Computer Forensics: Investigating Cyber Attacks and Digital Data

Computer Forensics
Computer Forensics
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Computer Forensics
Baltimore’s 911 system hack
The 911 system works by routing the calls made by users to emergency responders who are
closest to a call. The 911 system has saved countless number of lives since its inception, and if
hindered, it could disable an entire state for an extended period of time. An attack termed as a
TDoS attack, or telephony denial of service attack infects a number of mobile phones to
autimatically make fake calls to 911, clogging call center ques. This prevents real users from
reaching the operators (Tan et.al, 2014).
The primary aim of an investigative officer in case of a 911 systems hack would be to
identify the route cause of the hack. As the majority of hacks occur due to Malware that infects
phones, it would be better to intially try and identify the Apps that conain Malware or Spyware.
Once the particular Malware has been identified, the next step would be to identify the phones
from which the calls have been arriving to the 911 facility. But this may be challenging for the
investigative officer, as the attacks are initiated through a set of commands via covert text
messages or the Internet. Steps could be taken to block the phones that repeatedly make the 911
calls using the ImternationalMobile Subscriber Identity (IMSI) number.
The Wannacry Virus attack on 2017
On May 2017 a virus called WannaCry that encrypts data on infected computers and
demands ransom payments to allow users access was released across the world. The WannaCry
virus predominantly attacked the NHS, which severely deterred its ability to provide care to the
patients.
The peculiar feature about WannaCry was that it spreads itself to an organization's
network by exploiting a vulnerability (Chen and Bridges, 2017). But it was difficult to determine