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Project 05

Incident Timeline Reconstruction

Rebuild what happened on a practice disk image, artifact by artifact.
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Difficulty
Hard
Time
6 to 10 hours
On a résumé
Strongest résumé piece

Why this one is worth your hours

Shows careful evidence handling and the discipline to separate fact from inference.

The ones worth the most on a résumé: real scope, real decisions, and plenty to talk about.

What you walk away with

  • Digital Corpora image
  • Autopsy
  • The Sleuth Kit
  • Timeline spreadsheet

Those names go on your résumé line, and every one of them is something an interviewer can ask you about, so use them honestly.

Give it a name of its own

“Incident Timeline Reconstruction” describes the work. It is not the name. Pick one of these, or invent your own, then use it everywhere: the repository, the README title and the résumé.

  • Lantern
  • Cold Case
  • Timeline Zero
  • Quiet Disk
  • Chain Link

The framework you follow

  • NIST SP 800-86

    Follow collect, examine, analyse, report, and keep the original untouched.

  • Chain of custody

    Record who handled each item, when, and its hash value.

How to follow a framework, honestly

A framework is a checklist someone argued about for years. You do not read all of it. You use the part that matches your project.

  1. Take one section. Open the framework and find the section that covers your project. Read only that.
  2. Quote the requirement. Put the requirement in your README in its own words, one or two lines, with a link.
  3. Map your steps to it. Beside each step you take, name the item it satisfies. This is what makes the work checkable.
  4. Record where you differ. You will skip something because it needs a budget or a team. Write that down and why. It reads as judgment, not as a gap.

Naming a framework you followed and showing where you diverged is worth more in an interview than listing five you have only heard of.

Do the work

Keep a note file open. One line per step: what you ran, what came back, what you decided.

  1. Work only from a copy, and record its hash value.
  2. Inventory every evidence item before you open anything.
  3. Extract artifacts: file timestamps, browser history, connected devices.
  4. Place each event on a timeline with its source.
  5. Check time zones so sources line up.
  6. Write what the evidence shows, what you infer and what is missing.

What ends up in the repository

  • The evidence inventory with hashes
  • The timeline table
  • Limitations and conflicts you found

Put it on GitHub

This is the part people skip, and it is the part a reviewer actually opens. Eight steps, about twenty minutes the first time.

  1. Create the repository

    github.com → New repository

    Name it the project name you picked. Add a README and an MIT licence. Keep it public.

    Note it down Write the chosen name in your notes. It goes on your résumé later, unchanged.

  2. Bring it to your machine

    git clone https://github.com/you/arkham.git
cd arkham

    The terminal prints Cloning into 'arkham'. You now have a folder with one README in it.

    Note it down If it asks for a password, set up a personal access token or SSH key once and never again.

  3. Make room for evidence

    mkdir evidence notes scripts
printf 'data/\n*.pcap\n' > .gitignore

    Three empty folders and a .gitignore, so raw captures and downloaded datasets never get committed.

    Note it down Never commit real data, keys or anything with someone's name in it.

  4. Write the README before the work

    open README.md

    Goal, environment, what I did, evidence, findings, limitations. Headings first, blanks underneath.

    Note it down Writing the headings first tells you what to collect while you work, instead of after.

  5. Take notes as you go

    notes/log.md

    One line per action: the time, what you ran, what came back, what you decided.

    Note it down This is where your numbers come from. In three days you will not remember why you ruled something out.

  6. Commit in small pieces

    git add .
git commit -m "Add triage table for alerts 1 to 6"

    Each commit is a checkpoint with a message you can read back months later.

    Note it down One commit per step of the project. An interviewer can scroll your commits and see how you worked.

  7. Push it up

    git push

    Refresh the page on github.com and your README is the front page of the project.

    Note it down Check it in a private window. If it 404s, the repository is still private.

  8. Finish it properly

    git tag v1.0
git push --tags

    Screenshots in evidence/, the real numbers filled into the README, a tagged version.

    Note it down Copy the repository link into your résumé line and click it once before you send it.

  • Small commits beat one giant upload; the history is part of the evidence.
  • Every screenshot needs a caption saying what it proves.
  • If something did not work, keep it and say so. Reviewers trust write-ups that admit limits.

The résumé line

Project name | tools, datasets and frameworks | link

Example, with your own name and your own numbers

LanternDigital Corpora image, Autopsy, The Sleuth Kit, Timeline spreadsheet, NIST SP 800-86GitHub

Reconstructed 36 hours of activity from a practice disk image; inventoried 14 evidence items, built a 27-event timeline from 4 artifact sources and documented 2 timestamp conflicts.

The numbers come from your notes, not from this page. Count as you work, keep every figure checkable in your report, and hyperlink the last part to the repository.

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