Column: The Science of Digital Forensics: Analysis of Digital Traces

In part 1 of this series (Cohen, 2011a), Analysis of digital traces is a foundational process by which the examiner, typically using computer software tools, comes to understand and answer basic questions regarding digital traces. “Input sequences to digital systems produce outputs and state changes as a function of the previous state. To the extent that the state or outputs produce stored and/or captured bit sequences, these form traces of the event sequences that caused them. Thus the definition of a trace may be stated as: "A set of bit sequences produced from the execution of a finite state machine." (see PDF for full column)