Conceptual forensic readiness framework for infrastructure as a service consumers

This study examined the impact of technology on digital forensics and the challenges faced by forensic accountants in the era of cybercrime. The study highlights the four dimensions in which technology has an impact on digital forensics: technical, legal, organizational, and educational. The paper also discusses how emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence and machine learning can be used in digital forensics, along with the challenges they present. Cloud computing is also examined, and the challenges it poses for forensic accountants who need to access and analyze financial data stored or processed in the cloud are discussed. The research used a qualitative research design and incorporated the chain of custody theory in digital forensics. The findings of this study suggest that forensic accountants need to update their knowledge and skills in digital forensics to keep up with the latest trends and technologies in cybercrime in Nigeria. It is recommended that forensic accountants adopt a multidisciplinary approach that integrates accounting principles with digital forensics methods and tools. Additionally, following best practices and guidelines for digital evidence collection, preservation, analysis, and presentation is crucial to ensure the integrity, reliability, and admissibility of digital evidence in court.

The development of sixth‐generation (6G) wireless communication technology is expected to provide super high‐speed data transmission, and advanced network performance than the current fifth‐generation (5G) and be fully functional by the 2030s. This development will have a significant impact and add improvements to digital extended reality (XR), autonomous systems, vehicular ad hoc networks (VANETs), artificial intelligence (AI), underwater communications, blockchain technology, pervasive biomedical informatics and smart cities built on the digital infrastructure backbone of the Internet of Things (IoT). The ubiquitous nature of this large‐scale 6G‐enabled IoT that offers faster connectivity capabilities and integrates both terrestrial and non‐terrestrial networks will not only create new data security and privacy issues but also provide a treasure trove of digital evidence useful for digital forensic examiners investigating security incidents and cybercrime. However, for digital forensic examiners, evidence collection, preservation and analysis will become a priority in the successful deployment of 6G IoT networks. In this study, we define key applications of 6G network technology to the Internet of Things and its existing architectures. The survey introduces potential digital forensic challenges and related issues affecting digital forensic investigations specific to 6G IoT networks. Finally, we highlight and discuss forensic readiness and future research directions for identified challenges within the 6G IoT network environments.This article is categorized under: Digital and Multimedia Science > IoT Forensics

A novel blockchain-based digital forensics framework for preserving evidence and enabling investigation in industrial Internet of Things

How can organisations be forensically ready? As organisations are bound to be criticised in the digitally developing world, they must ensure that they are forensically ready. The readiness of digital forensics ensures compliance in an organisation’s legal, regulatory, and operational structure. Several digital forensic investigative methods and duties are based on specific technological designs. The present study is the first to address the core principles of digital forensic studies, namely, reconnaissance, reliability, and relevance. It reassesses the investigative duties and establishes eight separate positions and their obligations in a digital forensics’ investigation. A systematic literature review revealed a gap in the form of a missing comprehensive direction for establishing a digital forensic framework for ethical purposes. Digital forensic readiness refers to the ability of a business to collect and respond to digital evidence related to security incidents at low levels of cost and interruption to existing business operations. This study established a digital forensic framework through a systematic literature review to ensure that organisations are forensically ready to conduct an efficient forensic investigation and to cover ethical aspects. Furthermore, this study conducted a focus group evaluation through focus group discussions to provide insights into the framework. Lastly, a roadmap was provided for integrating the system seamlessly into zero-knowledge data collection technologies.

In the Forensic Readiness approach, incident readiness is the goal of the company or organization in dealing with incidents that may occur. Forensic Readiness can consist of actions or steps, technical and non-technical, that supposedly maximize an organization's ability to use digital evidence. A well-built Cloud Forensic Readiness Framework can help speed up and simplify decision-making regarding an incident occurring in a cloud computing environment. This creates new opportunities for collaboration in the field of digital forensics and cloud computing or cloud computing, so that solutions can be studied and researched by analyzing various literature sources of cloud computing forensic readiness framework and building an integrated cloud forensic readiness framework on an institutional scale using the composite logic method. With the completeness of the readiness framework designed, it is a kind of research that is expected to ease decision making process for organizational stakeholders to handle incident responses.

Digital Forensic as it sounds coerce human mind primarily with exploration of crime. However in the contemporary world, digital forensic has evolved as an essential source of tools from data acquisition to legal action. Basically three stages are involved in digital forensic namely acquisition, analysis and reporting. Digital Forensic Research Workshop (DFRW) defined digital forensic as “Use of Scientifically derived and proven method towards the identification, collection, analysis, interpretation, documentation and presentation of digital evidence derived from digital sources for the purpose of facilitating or furthering the reconstruction of event to be criminal”. The hard problem in digital forensic is such that the acquired data need to be cleaned and is required to be intelligible for reading by human. As a solution to this complexity problem a number of tools are present which may be repeated until relevant data is obtained.

Digital Forensic as it sounds coerce human mind primarily with exploration of crime. However in the contemporary world, digital forensic has evolved as an essential source of tools from data acquisition to legal action. Basically three stages are involved in digital forensic namely acquisition, analysis and reporting. Digital Forensic Research Workshop (DFRW) defined digital forensic as “Use of Scientifically derived and proven method towards the identification, collection, analysis, interpretation, documentation and presentation of digital evidence derived from digital sources for the purpose of facilitating or furthering the reconstruction of event to be criminal”. The hard problem in digital forensic is such that the acquired data need to be cleaned and is required to be intelligible for reading by human. As a solution to this complexity problem a number of tools are present which may be repeated until relevant data is obtained.

Due to businesses’ growing use of IoT services in their day-to-day operations and the increased use of smart devices, digital forensic investigations involving such systems will need increasingly sophisticated digital evidence collection and processing. The majority of IoT systems are composed of disparate software and hardware components, which may pose security and privacy concerns. Recently, blockchain technology was presented as one of the options for achieving IoT security via the use of an immutable ledger, a decentralized architecture, and strong cryptographic primitives. Integrating blockchain platforms with IoT-based applications, on the other hand, poses a number of difficulties owing to the trustworthiness, integrity, and real-time responsiveness of IoT data. However, certain IoT devices may be incompatible with existing blockchain-based IoT forensic methods for additional digital evidence processing owing to their usage of conventional hash. A critical feature of cryptographic hash functions is that even if just one bit of the input is altered, the output acts pseudo-randomly, making it impossible to identify identical files. However, in the field of computer forensics, it is essential to locate comparable files (e.g., various versions of a file); therefore, we need a hash function that preserves similarity. It is getting more difficult to establish how forensic investigators might utilize traces from such devices. To effectively deal with IoT digital forensics applications, this article presents an improved blockchain-based IoT digital forensics architecture that uses the fuzzy hash to construct the Blockchain’s Merkle tree in addition to the conventional hash for authentication. Fuzzy hashing enables the identification of potentially damning documents that might otherwise remain undiscovered using conventional hashing techniques. By comparing blocks/files to all nodes in the blockchain network using fuzzy hash similarity, the digital forensics investigator will be able to verify their authenticity. To support the proof of concept, we simulated the suggested model.

Cloud Storage Forensics

Digital forensics is an essential and expanding field focused on the collection and analysis of digital evidence for legal cases. As digital devices and online communications become more integrated with criminal investigations, investigators need to understand the basics of digital forensics. While certifications still provide a quick route to a career in digital forensics, higher education institutions are now offering programs centered on cybercrime, making digital forensic coursework more accessible. Due to the shortage of cybersecurity professionals, early exposure to digital forensics can help students discover relevant academic and career options. This paper emphasizes the importance of introducing high school students to digital forensics. It details the development of a hands-on activity using the open-source forensic tools SleuthKit and Autopsy. We explore practical aspects of designing and implementing the activity, identify potential improvements, and highlight the importance of early engagement in building a pipeline of skilled cyber professionals.

Chapter 6 - Digital Forensics at Work in the Legal System

BCFL logging: An approach to acquire and preserve admissible digital forensics evidence in cloud ecosystem

Integrated digital forensic process model

In the digital age, media offenses pose significant threats to privacy and reputation. Digital forensics plays a crucial role in combating these crimes by providing systematic methods and valuable knowledge. This work reviews how the field has proven effective in solving cases and preventing offenses, offering a solid career path for those interested in crime-solving and digital evidence collection.

In the implementation of Digital Forensics, one of the derivatives of practice is the handling of Digital Evidence. Handling Digital Evidence requires important steps and procedures. Digital evidence is a source of artifacts in handling a digital-based crime case, one of which comes from digital storage. In this research, the author will design a framework for Digital Forensic investigations by simulating digital evidence in the form of a non-volatile architecture. The reference commonly used by researchers in previous articles is the National Institute of Justice (NIST). The framework is a reference and steps in the practice of acquiring digital evidence. The purpose of designing this framework is as a legal procedure that is specifically implemented in the practice of acquiring non-volatile digital evidence. In the design, the author conducted a literature study on the NIST SP 800-86 and ISO 27037:2012 standards and then combined them in a hybrid terminology. The output of this research is to combine the two standards to become framework as reference for handling and investigating Digital Forensic science.