At times knowing when something happened is more valuable than knowing what took place. There are two ways to get time data: by observing activity directly and by observing that activity's secondary effects on its environment. In this article, we focus on the latter.

One of the simplest things to understand and use in an investigation is MACtimes. MACtimes are not the McDonald's version of a time zone. They are simply a shorthand way to refer to the three time attributes -- mtime, atime, and ctime -- that are attached to any file or directory in Unix, Windows, and other file systems.

By Dan Farmer and Wietse Venema.

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