Understanding browsers
What is a browser? A user can use a program or an application to access websites via the World Wide Web (WWW). The best browser is an ongoing debate and can be a very personal choice for a user. The user has options to personalize the browser to enhance their experience when accessing the WWW.
As a result, this creates many artifacts that any digital forensic investigator can use to recreate the user’s activity. In addition, there will be logs, history files, and cache files that a digital forensic investigator can examine to identify unethical or criminal activity.
Like all technology, browsers are continuously being updated and changed. User experience is typically the key to these changes, but security has also been a driving factor lately. While the security enhancements are not specifically designed to frustrate or hamper digital forensic investigations, they do have that effect.
We will now discuss some common browsers you may encounter...
