Blockchain Digital Forensics and Investigation

With an increasing global trend toward cryptocurrency, there is a need for developing better  blockchain systems and investigation procedures. A greater understanding of metadata in the  blockchain will trace the money transactions in businesses and the marketplace. The forensic  investigation involved in the blockchain system is a decentralized database in the peer-peer  network, diminishing the subpoenas and court motions related to banking issues in business. Blockchain technology provides a comprehensive view of the transaction to the original end. This  is a great success in the forensic field. 

This powerful forensic technology enables

• Better transactional efficiency due to increased trust. 

• Reduction in fraud because of increased transparency. 

• Reduction in transaction costs due to elimination of specific ownerships etc. The blockchain system is a secure and immutable system between the blocks and the  transactions in cryptography. It has greater traceability, auditability, accountability and  transparency. This system is successfully used in various fields, including energy industries, supply  chain, financial services and pharmaceutical. Blockchain technology is also promising for forensic  applications. 

Blockchain forensics and smart contracts provide all the data via a ledger transaction tracking  system. We can access the information where the money is transferred for which purchase,  including time and dates. 

One thing worth considering is that cryptocurrency is coming with a high demand for privacy. With decentral banking, it will make investigation very hard on the cryptocurrency business. Privacy rights are hard to challenge in court or on any platform. Blockchain technology provides  self-verification for digital evidence, which is a benefit in digital forensics. 

Call to Action: 

• Teaming up and doing working session involving investigators and Technologies is the  need of the hour. Investigators can come up with new ways of how blockchain can  provide metadata and improve the investigation.  

• From the Technology perspective, I highly encourage my fellow technologist to team up  with the local investigation company/ firm .this relationship can provide examples of how  blockchain and smart contracts work. These collaborative efforts can prove a dynamic  unfold to serve our customers during investigations better.  

• This is where technologist, programmers and other investigators need to work together  in synchronization.  

• This team effort can give rise to better solutions and skill sets covering all technical  perspective for a secure and smooth business of all types.

About Author 

Ricoh Danielson has elaborative experience in handling cyber  events, and digital forensic investigations assist businesses in   managing the cyber incident response items. Rachel helps to tackle the threats and risks of the digital world. Ricoh has handled cyber incidents for major Healthcare companies, Healthcare Hospitals and  Hospital universities, renowned Financial Firms, and prevalent chain retail restaurants. He is also  a Digital Forensics expert for Criminal and Civil cases.  Ricoh is a graduate of Thomas Jefferson School of Law, a graduate of UCLA, a graduate of Arizona.  He has many cyber certifications as well.

Defensive actions against the cyberattack are crucial and vital for your system’s programming’s survival and performance. Now the market is moving towards strategies that act in an advance and proactive way. Methods prevent the cyberattack from happening in the first place. Companies and organizations do not sit back and wait for the cyberattack to happen for the defensive actions to execute. They work on ways to gather all the critical data and tools needed for the correct response at the right time to save their systems and lower their venerability.

A decade of incident response

Businesses and organizations worldwide realize that prevention and detection of cyber-attacks are not sufficient defense against cybercrime security threats. An armed security team is required, which can provide a platform for coordinating, managing, and streamlining incident response processes. The process of a robust incident response function can be divided into six steps.

Step 1: Understand threats, both external and internal

Step 2: Build a standardized, documented, and repeatable incident response plan

Step 3: Proactively test and improve IR processes

Step 4: Leverage threat intelligence

Step 5. Streamline incident investigation and response

Step 6. Orchestrate across people, process, and technology

The need for a technical team

This is not a simple procedure. A team is required for all this management. Every team member has their expertise and knowledge, which is mustered up in an effective way to design the best and efficient defensive methods. This high-intensity tactical team can work in a coordinated and organized approach. The same will play a critical part in making technical decisions and executive decisions to combat the cyber attack. You will get the proper guidance to know what to do before, during, and after a cyber breach. It is also essential to gather personality and skill sets that match together that empower each other during the moment of need. They will enable you to determine what a cybersecurity incident means to your organization and build a suitable cybersecurity incident response capability.

This methodology aims to build a resilient, response-ready organization by combining people and processes, empowering human analysts to understand specific threats better, streamlining processes, and ensuring that the security analyst is active in responding promptly.