FRSC 1011H Chapter Notes - Chapter 18: Secure Hash Algorithms, Hard Disk Drive, Central Processing Unit
2 May 2018
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Computer Forensics
● Hardware
○ The physical components of a computer; case, keyboard, monitor,
motherboard, RAM, HDD, mouse, and so on; generally speaking, if it is a
computer component you can touch, it is a hardware.
● Software
○ A set of instructions compiled into a program that performs a particular
task; software consists of programs and applications that carry out a set of
instructions on the hardware.
● Motherboard
○ The main system board of a computer (and many other electronic
devices), which delivers power, data, and instructions to the computer’s
components; every component in the computer connects to the
motherboard, either directly or indirectly.
● Central Processing Unit (CPU)
○ The main chip within the computer, also referred to as the “brain” of the
computer, which handles most of the operations (ie, code and instructions)
of the computer.
● Random-access Memory (RAM)
○ The volatile memory of a computer, where programs and instructions that
are in use are stored; when power is turned off, its contents are lost.
● Hard disk drive (HDD)
○ Typically the main storage location within the computer, which consists of
magnetic platters contained in a case and is usually where the operating
system, applications, and user data are stored.
● Operating system (OS)
○ The software that provides the bridge between the system hardware and
the user, the OS lets the user interact with the hardware and manages the
file system and applications. Some examples are Windows. (XP, Vista,
and Windows 7), Linux, and Mac OS.
● Partition
○ A contiguous set of blocks that are defined and treated as an independent
disk.
● Sector
○ The smallest addressable unit of data by a hard disk drive; generally
consists of 512 bytes.
● Byte
○ A group of eight bits.
● Bit
○ Short for “binary digit”; taking the form of either a one or zero, it is the
smallest unit of information on a machine.
● Cluster
○ A group of sectors in multiples of two; cluster size varies from file system
to file system and is typically the minimum space allocated to a file.
● Message Digest 5 (MD5)/ Secure Hash Algorithm (SHA)
○ A software algorithm used to “fingerprint” a file or contents of a disk; used
to verify the integrity of data. In forensic analysis it is typically used to
verify that an acquired image of suspect data was not altered during the
process of imaging.
● Visible Data
○ All data that the operating system is presently aware of and thus is readily
accessible to the user.
● Swap File
○ A file or defined space on the HDD used to conserve RAM; data is
swapped, or paged, to this file or space to free RAM for application that
are in use.
● Temporary Files
○ Files temporarily written by an application to perform a function or to
provide a “backup” copy of a work product should the computer
experience a catastrophic failure.
● Latent Data
○ Areas of files and disks that are typically not apparent to the computer
user (and often not ot the operating system) but contain data nonetheless.
● File slack
Document Summary
The physical components of a computer; case, keyboard, monitor, motherboard, ram, hdd, mouse, and so on; generally speaking, if it is a computer component you can touch, it is a hardware. A set of instructions compiled into a program that performs a particular task; software consists of programs and applications that carry out a set of instructions on the hardware. The main system board of a computer (and many other electronic devices), which delivers power, data, and instructions to the computer"s components; every component in the computer connects to the motherboard, either directly or indirectly. The main chip within the computer, also referred to as the brain of the computer, which handles most of the operations (ie, code and instructions) of the computer. The volatile memory of a computer, where programs and instructions that are in use are stored; when power is turned off, its contents are lost.
