Professional Digital Forensics (3 Months)

🔍 Program Overview

The Professional Digital Forensics program is engineered for security analysts, IT administrators, and aspiring digital investigators. It provides thorough laboratory exposure to live and dead evidence acquisition, file system forensics (NTFS, APFS, EXT4), memory dump triage, cloud incident logs, mobile database recovery, and structured forensic reporting.

Core Competencies Acquired:

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                                Digital Evidence Handling, Hash Verification & Chain of Custody standards.
                            

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                                Forensic Investigation Methodology & Bit-Stream disk imaging.
                            

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                                Disk and File System Analysis (NTFS, FAT32, APFS, EXT4, MFT, Inodes).
                            

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                                Operating System Forensics (Windows Registry, Shimcache, Amcache, Linux syslog).
                            

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                                Memory Dump Analysis using Volatility 3 and Rekall frameworks.
                            

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                                Network PCAP and Cloud Investigation protocols (M365, AWS logs).
                            

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                                Mobile Device Forensics (Android extraction and WhatsApp DB parsing).
                            

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                                Incident Response lifecycle and Threat Hunting methodologies.
                            

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                                Malware Analysis (Static PE indicators, dynamic sandbox triage).
                            

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                                Web & Database Investigation (SQL transaction logs, Apache logs).
                            

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                                Audio, Image, Video Forensics & Deepfake Detection algorithms.
                            

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                                Email Header Parsing (SPF, DKIM, DMARC verification, PST/OST).
                            

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                                Super Timeline Analysis with Plaso & log2timeline.
                            

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                                Courtroom Forensic Reporting & Expert Witness testimony preparation.
                            

📅 3-Month Investigation Roadmap

Follow our structured progression from evidence acquisition to multi-source timeline reconstruction.

MONTH 1 — Foundations & Evidence Acquisition

Evidence & Disk Forensics

Focus: Digital Evidence Fundamentals, Chain of Custody, Bit-by-Bit Imaging, Hash Verification (SHA-256), File System Forensics (NTFS, FAT32, EXT4), and Windows OS Registry artifact extraction.

Outcome: Master proper evidence seizure, forensic duplication, and file carving.

MONTH 2 — Systems, Memory & Network Forensics

OS, Network & Mobile Investigation

Focus: Volatile RAM triage with Volatility, Network Packet Reconstruction in Wireshark, Cloud Forensics (M365/AWS), Mobile Device Extraction, and Linux/macOS Unified Logs.

Outcome: Develop multi-environment forensic investigative capabilities.

MONTH 3 — Advanced Forensics & Litigation Reporting

Malware, Media Forensics & Super Timelines

Focus: Malware Triage, Steganography, Audio/Video Deepfake analysis, Phishing Header verification, Plaso super timeline creation, and Court-Ready Forensic Reporting.

Outcome: Reconstruct complex incidents and author professional forensic reports.

📖 Complete 18-Module Syllabus

Click on any of the 18 modules below to view detailed breakdown.

01 Introduction to Digital Forensics

Digital Evidence Definitions, Attributes & Admissibility

Order of Volatility & Evidence Preservation Protocols

Core Branches: Disk, Memory, Network, Cloud, Mobile, Multimedia Forensics

Cybercrime Classification & Real-World Incident Case Studies

Practical: Mock Crime Scene Evidence Triage & Identification

02 Digital Forensics Methodology & Evidence Imaging

Forensic Investigation Methodology (Identification to Presentation)

Chain of Custody Documentation & Tamper-Evident Handling

Physical vs Logical vs Sparse Acquisition

Forensic Imaging with FTK Imager, dd, and Guymager

Cryptographic Integrity Hashing (MD5, SHA-1, SHA-256)

03 File System and Disk Forensics

Disk Structures: MBR, GPT, Partitions, Sectors, and Clusters

NTFS Internals: Master File Table ($MFT), $LogFile, $UsnJrnl

FAT32, exFAT, EXT4, and APFS Architecture

File Carving & Deleted File Data Recovery (Scalpel, Autopsy)

Slack Space, Unallocated Clusters & Volume Shadow Copies (VSS)

04 Windows Operating System Forensics

Windows Registry Hives (SAM, SYSTEM, SOFTWARE, NTUSER.DAT)

Execution Artifacts: Prefetch, Shimcache, Amcache, UserAssist, BAM/DAM

LNK Files, Jump Lists, Shellbags, and RecentDocs

Windows Event Log Analysis (Security, System, PowerShell, Sysmon)

Browser Forensics: Chrome, Edge, Firefox SQLite History & Cookies

05 Memory Forensics

Volatile RAM Acquisition with WinPmem & LiME

Volatility 3 Framework Architecture & Symbol Tables

Process Tree Analysis (pslist, pstree, psscan, cmdline)

Detecting Hidden Processes, DLL Injections & Hooking (malfind)

Dumping Process Memory, Passwords, and Injected Shellcode

06 Network Forensics & Packet Analysis

PCAP Packet Capture & Deep Protocol Analysis (Wireshark, TShark)

Reconstructing Transferred Files & HTTP Sessions from PCAPs

DNS Tunneling, Beaconing & Exfiltration Detection

Correlating Firewall, Proxy, and VPN Authentication Logs

07 Cloud Forensics (AWS & M365)

Cloud Shared Responsibility in Forensic Investigations

AWS CloudTrail Log Ingestion & S3 Access Log Analysis

Microsoft 365 Unified Audit Log (UAL) Forensic Parsing

Detecting Token Theft, Cloud Lateral Movement & Compromised IAM

08 Mobile Device Forensics (Android)

Android Architecture, File Systems (YAFFS2, F2FS, EXT4)

Logical, ADB, and Physical Device Extractions

Parsing SQLite Databases: SMS, Call Logs, Contacts

WhatsApp / Telegram Decryption & Artifact Analysis

09 Incident Response & Threat Hunting

NIST SP 800-61 & SANS Incident Response Lifecycles

Live System Triage & Evidence Collection (KAPE, CyLR)

Hunting with Indicators of Compromise (IOCs) & YARA Rules

Containment, Eradication, and Recovery Strategies

10 Linux and macOS Forensics

Linux Artifacts: /var/log, auth.log, wtmp/utmp, shell history

Cron Jobs, Systemd Services & Persistence Mechanisms

macOS Forensics: APFS Snapshots, Unified Logging System

macOS TCC Database, Quarantine Events, and Plist Files

11 Malware Forensics & Triage

Static Malware Analysis: PE Headers, Imports, Exports, Strings

Obfuscation, Packing & Cryptographic Hashing

Dynamic Behavioral Analysis in Isolated Sandbox Environments

Extracting Network C2 Indicators & Mutex Objects

12 Web Application & Database Forensics

Apache & Nginx Access / Error Log Forensics

Detecting Web Shells, SQLi, and Remote File Inclusions

Database Forensics: MySQL & MSSQL Transaction Log Analysis

Reconstructing Unauthorized Database Modifications

13 Audio Forensics & Voice Biometrics

Digital Audio Formats, Compression & Spectrogram Analysis

Forensic Audio Denoising, Enhancement & Equalization

Voice Biometrics & Speaker Identification Techniques

Authenticity Verification: Detecting Splicing & Edits

14 Image, Video Forensics & Deepfake Detection

Exif Metadata Extraction & GPS Geolocation Tagging

Error Level Analysis (ELA) & Clone Detection

Video Frame Analysis, Timestamp Integrity & CCTV Forensics

AI Deepfake Detection: Facial Artifacts & Temporal Inconsistencies

15 Steganography & Hidden Data Analysis

Steganography Fundamentals: LSB Embedding in Images & Audio

Steganalysis Detection Algorithms & Structural Anomalies

Extracting Hidden Payloads using Steghide, Zsteg, and OpenPuff

16 Email Investigation & Phishing Forensics

Full Email Header Parsing: Received Fields, Message-ID, Sender IP

Authentication Checks: SPF Alignment, DKIM Signatures, DMARC Policies

Outlook PST/OST and UNIX MBOX Mailbox Forensic Extraction

17 Log Correlation & Super Timeline Analysis

Parsing MACB (Modified, Accessed, Created, Born) Timestamps

Generating Super Timelines with Plaso (log2timeline)

Correlating System Events, File Operations & Network Connections

Reconstructing Complete Intruder Lateral Movement Timelines

18 Court-Ready Forensic Reporting & Expert Witness

Formal Report Structure: Executive Summary, Evidence Custody, Technical Findings

Evidentiary Documentation, Screenshots & Hash Cross-Validation

Legal Standards: Section 65B Certificate & Court Testimony

Capstone Practical: Compiling and Defending a Complete Forensic Case Report

🛡️ Practical Forensic Tooling Matrix

Work with industry-recognized forensic toolkits and laboratory utilities:

FTK Imager Autopsy Volatility 3 Wireshark Plaso / log2timeline KAPE Scalpel Registry Viewer Eric Zimmerman Tools ExifTool Steghide Zsteg YARA Sysinternals DB Browser SQLite Audacity

ℹ️ Sanctioned Forensic Lab: All evidence acquisition, parsing, and malware triage exercises are performed within authorized laboratory sandbox environments.