CREST Practitioner CPTIA Question # 28 Topic 3 Discussion

The correct sequence to examine the originating IP address of emails involves first accessing the email's header to locate the IP address, then using external resources to investigate that address further. The steps are as follows:

Step 2:Open the email to trace and find its header. This is the initial step because the header contains valuable information about the email's journey across the internet, including the originating IP address.

Step 3:Collect the IP address of the sender from the header of the received mail. This detail is crucial for the next steps in the investigation.

Step 1:Search for the IP in the WHOIS database. This database can provide information about the owner of the IP address, including the ISP and sometimes the geographic location.

Step 4:Look for the geographic address of the sender in the WHOIS database. With the IP address information obtained from the WHOIS search, the geographic location or the originating country of the email can often be deduced, contributing to the analysis of the email's legitimacy.

References:The process of analyzing email headers to trace originating IP addresses and further investigating those addresses is a common practice in incident response, covered under the digital forensics and email analysis topics within the CREST CPTIA curriculum by EC-Council.