Episode 170: Digital Forensics Foundations (Domain 4)

Certified: The CompTIA Security+ Audio Course

When a security incident occurs, understanding what happened—and proving it—requires digital forensics. In this episode, we cover foundational concepts of digital forensics, including data acquisition, chain of custody, preservation, and documentation. Acquiring data from endpoints, servers, or cloud environments must be done carefully to avoid altering evidence, while maintaining chain of custody ensures that every step of handling is logged and defensible in court. We explore the importance of write-blockers, forensic images, and hashing to preserve integrity, and discuss where forensic analysis fits within both incident response and legal processes. Digital forensics isn’t just a technical discipline—it’s also a procedural one, requiring precision, neutrality, and adherence to standards. Whether you're investigating insider fraud, malware infections, or unauthorized access, forensics is how you move from suspicion to substantiated fact.