Metadata in Cyber Forensics?
Data that describes other data is known as metadata. Although it is most frequently employed in digital files, it is also helpful in other kinds of media, including pictures and videos. The words meta (which means “after”) and -data (which means “given”) are the origins of the name. IBM adopted metadata as a means of data organization for the first time in the 1960s. Since then, the phrase has become more extensively used in computer science.
When describing details about a file, including its author and creation date, metadata is frequently employed. Other information can also be included, such as ratings and keywords. Users can utilize metadata to find files they’re looking for and choose which ones to use. The contents of a file are frequently described using metadata. For instance, the author’s name and the date a document was generated can be included in metadata in a word processing program. Metadata in music files may contain details like the artist and song length. Information about the file, such as its size, location, and format, can be stored in metadata. Additionally, it can be used to keep track of modifications made to the file over time.
We will define metadata as data that describes other data for the sake of this essay. In addition to other locations, metadata is most frequently present in digital files on a computer or network. Metadata is present everywhere, not just in digital files. It is present in a variety of file formats, including documents, pictures, movies, and other kinds of data. Data that comprises the file name, size, and type is known as metadata. It also specifies the file’s creation or modification date and the person(s) who did it.
How does metadata function in digital forensics?
In the realm of cyber forensics, metadata analysis is very helpful, especially if the metadata provides information that is difficult to access. The modification time and access time of a file may change when it is transferred from one directory to another, but the creation time (if the OS supports it) will not. You can tell if a file has changed since it was created by looking at its hash value. These values need to be the same if there have been no alterations made to a file since it was initially created.
Consider that you have a spreadsheet with information about the sales for your company for the third quarter of 2022. The metadata on this file will tell you when it was created as well as any changes made since then.
Because it gives investigators access to more information than just the contents of files or computer hardware devices, metadata can be particularly helpful in cyber forensics. Metadata can provide information that may not be readily available through other techniques, such as timestamping or hashing algorithms (which are covered below), to help investigators ascertain if files have been updated since they were first generated or if they were even written at all.
The modification time indicates the most recent instance in which a person, machine, or program altered or updated a file’s contents. This may happen if you save your file,
if someone else edits it, or even if software writes data to that file. An access date has the same implications;
On most operating systems, creation dates are often set by default and remain unchanged unless they are manually changed by an attacker looking to cover their traces after breaking into a system or secretly installing dangerous software on other people’s devices. The ability to establish whether files were produced before to, during, or after specific events (such as a hacking attempt) allows investigators to leverage all three of these variables to gather crucial information for forensic investigations.
Reference: