Malware and Digital Forensics

Abstract

Technology has brought about significant improvement in our lives, from online grocery shopping to e-learning, automated farming, remote-controlled surveillance systems and smart homes. All these have one thing in common, which is the Internet. While the low cost of data and the availability of cheap smart devices has created a lot of opportunities, some use this for nefarious purposes. Criminals use technology to commit crimes. Crimes committed using digital devices and computer network, such as the internet is called cybercrime. Computers can be used as instruments to commit a crime, can be the target of a crime or can be used to store illegal data. Every year, countries lose billions of dollars as a result of cybercrime. In its 2018 report, the Internet Crime Complaint Centre (IC3) reported that victims lost $2.7 billion due to cybercrime and between 2014 to 2018, a total loss of $7.45 billion (IC3, no date). How can such crimes be investigated? The answer is through digital forensics.