Email Forensics Investigation Techniques for Experts

ByParaben Corp

Nowadays, people do talk about email forensics because it is a branch of digital forensics. A lot of professionals carry out communication using email as the right medium. When the activity of the investigation procedure begins then email forensics software is used for carrying out the detailed investigation. All the criminal activities that are carried out do leave a lot of digital traces behind.  

The professional carry out a detailed examination of the following things:–  

  • Emails.
  • Message transmission routes.
  • Attached Files.
  • Documents. 
  • The IP address of the computers and servers. 

The list of different email techniques used by the professionals for checking the emails and then accumulating evidence is the following – 

Email Header Analysis:-The use of this kind of technology means that information of the – 1) identity of the sender and the receiver; 2) The path through which message has traversed. The professionals of the email forensics software mention that important thing that is part of the email assist the digital investigators in precisely carrying out the digital investigation. 

Email Server Investigation:- The simple purpose of the email server investigation work is to identify the source of the investigation. Mainly, to check the email is deleted from the client application, sender or receivers. Henceforth, the connected servers are thoroughly examined because over here the copy of the email is saved post-delivery. It also contains logs that can later be analyzed. This is done for knowing the source of the email. 

Skilled digital experts mention that logging of the HTTP and SMTP through a big ISP is quite necessary. This is because otherwise, tracing the correct email will take a lot of time and effort. Simply because then activity like decompressing and extraction techniques are required to put into place. 

Investigation of the Network Devices:- The professionals of email forensics software do mention that at certain moments it is seen that log servers are not present at all. Now there are multiple reasons for this –

  • Either the servers are not configured properly.
  • ISP is not allowing sharing the log files. 

When this scenario occurs then of course the investigator should investigate the network devices. Like:-  

  • Switches.
  • Firewalls.
  • Routers.

All of this will also help in tracing the source of the email.  

Software Embedded identifiers:- At times the email software used by the concerned sender can include the additional type of information also. The email forensics software professionals can easily find about it in the MIME content as the Transport Neutral Encapsulation Format or merely the custom header. The detailed scrutiny of this email will also reveal the important information connected to the sender – 

  • MAC address. 
  • Windows login user name of the sender. 
  • PST file names and much other information. 

Paraben Corporation is the leading source in the field of email forensics. The professionals have in-depth knowledge of email related investigation. Now, there will not be any problem in identifying the source of any email and neither detecting the other information will become difficult.