Digital Forensics Essentials (DFE) v1 — Lesson 2: Acquisition, Storage, File Systems, Operating Systems, and Deleted Data

Learning Objectives

• Explain the roles, services, data, settings, dependencies, and decision criteria governing evidence acquisition and storage media.
• Implement and validate file systems, operating-system artifacts, and deleted data using controlled evidence and clear acceptance criteria.
• Evaluate the condition where a basic control passes but operating-system artifacts fails because file systems data, configuration order, or dependency assumptions differ and select a proportionate corrective response.

Detailed Topics

• evidence acquisition applied to the course scenario, expected behavior, dependencies, controls, risks, and evidence.
• storage media applied to the course scenario, expected behavior, dependencies, controls, risks, and evidence.
• file systems applied to the course scenario, expected behavior, dependencies, controls, risks, and evidence.
• operating-system artifacts applied to the course scenario, expected behavior, dependencies, controls, risks, and evidence.
• deleted data applied to the course scenario, expected behavior, dependencies, controls, risks, and evidence.

Instructor Demonstration

The instructor traces a junior investigator handling a suspected endpoint compromise while preserving evidence and separating verified facts from assumptions. The walkthrough connects tools, configurations or analysis logic, system messages, decisions, and evidence captured in the DFE case worksheet, evidence log, artifact timeline, and findings report. It also tests the exception where a basic control passes but operating-system artifacts fails because file systems data, configuration order, or dependency assumptions differ.

Hands-On Exercise

Complete a controlled, authorized EC-Council exercise covering Acquisition, Storage, File Systems, Operating Systems, and Deleted Data and preserve the verified result in the DFE case worksheet, evidence log, artifact timeline, and findings report.

1. Confirm scope, authorization, prerequisites, versions, identities, dependencies, and acceptance criteria.
2. Execute the workflow while recording settings, outputs, events, decisions, and system messages.
3. Test normal behavior, one boundary condition, and the stated exception without targeting real third-party systems.
4. Document corrections, evidence, ownership, retest criteria, rollback or recovery, and handover actions.

Scenario Analysis

• Identify which object, service, policy, setting, or sequence most strongly influences evidence acquisition.
• Compare two defensible responses and explain technical, security, operational, legal, and support trade-offs.
• Determine how the DFE case worksheet, evidence log, artifact timeline, and findings report should be approved, retained, retested, and updated.

Troubleshooting Guidance

Start where expected behavior first differs from the observed result. Check authorization, prerequisites, identity, configuration order, data quality, version compatibility, connectivity, status, resource limits, and evidence separately. Treat “a basic control passes but operating-system artifacts fails because file systems data, configuration order, or dependency assumptions differ” as a hypothesis until logs, settings, captured outputs, and retest outcomes confirm the cause.

Validation Checklist

• Required components, identities, permissions, settings, safety controls, and dependencies are present.
• The DFE case worksheet, evidence log, artifact timeline, and findings report connects each conclusion to objective, reviewable evidence.
• Normal processing, a boundary condition, dependency behavior, and the stated exception were tested.
• Corrections, ownership, retest criteria, rollback or recovery, documentation, and operational handover are complete.

Lesson Outcome

Learners can apply Acquisition, Storage, File Systems, Operating Systems, and Deleted Data, explain the resulting security, governance, business, or operational behavior, and defend the outcome through the DFE case worksheet, evidence log, artifact timeline, and findings report.