Forensic analysis and evidence collection for web browser activity

Digital Forensics is a branch of forensic science. Today the internet users continue to grow day by day, therefore crimes related to the internet also increases. The process of digital forensic is using digital devices to extract the information and identify whether the device has been hacked before or being viewed. The prime objective of Digital Forensic is to gather the “evidence” of crime scene. Digital forensic is a continuation of computer forensic, it includes digital electronic technology likes mobile phone, printers. Web browser forensics is a major part within computer forensics, because an greater number of criminal and civil cases may be based on evidence collected from user internet activities. Both criminals as well as investigators use internet. Web browser is used by criminals to collect or inquire information for a new crime technique, to conceal his/her crime. Every moment criminal leaves the traces on computer while using web browser. This proof is found in the browser history, temporary files, index.dat, cookies, download files, unallocated space and the cache etc. In this paper, we studied major tools used for web browser analysis. Also, we compare them and find out its benefits and limitations.