Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
instances.this.menu.item.will.also.give.you.the.option.of.turn-
ing.on.and.off.certain.types.of.metadata.recording.and.even.
the.option.to.create.and.input.your.own.
All.of.this.becomes.part.of.the.data.set.that.is.your.doc-
ument,. spreadsheet,. photograph,. video,. and. so. on.. And.
though. you. will. not. normally. see. that. data. if. you. print. out.
or.simply.view.the.data,.the.data.are.deinitely.there.and.can.
have.extremely.important.consequences.
After.all,.what.is.the.bottom-line.reason.for.having.a.court.
case. nearly. every. time?. It. is. to. establish. what. happened,.
when. did. it. happen,. and. who. did. it,. right?. So,. where. does.
that.information.live.in.a.data.set?.It.lives.and.is.recorded.and.
stored.in.the.metadata.
Before. we. leave. this. subject. of. hidden. data,. we. need. to.
mention. something. with. the. odd. name. of. Steganography..
Steganography. is. basically. the. intentional. hiding. of. data.
within.a.data.set.
Now,. way. back. at. the. beginning. when. we. were. talking.
about.how.a.computer.creates.and.stores.data,.we.discussed.
the.basic.coding.that.goes.on.at.the.machine.level.
We.said.that.coding.is.represented.in.hexadecimal.notation.
and.that.if.you.examine.a.computer's.hard.drive.or.memory.
using. forensics. applications,. you. can. see. that. hexadecimal.
code.. And. if. you. know. what. you. are. looking. for,. you. can.
ind.clues.in.there.that.indicate.that.the.next.thing.you.will.
see.might.be.an.Adobe.PDF.ile,.or.a.Microsoft.Word.docu-
ment..These.are.indicated.by.headers—basically.a.string.of.
hexadecimal.code.that.tells.the.processors.what.type.of.data.
set.follows.
If. you. then. proceed. through. the. hexadecimal. code. that.
follows,.you.will.ind.all.of.the.elements.the.application.that.
created.that.data.has.used.to.contain.the.metadata,.the.actual.
data,.information.about.status,.coding,.storage.location,.and.
so.forth.
But. here's. where. it. gets. interesting.. It. is. absolutely. pos-
sible,.using.a.hex.editor,.to.insert.new.hexadecimal.characters.
into.that.code.that.will.be.included.whenever.someone.saves.
