What is a File? Reflection
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My reflection on “What is a File?”
It has been established from last week that data must be organized so that meaningful information can be derived from it. Moving on, this week begins to explore the data structures of the computer and the ways the computer stores data.
Computers store data as files, then those files can be stored into folders which can contain more files and folders. In essence, it is an organization system of parents and children. The lineage of folders inside folders can continue as long as there is a parent. The links between files and folders is incredibly important in data structures of a computer.
I chose to analyze this web page titled “Trust But Verify: Digital Artifact Edition” by Forensic Focus as this week’s digital artifact. The content of the web page is to provide information on how someone can use digital forensics by looking through files and folders. Additionally, the page source of this web page can be viewed by pressing the right mouse button and clicking on “View page source” or ctrl+U. After opening its page source, the organization of this web page can be analyzed.
The beginning of the page source starts with <html lang=”en-US”>. As such, the page source is displayed in HTML, and as specified, in US English. The paragraphs of the article can also be seen in the page source stored as <p>. These different tags provide insight into the “filing” or organization of the data. The pictures in the article are stored as <figure>. There are also a number of <a> tags for the links displayed as icons and tabs on the web page. I do not have the requisite background to critique improvements in the HTML document. However, if the code for this document was editable, then the person in charge of the website could make the necessary changes in the code and have the changes show up on their web page. The way the code would change depends on a number of factors including the text editor they are using and the language they are writing in. HTML is the language displayed for this web page’s page source, but there are a number of other plain text languages that could be used, although that mostly depends on the purpose the code would be serving. By understanding what the tags mean in the HTML code, I can gain a better understanding of the layout and organization of a web page beyond simply looking at it and scrolling through it without the page source.
The article itself addresses the importance of files, in the context of digital forensics. The data stored in computers can be analyzed to verify and provide evidence for criminal cases. It is possible to check the deleted dates of files or when they were accessed, to pull times, and to check whether something is being written at a certain time. Interestingly, while collecting data from the computer, the digital forensic analyst would also need to organize their findings to make them into meaningful information.
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