommend the best ways to improve it. Furthermore, they work on preventing attacks from happening in the first place by making security improvements and monitoring networks.

Moreover, if a breach is to occur, a digital forensics team will explore the network and search for signs of the cyber attack lingering, often in the form of unauthorised user accounts or malware. These tasks all work towards gathering evidence and establishing a plan for how to firm up a business’ security measures.


Recovering deleted information
In cases where a cyber attack results in a loss of data, businesses need to be prepared to restore important information. One duty of a digital forensics professional is to recover deleted information. This is done by restoring from backups or employing data recovery software.

If a business has an existing digital forensics team, it will have already implemented a viable backup strategy in case of events like this. However, a company might experience data loss that can’t be resolved by using older versions. Forensics experts will make use of methods such as forensic disk analysis and file recovery algorithms to restore lost information. 


Sandboxing
Sandboxing is a common cyber security practice, in which professionals create, run, observe and analyse their code in an isolated environment. The purpose of sandboxing is to simulate a user-operating network and keep code regulated so it’s less likely to inflict damage upon the host operating system.

Digital forensics experts often conduct sandboxing to evaluate potentially harmful software. For example, if your business is working with a new vendor, you can test the software for any threats. The practice is advantageous as it complements all of the existing security strategies an organisation might have in place, adding an extra layer of protection.

If you’re interested in pursuing a career in digital forensics, browse our latest vacancies today.