What you'll learn:
- Learn how to interpret LINK files on Windows 7 & Windows 8 systems
- Learn how to tie a specific User account to LINK file activity
- Learn to identify first and last file access times using LINK files
- Learn how to discover the drive letter, volume name and file path of accessed files using LINK file data
- Learn how User activity affects LINK file evidence
- Learn how to manually locate and decode embedded LINK file data such as MAC times
- Learn to do all of this using freely available computer forensic tools
Windows LINK files are a great source of information when your aim is proving file use and knowledge during a computer forensic investigation. This course goes beyond automated results and digs into the body of a LINK file in order to understand how it is constructed and how to manually pull out and interpret the data. Through a series of hands-on validation exercises and practical exercises you will gain a firm understanding of how LINK file data is affected by different types of user driven behavior. Using all freely available tools, this course takes you through the process of understanding what automated tools do under the hood - all in about an hour.
Source material for the practical exercises is provided. Just bring your Windows 7 or Windows 8 system and a desire to learn.
