A push to standards for network forensics

Networking Technology Update This newsletter is sponsored by Cisco Learn best practices for extending your network architecture Access podcasts, whitepapers and more that offer best practices and principles for extending your architecture across a campus. Learn about the 6 design principles that will transform your campus net and how you can tackle the critical areas of integrated security, unified network services and more. Click here to read now! Networking Technology Update, 06/25/07 A push to standards for network forensics By Beth Rosenberg Digital forensics is still a young science. That newness, coupled with the fast-changing world of computer technology, has resulted in a taxonomy and methodology for digital forensics that are poorly defined and confusing to computer security experts and law enforcement. Manage Skyrocketing Storage The data on your network is growing at a rapid pace thats only going to increase. Download Network Worlds latest Executive Guide and get the practical, real-world advice and insider information you need to best manage and meet your storage demands and industry regulations. Click here to download. Network forensics, a subdiscipline of digital forensics, deals with computer network data that has become evidence. Network forensics can be used to check an organization’s networks for vulnerabilities and thus keep them secure, and it can be used in the context of traditional law enforcement and the court system. We must anticipate that in the near future, network forensics will be a common component of trial cases. As a result, having credible standards for network forensics is vital to the continued speed and fairness of the U.S. judicial system. As forensic evidence, network data is slippery to collect: It resides neither with its sender nor with its receiver. Usually it is archived only by network service providers or by law enforcement. Who owns such evidence is one of numerous legal dilemmas created by the lack of standards. These issues could be resolved were standards bodies to create formal taxonomies, procedures and tools for network forensics. The U.S. computer security community should assist in the creation and maintenance of formal standards. The most expedient way to implement these standards may be to use proprietary tools rather than open source software or freeware. For more on this story, please click here.

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Contact the author: Rosenberg is Sandstorm’s editorial communications coordinator. Reach her at beth@sandstorm.net. This newsletter is sponsored by Cisco Learn best practices for extending your network architecture Access podcasts, whitepapers and more that offer best practices and principles for extending your architecture across a campus. Learn about the 6 design principles that will transform your campus net and how you can tackle the critical areas of integrated security, unified network services and more. Click here to read now! BONUS FEATURE IT PRODUCT RESEARCH AT YOUR FINGERTIPS Get detailed information on thousands of products, conduct side-by-side comparisons and read product test and review results with Network World’s IT Buyer’s Guides. Find the best solution faster than ever with over 100 distinct categories across the security, storage, management, wireless, infrastructure and convergence markets. Click here for details. PRINT SUBSCRIPTIONS AVAILABLE You've got the technology snapshot of your choice delivered to your inbox each day. Extend your knowledge with a print subscription to the Network World newsweekly, Apply here today. International subscribers, click here. SUBSCRIPTION SERVICES To subscribe or unsubscribe to any Network World newsletter, change your e-mail address or contact us, click here. This message was sent to: security.world@gmail.com. Please use this address when modifying your subscription. Advertising information: Write to Associate Publisher Online Susan Cardoza Network World, Inc., 118 Turnpike Road, Southborough, MA 01772 Copyright Network World, Inc., 2007