Current Challenges and Future Research Areas for Digital Forensic Investigation

• DOI: 10.13140/rg.2.2.34898.76489
• Publication Date: 2016-01-01
• Authors: Lillis, David; Becker, Brett; O'Sullivan, Tadhg; Scanlon, Mark
• Keywords: FOS: Computer and information sciences; Computer Science - Computers and Society; Computer Science - Cryptography and Security; Computers and Society (cs.CY); 0202 electrical engineering, electronic engineering, information engineering; 02 engineering and technology; 16. Peace & justice; Cryptography and Security (cs.CR)

Given the ever-increasing prevalence of technology in modern life, there is a corresponding increase in the likelihood of digital devices being pertinent to a criminal investigation or civil litigation. As a direct consequence, the number of investigations requiring digital forensic expertise is resulting in huge digital evidence backlogs being encountered by law enforcement agencies throughout the world. It can be anticipated that the number of cases requiring digital forensic analysis will greatly increase in the future. It is also likely that each case will require the analysis of an increasing number of devices including computers, smartphones, tablets, cloud-based services, Internet of Things devices, wearables, etc. The variety of new digital evidence sources pose new and challenging problems for the digital investigator from an identification, acquisition, storage and analysis perspective. This paper explores the current challenges contributing to the backlog in digital forensics from a technical standpoint and outlines a number of future research topics that could greatly contribute to a more efficient digital forensic process.<br/>The 11th ADFSL Conference on Digital Forensics, Security and Law (CDFSL 2016), Daytona Beach, Florida, USA, May 2016<br/>