Analysis of firewall log-based detection scenarios for evidence in digital forensics

Abstract

With the recent escalating rise in cybercrime, firewall logs have attained much research focus in assessing their capability to serve as excellent evidence in digital forensics. Even though the main aim of firewalls is to screen or filter part or all network traffic, firewall logs could provide rich traffic information that could be used as evidence to prove or disprove the occurrence of online attack events for legal purposes. Since courts have a definition of what could be presented to it as evidence, this research investigates on the determinants for the acceptability of firewall logs as suitable evidence. Two commonly used determinants are tested using three different firewall-protected network scenarios. These determinants are: 1) admissibility that requires the evidence to satisfy certain legal requirements stipulated by the courts; 2) weight that represents the sufficiency and extent to which the evidence convinces the establishment of cybercrime attack.