Question

g Define several forms of metadata that can be useful to an investigation. How are valuable to an investigator

Answer 1

Answer:

Metadata is defined as “data about data”. It is used to provide information about a specific file or document. Computer forensics experts uses metadata to understand what activities were transpiring on a digital device such as a computer and mobile phone. For example, electronic medical records metadata is crucial when investigating whether a medical professional  has altered a patient’s medical record to reflect information that isn’t accurate. Examples of file name , file extension , file size , hash value , date last accessed , date created  and date last modified.

Explanation:

Form of metadata include:

Images : The location (latitude and longitude coordinates) where the photo was taken if a GPS-enabled device, such as a smartphone, is used.

Camera settings, such as ISO speed, shutter speed, focal length, aperture, white balance, lens type and many more. In fact some cameras do include the location coordinates.

PDF files : Author’s name, usually the name assigned when the program used to create the file was first installed.  Examples metadata obtainable  from a PDF file include version and name of the program used to create the file , Title of the document , keywords , date and time of file creation / last modification .

Text files : Depending on the program used to create the document, the data may include:  the names of all the different authors , lines of text and comments that have been deleted in previous versions of the document

and creation and modification dates.

Videos : Metadata in video files can be divided in two sections . The automatically generated and the manually added metadata. Automatically generated includes includes creation date, size, format, CODECS, duration, location.  Manually added metadata includes information about the footage, text transcriptions, tags, further information and notes to editors..etc.

Audio : Audio metadata is similar to video but more widely used especially to register property of the file. In addition to that it can includes creation date, size, format, CODECS, duration and a set of manually added data like tags, artist information, art work, comments, track number on albums, genre etc.

Communication : Metadata in communication depends on the type of communication used (i.e. email, mobile phone, smartphone..etc). But in general it can reveal the following: ids of the sender and the receiver , date and time of communication , location , mode of communication etc.