CSC60504 - Forensic Investigation Methods in Cybercrime: Sony Case

This report delves into the realm of cybercrimes and the computer forensic investigation methods employed to address them, particularly focusing on incident responses and forensics. It elucidates how these methods, including e-discovery and incident response planning, are crucial for organizations facing security breaches. The report draws a connection to the 2014 Sony Pictures hack, illustrating how a robust incident response plan and a dedicated team of forensic analysts could have mitigated the damage and expedited the resolution process. It emphasizes the importance of integrating forensic analysis with incident response to make informed decisions and highlights the necessity for organizations to adopt these measures to safeguard against future security breaches. Desklib offers a wide range of resources, including past papers and solved assignments, to further assist students in understanding these complex topics.

Running head: PROFESSIONAL COMPUTING PRACTICE
Professional Computing Practice
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Executive summary
This report deals with the various computer forensic investigation systems, used for resolving computer
oriented crimes and security breach cases. This report provides a brief regarding the two computer
forensic investigation methods and relates it to the famous Sony Pictures Hack case of 2014, to state how
such methods could have been used in that case and how it can be useful for Sony in future.

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Table of Contents
Cybercrimes................................................................................................................................................2
Computer forensic investigation methods....................................................................................................3
Relevance to Sony Pictures Hack, 2014......................................................................................................4
References...................................................................................................................................................4

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Cybercrimes
Cybercrimes are basically computer oriented crimes that involve the use of computers and
networks, where such computer or network is used for committing offences or such network or computer
is the target. These types of crimes are increasing day by day with the advancement of technology and
therefore, in order to protect from such crimes, various legislations have also been enacted as well
(Brown, 2015). But unfortunately, these legislations have various loopholes and for such reasons
computer forensic investigation methods play an important role in providing protection against various
cyber crimes.
Computer forensic investigation methods
Computer forensic investigation methods are methods, which are used for the purpose of
investigating into the crimes which are computer oriented. They involve examination of digital media in a
forensically sound manner, with the aim to identify, preserve, recover and present facts and opinions
about such digital information (Nelson, Phillips & Steuart, 2014). Computer investigation methods can be
divided into two types. They are:
 E-Discovery-
 Incident Responses and Forensics
The incident responses and forensics method aims particularly at the cases relating to security
breaches and hacks in companies. This method makes it mandatory for organizations to have an incident
response plan that includes the detection of the incident in addition to a response. It aims for an effective
security strategy, which can respond effectively to unexpected and inevitable contingencies. This method
mandates organizations for making a fast response team for handling security incidents. The team
becomes responsible for monitoring, handling incidents and reporting during a security breach or attack
(Luttgens, Pepe & Mandia, 2014). The formation of a response team helps in responding to the situation
immediately by classifying and prioritizing such issues and assigning the incident accordingly, which
results in a bad or good decision that directly impacts the resolution to the problem.
During forensic analysis, various things must be considered like systems having external
influences, must be separate for avoiding further damage, or as a means of preserving evidence. This
method involves the forensic analyst to work with the incident response team for making better decisions.
The decisions must be made in accordance with the existing policies and it is to note that these teams
have knowledge about the actual impact of the problem and are aware of the risk of reproducing certain

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actions on the system (Ab Rahman & Choo, 2015). These procedures must be clear and form a part of the
emergency plan.
Relevance to Sony Pictures Hack, 2014
The Sony Pictures hack, 2014 case was a popular case of computer security breach, where North
Korean Government, hacked into Sony’s system and used its data and blackmailed it for not releasing a
film called ‘The Interview’, involved the assassination of the North Korean leader. It took a lot of time to
find out the North Korean government’s involvement in the case and also caused sufficient leakage of
Sony’s data, causing damage. The presence of incident response plan and team along with forensic
analysts in the case, would have helped Sony to minimize the damage caused and resolve the problem in a
much faster way. Therefore, Sony should use the Incident Responses and Forensics for preventing such
further security breaches in future.

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References:
Ab Rahman, N. H., & Choo, K. K. R. (2015). A survey of information security incident handling in the
cloud. Computers & Security, 49, 45-69.
Brown, C. S. (2015). Investigating and prosecuting cyber crime: Forensic dependencies and barriers to
justice. International Journal of Cyber Criminology, 9(1), 55.
Luttgens, J. T., Pepe, M., & Mandia, K. (2014). Incident response & computer forensics. McGraw-Hill
Education Group.
Nelson, B., Phillips, A., & Steuart, C. (2014). Guide to computer forensics and investigations. Cengage
Learning.

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