What are the Best Computer Forensic Tools

Introduction

Cybercrime is real and nothing is safe from the malicious attacks of unauthorized users. Whether it is Yahoo or The Home Depot, cyber-attacks are not limited to any organization or sector. It has also been estimated that about $400 billion of data and information are lost each year. That is why cybercrime is usually termed as a pandemic which can only be overcast by the help of extreme cybersecurity measures applied by the IT professionals.

What is Computer Forensics?

Forensics Analysis can be used to analyze and search vital information from the data which can aid in the trial taking place in the court of law. O the other hand, computer forensics is used to detect any malware present in the data to deliver evidence. The tools used for computer forensics aid in detecting this malicious malware and which system is getting affected by it. In this way, the company can implement cybersecurity measures with the help of IT professionals possessing Information Security Certifications.

Top Computer Forensic Tools

Our generation and the upcoming ones will be more dependent on technology and computers come at the top. Computers have certainly become an indispensable part of our lives and they are constantly evolving. Therefore, computer forensic tools are a necessity in times like these so we have gathered information regarding the leading computer forensic tools along with their significant features. Each tool demonstrates its own features and benefits but we will discuss only the top 5 computer forensic tools which are mentioned below.

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1. HackerCombat

HackerCombat is the kind of computer forensic tool that can help you without charging you for anything. This forensic tool thoroughly scans the entire devices and locate the cause of the problem. A lot of organizations are adopting this method to detect any kind of malware that is damaging your sensitive data. There are certain features of the HackerCombat computer forensic tool and these features are mentioned below.

• It helps to differentiate between the good, bad, and unidentified files, so it gets easy to locate malware. It also gives a verdict on which file should be added in a 'good' section or the 'Bad' section.
• It takes about 15 minutes to complete the entire process of detecting the malware present in any system.
• It's not limited to locating malware in files only but it also covers all the end-points of the servers, networks, systems, applications, etc.
• After analyzing everything, HackerCombat provides a report which demonstrates the position of your cybersecurity measures.

2. ProDiscover Forensic

ProDiscover Forensic is considered to be one of the most powerful computer forensic tools which aid in reading and analyzing the files at the sector level. It is also utilized to retreat all those files that were deleted because of malicious malware. ProDiscover Forensic is renowned because it is utilized to give access to the Windows Alternate Data Streams along with the examination of the Slack Space.

By allowing Hardware Protected Area, ProDiscover Forensic can help in detecting discrepancies in all forms of data that are present in the computers. All the dynamic and significant features exhibited by the ProDiscover Forensic tool are stated as follows:

• It is used to create certain disk copies known as the Bit-Streams which can be utilized to analyze the data.
• It previews all the information from the data on the disk without disarraying and dismantling it such as the data present on the Metadata.
• It analyzes every file, system, server, application, and network one by one or it can analyze them at the level of the cluster as well.
• It locates malware or any other discrepancies on the entire disk including the regions of the HPA section, Windows NT/2000/XP Alternate Data Streams, and Slack Space.

3. X-Ways Forensics

As the methods of hackers are advancing, we need advanced tools to detect the malware or any other problem caused by hackers. One such advanced tool is the X-Ways Forensics which is highly effective in locating the defected areas in the data. This tool is renowned because it is quite easy to handle and you can even take this tool wherever you go. It offers an immense number of features but the most important and leading ones are mentioned below.

• This tool comes off as a USB which can be entered into any device and you won't have to go through any hassle of installing it.
• It reads and partitions all the necessary information present inside the structures of ISO, VMDK, VHD, and raw images.
• You don't have to generate various functions to detect the files because once you enter it into any device, it will automatically function to detect and locate the files. These files may be the defected ones or the ones which have been deleted by the malevolent malware.
• With the help of templates, X-Ways Forensics can edit or view any binary structure present in the data.

4. CAINE

Computer-Aided Investigative Environment or CAINE encapsulates a large number of essential tools that are needed for computer forensics. CAINE is a kind of Linux Live CD which is optimum to analyze all the parts of the given data. CAINE gets updated regularly and the latest version of it is based on LightDM, Ubuntu Linux LTS, and MATE. All the important features exhibited by this advanced computer forensic tool are specified as follows:

• The interface used by this computer forensic tool is highly friendly which adds to its high demand.
• As already mentioned, CAINE consists of a pool of tools within it and most of these tools are open-source.
• CAINE gets regular updates whenever there is a need which makes is proficient to be used in the forensic analysis.
• It also makes a good host for a generator known as the Semi-automated Report Generator along with a user-friendly GUI which increases its efficiency.

5. Xplico

Xplico is the kind of computer forensic tool which aids in the reconstruction of the entire set of pages and the related content including files, cookies, images, etc. It also helps in the reconstruction of all the acquisition contents that take place with the help of packet sniffer such as Wireshark, Netsniff-ng, tcpdump, etc.

You don't have to manually install this forensic tool because when you install digital forensics, Xplico also gets downloaded by default and it inhabits in the descriptions of such forensics. Not only digital forensics but it is also installed with penetration testing such as BackBox, Kali Linux, BackTrack, Matriux, DEFT, etc. Xplico also possesses some highly important features which make it viable to use by the organizations and these features are states as follows:

• The handle the huge amount of data, Xplico provides an inner module for the management of the data at the cellular level.
• It also contains an output module that helps to deploy the decoded data and to efficiently present them to the users on the other end.
• It can support as many files or data as you want and you won't reach the limit.
• Xplico also contains various other modules that are further divided into components specific for each system or file.
• Xplico is designed to support a large number of protocols which include HTTP, IPv6, TCP, POP, UDP, SIP, SMTP, IPv4, IMAP, etc.