Computer Forensics and Social Networking Sites
Posted on | April 20, 2010 | No Comments
SANS Computer Forensics Blog has a post about some interesting data that can be gleaned from social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, etc. This data will be more and more frequently targeted by law enforcement due to users’ lack of awareness regarding the privacy of their own data. One public Facebook page, for example, can show plenty of information regarding a suspect (known associates, contacts, family, etc.), but once you layer information from multiple Facebook pages, you can create a much more detailed web of information regarding what could be an entire crime ring. No warrants are needed, and scraping data from Facebook pages is unlikely to draw any attention to an investigation – that data is already out in the open!
Most modern sites that allow you to associate with other users (whom you probably know in real life) is ripe for plucking data from. Often enough, this data is freely accessible and no type of warrant is needed – unless you’ve taken steps to actively restrict your Twitter account, for example, anyone with enough curiosity can find every Tweet you’ve sent, and every Tweet that has been directed at you.
When using social media for anything, treat everything as if everyone is watching. Better yet, imagine your own grandmother reading back some of your forum posts to you…that’ll at least help you mind your manners on anonymous internet message boards!
Of course, email is slightly more secure, though there are procedures that law enforcement officials can take to get records of your email accounts as well, but those often require a warrant and are more time-consuming. And of course, your own physical machine will be examined by a computer forensics expert in the event of a seizure, but you already know how to defend against that, right?
The point of this meandering post is to remind you that digital forensics is about more than just reading the bits off of a drive. It’s about conducting an investigation, and often good information can be obtained much more easily than through traditional methods such as hard drive imaging.
Tags: Computer Forensics > facebook > law enforcement > SANS > social media > social networking > twitter
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