Research Project – Forensic Investigation INSTRUCTIONS: This assignment is a han

Research Project – Forensic Investigation
INSTRUCTIONS: This assignment is a hands – on investigation and will require the student to investigate evidence files and then generate a state of art file system forensic analysis report that would be suitable for a trial. The assignment is based on the below criminal scenario and requires a thorough review of a file system analysis of the information that has already been collected by investigators.
WHERE TO BEGIN : All of the forensic evidence available to you is provided in the Evidence File, this includes digital evidence, interviews, and police reports. You will need to base your investigation off of the evidence. Based on your investigation, identify evidence that either supports the charges against Jane Doe or exculpates her from the crime at hand.
Review the evidence file under “Course Assignments” and all of its contents.
Apply the techniques that have been covered in this course over the first twelve weeks to identify any potential evidence.
Use one of the digital forensic report examples in the content folder or create your own to explain why the evidence can be used to draw factual conclusions about the case.
Create a brief PowerPoint of your findings that could be used in a court of law to explain your findings to a Jury.
Remember, it is not up to you to determine guilt or innocence. This is the job of the Jury, therefore, let your findings determine the facts of the case and draw the conclusions on their own.
You must provide proper citation of all websites, cases, periodicals and any referenced information.
SCENARIO: Jane Doe is a Network Security Analyst that works on behalf of the Department of Defense in a secure Network Operations Center (NOC) in Maryland. She is married to John Doe with three children and lives in a four – bedroom house in the country. Mrs. Doe is a strong supporter of the community, the PTA, and spends her free time volunteering at the local food bank. On June 15th 2018, Jane Doe was assigned to assist her agency in performing a network security analysis at a secure facility in the State of New Jersey. During her two week visit to the facility a major cyber attack occurred on the facility bringing many of the systems offline. On August 5th 2018 , Jane Doe was accused of espionage and releasing State secrets to a non-disclosed foreign government. Mrs. Doe’s work laptop and personal computer have been seized pending the outcome of the investigation. The reason for this seizure is that her user identification was used to turn off the firewall on the network device which then allowed malicious actors into the classified network and provided access to sensitive documents . The fact that the classified network was physically bridged to a public network at a separate location was determined, but the suspect in that incident has not yet been identified. Jane Doe maintains her innocence and states that her laptop must have been compromised, there by giving the attackers her username and password. She additionally stated that someone with intimate knowledge of the network had to make the network connection in the separate facility . She concludes that she was used as a scapegoat since she had been scheduled to work in the NJ facility for months. The case has been assigned Docket number #18-00346 in New Jersey Superior Court. You have been hired as a Digital Forensic Investigator working in concert with Law Enforcement entities. The forensic data from the active system has already been mined from her computers and is at your disposal. A forensic duplicate of the system has been placed into a secure FBI facility in West Virginia.
Please submit your completed Research Paper here, all papers will be sent through SafeAssign.
Evidence Files are located in the Evidence_files.zip in this content folder.
Evidence File Image Citations are links back to the original images licensed under Creative Commons, these links should be considered “Out of Play” for the investigation/project and are provided for Copyright Purposes. Do NOT use these citations as cited works in your final report.
Tools used during the forensic investigation are not considered citations.
PAPER REQUIREMENTS:
The paper should be a minimum of five (5) pages but no more than ten (10), however the paper will be accepted if the paper exceeds ten pages.
The paper should be typed double-spaced in Times New Roman, 12 Point font.
The paper should contain a minimum of five sources / citations supporting your findings withe cases and why courts have come to similar conclusions in other cases.
All sources must be properly cited, including bibliography and footnotes, and follow the APA format for writing excellence.
Your work must be original and have academic integrity as per University Standards, all papers will be submitted to SafeAssign.
The grading rubric for the research paper is available in the course syllabus and at the end of this document.
HINTS:
Evidence is not always as blatant as it may seem
There is no right or wrong way to approach this case, this is all about attention to detail.
It is not up to you to determine guilt, your mission is to identify the facts and determine if they support the charges or exculpate the suspect.
Write this report and presentation as if you were going to testify in a court of law, because in the real world you would be testifying.
I have thrown some curve balls into the evidence files, so each students report may vary.
Good Luck!!