This course can be taken as a Short Course or Short Course for Credit.

Please go to the 'Upgrade to a professional qualification' section for more information.

The aim of this course is to provide you with a thorough grounding in the fundamentals of common digital systems, the artefacts associated with such systems and techniques to identify, collect and analyse those artefacts. A mixture of theory and practice will facilitate the development of skills and experience across multiple computing platforms, including networking related artefacts. In addition to preparing you for real-world examination of computers, these skills will serve as a foundation for further study, including the Mobile Device Forensics and Internet-Based Investigations courses.

At a glance

  • Dates
    • Please enquire for course dates
  • Duration10 days
  • LocationCranfield campus
  • Cost£4,450 - Short Course for Credit fee

    £4,200 - Standalone Short Course fee

Course structure

Lectures and tutor guide classroom practical exercises followed by self-study

What you will learn

On successful completion of the course you will be able to:

  • Given detailed knowledge of computer hardware, justify appropriate data acquisition strategies.
  • Recover digital evidence at different levels of abstraction from digital systems, both volatile (e.g. network and memory) and non-volatile (e.g. file systems, operating systems, applications)
  • Evaluate the reliability of digital evidence recovered from digital systems
  • Given a set of instructions for a case, construct and carry out an appropriate strategy to recover appropriate and admissible digital evidence.
  • Create appropriate documentation to accompany a digital forensic investigation (e.g. notes and expert reports).

Core content

WEEK 1:

  • Binary Data Structures and Encoding,
  • File Formats,
  • Disks Basics & Advanced Concepts,
  • FAT & NTFS File Systems,
  • Windows Forensics,
  • Metadata & Carving,
  • Analysis Techniques.

WEEK 2:

  • Other File Systems,
  • Virtual Machines,
  • Windows Enterprise Systems,
  • Linux Forensics,
  • macOS Forensics,
  • Memory Forensics,
  • OSINT Investigation,
  • Cryptography and Encryption,
  • Cybersecurity & Malware.

Upgrade to a professional qualification

Find out more about short course credit points.

Speakers

Neil Parry

Read our Professional development (CPD) booking conditions.