A key tenet of digital forensics is to ensure that no changes are made to digital evidence while processing and examining it. Any change, no matter how slight, has the potential to bring the entire examination into question. There is a distinct possibility that the evidence may even be excluded from legal proceedings if the responder is unable to articulate how they ensured that the evidence was not tainted during the examination. As a result, it is important to understand how write blockers maintain the integrity of digital evidence.
Write blockers come in two different types. The first of these is a software write blocker. This software sits between the operating system and the evidence. These are often part of any digital forensics tools that are used during the examination phase. They ensure that there is read-only access to the evidence file and that...