Modern investigations increasingly involve live systems, strong encryption, and evidence that never reaches persistent storage. Traditional disk-based forensic techniques alone are often insufficient when systems are running, locked, or protected by full-disk encryption such as BitLocker. The Ram Capture & Analysis (RCA) course equips investigators with advanced, legally defensible methods to acquire and analyze volatile memory, recover credentials and encryption artifacts, and access protected data that would otherwise remain inaccessible.
RCA is an advanced, hands-on digital forensics course designed for digital forensic professionals who must make informed investigative decisions while working with live and locked systems. The course emphasizes a practical understanding of operating system memory, evidentiary considerations, and defensible methodologies for volatile data acquisition and analysis.
Instruction progresses as a structured investigation—from initial system access and memory architecture, through live RAM acquisition across Windows, Linux, and virtual environments, and into in-depth analysis of memory-resident artifacts. Students work with both commercial and open-source tools while developing confidence in command-line analysis and modern memory frameworks.
A central focus of the course is leveraging volatile evidence to support access to encrypted data, including BitLocker-protected volumes and other encrypted containers. Students learn how memory artifacts, credentials, and live-system conditions can be combined to lawfully bypass or defeat encryption when disk-based approaches alone are insufficient.
