Inforensics

 Usefulness of Epoch in Digital Forensics Investigation  (UNIX and MacOS perspective)  In digital forensics investigation, epoch plays an important role in event reconstruction. Hence, we try to provide detailed insight into the UNIX and MAC OS epoch values. An epoch is a date and time that a computer uses to determine the computer's clock and timestamp values. Epoch is sometimes also referred to as epoch time, POSIX time, and Unix time. In simple words, it is the starting point of the operating system that determines a computer’s date and time by counting ticks (seconds/ nanoseconds/picoseconds). Epochs can persist into the file metadata, system files, log files, and other metadata files. The value of epoch varies from operating system (OS) to OS and file system to file system.   The epoch traditionally corresponds to 0 hours, 0 minutes, and 0 seconds Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) on a specific date, which varies from system to system, as the starting date of each system i