Live acquisition versus post-mortem acquisition
When investigating devices that are powered on and powered off, special consideration must be given to the volatility of data. Booting, rebooting, or shutting down a device can cause data to be written to the hard drive, resulting in data (deleted files) in unallocated space being overwritten.
Powered-on devices
Before we begin any examination of live systems, it is of high importance that all steps be thoroughly documented, particularly if the report and evidence are to be presented in court. Investigating a live system means that logs and timestamps will be generated while the system is being examined. Therefore, thorough documentation will justify the actions taken by the forensic examiner and not be viewed as evidence tampering.
When investigating a powered-on device, the following precautions should be taken:
- Move the mouse or glide your fingers across the touchpad if you suspect the device may be in a sleep state...
