6,588 research outputs found

    PRECEPT: A Framework for Ethical Digital Forensics Investigations.

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    The file attached to this record is the author's final peer reviewed version. The Publisher's final version can be found by following the DOI link.Cyber-enabled crimes are on the increase, and law enforcement has had to expand many of their detecting activities into the digital domain. As such, the field of digital forensics has become far more sophisticated over the years and is now able to uncover even more evidence that can be used to support prosecution of cyber criminals in a court of law. Governments, too, have embraced the ability to track suspicious individuals in the online world. Forensics investigators are driven to gather data exhaustively, being under pressure to provide law enforcement with sufficient evidence to secure a conviction. Yet, there are concerns about the ethics and justice of untrammeled investigations on a number of levels. On an organizational level, unconstrained investigations could interfere with, and damage, the organization’s right to control the disclosure of their intellectual capital. On an individual level, those being investigated could easily have their legal privacy rights violated by forensics investigations. On a societal level, there might be a sense of injustice at the perceived inequality of current practice in this domain. This paper argues the need for a practical, ethically-grounded approach to digital forensic investigations, one that acknowledges and respects the privacy rights of individuals and the intellectual capital disclosure rights of organisations, as well as acknowledging the needs of law enforcement. We derive a set of ethical guidelines, then map these onto a forensics investigation framework. We subjected the framework to expert review in two stages, refining the framework after each stage. We conclude by proposing the refined ethically-grounded digital forensics investigation framework. Our treatise is primarily UK based, but the concepts presented here have international relevance and applicability. In this paper, the lens of justice theory is used to explore the tension that exists between the needs of digital forensic investigations into cybercrimes on the one hand, and, on the other, individuals’ rights to privacy and organizations’ rights to control intellectual capital disclosure. The investigation revealed a potential inequality between the practices of digital forensics investigators and the rights of other stakeholders. That being so, the need for a more ethically-informed approach to digital forensics investigations, as a remedy, is highlighted, and a framework proposed to provide this. Our proposed ethically-informed framework for guiding digital forensics investigations suggest a way of re-establishing the equality of the stakeholders in this arena, and ensuring that the potential for a sense of injustice is reduced. Justice theory is used to highlight the difficulties in squaring the circle between the rights and expectations of all stakeholders in the digital forensics arena. The outcome is the forensics investigation guideline, PRECEpt: Privacy-Respecting EthiCal framEwork, which provides the basis for a re-aligning of the balance between the requirements and expectations of digital forensic investigators on the one hand, and individual and organizational expectations and rights, on the other

    PRECEPT:a framework for ethical digital forensics investigations

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    Purpose: Cyber-enabled crimes are on the increase, and law enforcement has had to expand many of their detecting activities into the digital domain. As such, the field of digital forensics has become far more sophisticated over the years and is now able to uncover even more evidence that can be used to support prosecution of cyber criminals in a court of law. Governments, too, have embraced the ability to track suspicious individuals in the online world. Forensics investigators are driven to gather data exhaustively, being under pressure to provide law enforcement with sufficient evidence to secure a conviction. Yet, there are concerns about the ethics and justice of untrammeled investigations on a number of levels. On an organizational level, unconstrained investigations could interfere with, and damage, the organization’s right to control the disclosure of their intellectual capital. On an individual level, those being investigated could easily have their legal privacy rights violated by forensics investigations. On a societal level, there might be a sense of injustice at the perceived inequality of current practice in this domain. This paper argues the need for a practical, ethically-grounded approach to digital forensic investigations, one that acknowledges and respects the privacy rights of individuals and the intellectual capital disclosure rights of organisations, as well as acknowledging the needs of law enforcement. We derive a set of ethical guidelines, then map these onto a forensics investigation framework. We subjected the framework to expert review in two stages, refining the framework after each stage. We conclude by proposing the refined ethically-grounded digital forensics investigation framework. Our treatise is primarily UK based, but the concepts presented here have international relevance and applicability.Design methodology: In this paper, the lens of justice theory is used to explore the tension that exists between the needs of digital forensic investigations into cybercrimes on the one hand, and, on the other, individuals’ rights to privacy and organizations’ rights to control intellectual capital disclosure.Findings: The investigation revealed a potential inequality between the practices of digital forensics investigators and the rights of other stakeholders. That being so, the need for a more ethically-informed approach to digital forensics investigations, as a remedy, is highlighted, and a framework proposed to provide this.Practical Implications: Our proposed ethically-informed framework for guiding digital forensics investigations suggest a way of re-establishing the equality of the stakeholders in this arena, and ensuring that the potential for a sense of injustice is reduced.Originality/value: Justice theory is used to highlight the difficulties in squaring the circle between the rights and expectations of all stakeholders in the digital forensics arena. The outcome is the forensics investigation guideline, PRECEpt: Privacy-Respecting EthiCal framEwork, which provides the basis for a re-aligning of the balance between the requirements and expectations of digital forensic investigators on the one hand, and individual and organizational expectations and rights, on the other

    A holistic based digital forensic readiness framework for Zenith Bank, Nigeria

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    The advancement of internet has made many business organizations conduct their operation automatically, in effect its open a possibly dangerous unforeseen information security incidents of both illegal and civil nature. Therefore, if any organization does’t arrange themselves for such instances, it’s likely that vital significant digital evidence will be damage. In other word an organization should has a digital forensic readiness framework (DFR). DFR is the capacity of anyassociation to exploit its prospective to use digital evidence whilst minimizing the cost of investigation. Subsequently, in order to prepare organizations for incident responds, the application of digital forensic readiness policies and procedures is important. Contemporary lack of forensic skills is one of the factors that make organizations reluctant to implement digital forensics. This project propose a holistic-based framework of DFR and investigate how it can be applied to Zenith Bank Plc. This paper surveys existing frameworks to identify the best-suited practical components for Zenith Bank’s operational unit

    If the Shoe Fits: Proposing a Randomised Control Trial on the effect of a digitised in-custody footwear technology compared to a paper-based footwear method.

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    In order to address the issue of footwear capture from individuals arrested for recordable crime, technology has been developed, which is known as Tread Finder. This technology and development was made possible through Home Office Police Innovation Funding. Tread Finder is now a finished product and the technology has been deployed into a North London custody suite. Tread Finder incorporates the use of a 300 dpi scanner and newly developed software enabling capture, assisted coding and automated geographical crime scene searching. This paper sets out the proposal of a Randomised Control Trial to replicate and upscale a previous lab based experiment into a field environment to assess the cost, efficiency and crime solving benefits realised as a result of deploying Tread Finder technology compared with the previous paper based alternative

    Towards a Threat Intelligence Informed Digital Forensics Readiness Framework

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    Digital Forensic Readiness (DFR) has received little attention by the research community, when compared to the core digital forensic investigation processes. DFR was primarily about logging of security events to be leveraged by the forensic analysis phase. However, the increasing number of security incidents and the overwhelming volumes of data produced mandate the development of more effective and efficient DFR approaches. We propose a DFR framework focusing on the prioritisation, triaging and selection of Indicators of Compromise (IoC) to be used in investigations of security incidents. A core component of the framework is the contextualisation of the IoCs to the underlying organisation, which can be achieved with the use of clustering and classification algoriihms and a local IoC database

    Digital forensic investigation challenges based on cloud computing characteristics

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    One of the most popular computing technologies is cloud computing. There are many benefits in adopting cloud computing such as high-performance, flexibility and availability ondemand, more focused on the business objective and low-cost. However, the characteristics of the cloud computing environment have created many difficulties and challenges for digital forensic investigation processes. Therefore, this paper focuses on the digital forensic investigation challenges based on cloud computing characteristics
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