Towards A Systemic Framework for Digital Forensic Readiness

Abstract

Although digital forensics has traditionally been associated with law enforcement, the impact of new regulations, industry standards and cyber-attacks, combined with a heavy reliance on digital assets, has resulted in a more prominent role for digital forensics in organizations. Modern organizations, therefore, need to be forensically ready in order to maximize their potential to respond to forensic events and demonstrate compliance with laws and regulations. However, little research exists on the assessment of organizational digital forensic readiness. This paper describes a comprehensive approach to identifying the factors that contribute to digital forensic readiness and how these factors work together to achieve forensic readiness in an organization. We develop a conceptual framework for organizational forensic readiness and define future work towards the empirical validation and refinement of the framework.