Digital Commons Network^™

Insider Risks And The Evolving Role Of Executive Protection Professionals In Cybersecurity, Alan Saquella

Publications

Insider risks have long been a critical concern in corporate security, traditionally encompassing threats from employees, contractors, or third-party vendors with access to sensitive information. However, as digital transformation accelerates, the convergence of physical and cyber threats has created new vulnerabilities. Executive protection (EP) professionals, historically tasked with safeguarding high-profile individuals from physical threats, now find themselves on the frontlines of combating cyber-criminal attacks. Expanding their skill sets to include cybersecurity awareness is no longer optional—it is a necessity.

This article explores insider risks, the growing need for executive protection professionals to adapt, and practical ways they can enhance their …

Tech-Savvy Fraud Investigators In An Age Of Digital Deception, Alan Saquella

Publications

The recent court conviction of cryptocurrency exchange founder Sam Bankman-Fried on charges of fraud and conspiracy related to the collapse of FTX has heightened the critical need for the next generation of fraud investigators to possess advanced technical skills. This high-profile case serves as a main indicator in the fight against white-collar crime and emphasizes the glaring reality that traditional investigative methods are no longer sufficient to fight modern-day financial bad behavior. As we witness an increase in white-collar crime on a global scale, the pressure for a new generation of fraud investigators, fortified with an advanced skill set, has …

Pig Butchering In Cybersecurity: A Modern Social Engineering Threat, Sharon L. Burton, Pamela D. Moore

Publications

Pig butchering is an escalating cybersecurity threat that exploits social engineering to build trust and execute financial fraud. The relevance of this research problem lies in the growing incidence and sophistication of these scams, which have severe financial and psychological impacts on victims. The main purpose of this research is to uncover the methods used in pig butchering scams and their impact on individuals and businesses. The research focuses on digital platforms such as social media, dating apps, and professional networking sites, chosen for their wide user bases and the ease of establishing personal connections. The study period encompasses recent …

Revolutionizing Public Safety And Criminal Justice Through Ai, Alan Saquella

Publications

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is rapidly transforming public safety, criminal justice and security by fundamentally changing how crimes are committed, investigated and prevented. As AI tools become increasingly sophisticated, law enforcement and corporate security professionals are utilizing these advancements to enhance their capabilities. However, integrating AI into these sectors also brings significant challenges, including ethical concerns, recruitment difficulties, and the surge in crime rates. This article examines the transformative impact of AI, the ongoing efforts to unify AI applications across public safety and security sectors, and expert advice on overcoming the associated challenges.

Exploring The Nexus Of Cybercrime, Money Laundering, Ethics And Deterrence In The Age Of Smart Machines, Leila Halawi, Robert Bacon

Publications

As societies transitioned from the industrial era to the post-knowledge age, marked by the widespread adoption of artificial intelligence (AI), the volume and accessibility of information experienced unprecedented growth. This transformation led to the ‘AI Age,’ where smart machines became paramount. Simultaneously, it marked an era of innovation and automation, promising greater efficiency and presenting novel challenges. In this dynamic landscape, cybercrime found fertile ground to evolve and adapt. It expanded its scope from early computer intrusions to many activities, from data breaches and ransomware attacks to identity theft and financial fraud. Money laundering, too, evolved in tandem, capitalizing on …

Don't Bite The Bait: Phishing Attack For Internet Banking (E-Banking), Ilker Kara

Journal of Digital Forensics, Security and Law

Phishing attacks are based on obtaining desired information from users quickly and easily with the help of misdirecting, panicking, curiosity, or excitement. Most of the phishing web sites are designed on internet banking(e-banking) and the attackers can acquire financial information of misled users with the tactics and discourses they develop. Despite the increase of prevention techniques against phishing attacks day by day, an effective solution could not be found for this issue due to the human factor. Because of this reason, real phishing attack studies are essential to study and analyze the attackers’ attack techniques and strategies. This study focused …

Df 2.0: An Automated, Privacy Preserving, And Efficient Digital Forensic Framework That Leverages Machine Learning For Evidence Prediction And Privacy Evaluation, Robin Verma, Jayaprakash Govindaraj Dr, Saheb Chhabra, Gaurav Gupta

Journal of Digital Forensics, Security and Law

The current state of digital forensic investigation is continuously challenged by the rapid technological changes, the increase in the use of digital devices (both the heterogeneity and the count), and the sheer volume of data that these devices could contain. Although data privacy protection is not a performance measure, however, preventing privacy violations during the digital forensic investigation, is also a big challenge. With a perception that the completeness of investigation and the data privacy preservation are incompatible with each other, the researchers have provided solutions to address the above-stated challenges that either focus on the effectiveness of the investigation …

Accounting Education In Greece During The Gfc (2009-2016), Dimitrios V. Siskos

Publications

The structure of accounting education in Greece, and in the world, is facing nowadays many significant challenges since the global financial crisis has left behind many critical educational burdens. At the same time, there is an increase in accounting omissions and malpractices of ethics both in the public and in the private sector of Greece. These undoubtedly contributed to massive unemployment, high poverty rate, crime and other social ills experienced in the country. This motivated the study on restructuring accounting education by devising a new educational framework that can be applied to Greek universities and colleges with the purpose of …

Df 2.0: Designing An Automated, Privacy Preserving, And Efficient Digital Forensic Framework, Robin Verma, Jayaprakash Govindaraj, Gaurav Gupta

Annual ADFSL Conference on Digital Forensics, Security and Law

The current state of digital forensic investigation is continuously challenged by the rapid technological changes, the increase in the use of digital devices (both the heterogeneity and the count), and the sheer volume of data that these devices could contain. Although it is not directly related to the performance of Digital Forensic Investigation process, preventing data privacy violations during the process is also a big challenge. The investigator gets full access to the forensic image including suspect's private data which may be sensitive at times as well as entirely unrelated to the given case under investigation. With a notion that …

Digital Forensics Tool Selection With Multi-Armed Bandit Problem, Umit Karabiyik, Tugba Karabiyik

Annual ADFSL Conference on Digital Forensics, Security and Law

Digital forensics investigation is a long and tedious process for an investigator in general. There are many tools that investigators must consider, both proprietary and open source. Forensics investigators must choose the best tool available on the market for their cases to make sure they do not overlook any evidence resides in suspect device within a reasonable time frame. This is however hard decision to make, since learning and testing all available tools make their job only harder. In this project, we define the digital forensics tool selection for a specific investigative task as a multi-armed bandit problem assuming that …

Paper Session Ii: Computer Forensics Field Triage Process Model, Marcus K. Rogers, James Goldman, Rick Mislan, Timothy Wedge, Steve Debrota

Annual ADFSL Conference on Digital Forensics, Security and Law

With the proliferation of digital based evidence, the need for the timely identification, analysis and interpretation of digital evidence is becoming more crucial. In many investigations critical information is required while at the scene or within a short period of time - measured in hours as opposed to days. The traditional cyber forensics approach of seizing a system(s)/media, transporting it to the lab, making a forensic image(s), and then searching the entire system for potential evidence, is no longer appropriate in some circumstances. In cases such as child abductions, pedophiles, missing or exploited persons, time is of the essence. In …

Designing A Data Warehouse For Cyber Crimes, Il-Yeol Song, John D. Maguire, Ki Jung Lee, Namyoun Choi, Xiaohua Hu, Peter Chen

Annual ADFSL Conference on Digital Forensics, Security and Law

One of the greatest challenges facing modern society is the rising tide of cyber crimes. These crimes, since they rarely fit the model of conventional crimes, are difficult to investigate, hard to analyze, and difficult to prosecute. Collecting data in a unified framework is a mandatory step that will assist the investigator in sorting through the mountains of data. In this paper, we explore designing a dimensional model for a data warehouse that can be used in analyzing cyber crime data. We also present some interesting queries and the types of cyber crime analyses that can be performed based on …

An Overview Of Steganography For The Computer Forensics Examiner (Updated Version, February 2015), Gary C. Kessler

Publications

"Steganography is the art of covered or hidden writing. The purpose of steganography is covert communication-to hide the existence of a message from a third party. This paper is intended as a high-level technical introduction to steganography for those unfamiliar with the field. It is directed at forensic computer examiners who need a practical understanding of steganography without delving into the mathematics, although references are provided to some of the ongoing research for the person who needs or wants additional detail. Although this paper provides a historical context for steganography, the emphasis is on digital applications, focusing on hiding information …

Multi-Stakeholder Case Prioritization In Digital Investigations, Joshua I. James

Journal of Digital Forensics, Security and Law

This work examines the problem of case prioritization in digital investigations for better utilization of limited criminal investigation resources. Current methods of case prioritization, as well as observed prioritization methods used in digital forensic investigation laboratories are examined. After, a multi-stakeholder approach to case prioritization is given that may help reduce reputational risk to digital forensic laboratories while improving resource allocation. A survey is given that shows differing opinions of investigation priority between Law Enforcement and the public that is used in the development of a prioritization model. Finally, an example case is given to demonstrate the practicality of the …

Automating Vendor Fraud Detection In Enterprise Systems, Kishore Singh, Peter Best, Joseph Mula

Journal of Digital Forensics, Security and Law

Fraud is a multi-billion dollar industry that continues to grow annually. Many organizations are poorly prepared to prevent and detect fraud. Fraud detection strategies are intended to quickly and efficiently identify fraudulent activities that circumvent preventative measures. In this paper, we adopt a DesignScience methodological framework to develop a model for detection of vendor fraud based on analysis of patterns or signatures identified in enterprise system audit trails. The concept is demonstrated by developing prototype software. Verification of the prototype is achieved by performing a series of experiments. Validation is achieved by independent reviews from auditing practitioners. Key findings of …

On The Development Of A Digital Forensics Curriculum, Manghui Tu, Dianxiang Xu, Samsuddin Wira, Cristian Balan, Kyle Cronin

Journal of Digital Forensics, Security and Law

Computer Crime and computer related incidents continue their prevalence and frequency, resulting in losses approaching billions of dollars. To fight against these crimes and frauds, it is urgent to develop digital forensics education programs to train a suitable workforce that can effectively investigate computer crimes and incidents. There is presently no standard to guide the design of digital forensics curriculum for an academic program. In this research, previous work on digital forensics curriculum design and existing education programs are thoroughly investigated. Both digital forensics educators and practitioners were surveyed and results were analyzed to determine the industry and law enforcement …

Developing A Forensic Continuous Audit Model, Grover S. Kearns, Katherine J. Barker, Stephen P. Danese

Journal of Digital Forensics, Security and Law

Despite increased attention to internal controls and risk assessment, traditional audit approaches do not seem to be highly effective in uncovering the majority of frauds. Less than 20 percent of all occupational frauds are uncovered by auditors. Forensic accounting has recognized the need for automated approaches to fraud analysis yet research has not examined the benefits of forensic continuous auditing as a method to detect and deter corporate fraud. The purpose of this paper is to show how such an approach is possible. A model is presented that supports the acceptance of forensic continuous auditing by auditors and management as …

Masthead

Journal of Digital Forensics, Security and Law

No abstract provided.

Front Matter

Journal of Digital Forensics, Security and Law

No abstract provided.

Defining A Forensic Audit, G. S. Smith, D. L. Crumbley

Journal of Digital Forensics, Security and Law

Disclosures about new financial frauds and scandals are continually appearing in the press. As a consequence, the accounting profession's traditional methods of monitoring corporate financial activities are under intense scrutiny. At the same time, there is recognition that principles-based GAAP from the International Accounting Standards Board will become the recognized standard in the U.S. The authors argue that these two factors will change the practices used to fight corporate malfeasance as investigators adapt the techniques of accounting into a forensic audit engagement model.

Continuous Fraud Detection In Enterprise Systems Through Audit Trail Analysis, Peter J. Best, Pall Rikhardsson, Mark Toleman

Journal of Digital Forensics, Security and Law

Enterprise systems, real time recording and real time reporting pose new and significant challenges to the accounting and auditing professions. This includes developing methods and tools for continuous assurance and fraud detection. In this paper we propose a methodology for continuous fraud detection that exploits security audit logs, changes in master records and accounting audit trails in enterprise systems. The steps in this process are: (1) threat monitoringsurveillance of security audit logs for ‘red flags’, (2) automated extraction and analysis of data from audit trails, and (3) using forensic investigation techniques to determine whether a fraud has actually occurred. We …

Data Mining Techniques For Fraud Detection, Rekha Bhowmik

Annual ADFSL Conference on Digital Forensics, Security and Law

The paper presents application of data mining techniques to fraud analysis. We present some classification and prediction data mining techniques which we consider important to handle fraud detection. There exist a number of data mining algorithms and we present statistics-based algorithm, decision tree-based algorithm and rule-based algorithm. We present Bayesian classification model to detect fraud in automobile insurance. Naïve Bayesian visualization is selected to analyze and interpret the classifier predictions. We illustrate how ROC curves can be deployed for model assessment in order to provide a more intuitive analysis of the models.

Keywords: Data Mining, Decision Tree, Bayesian Network, ROC …

Data Mining Techniques In Fraud Detection, Rekha Bhowmik

Journal of Digital Forensics, Security and Law

The paper presents application of data mining techniques to fraud analysis. We present some classification and prediction data mining techniques which we consider important to handle fraud detection. There exist a number of data mining algorithms and we present statistics-based algorithm, decision treebased algorithm and rule-based algorithm. We present Bayesian classification model to detect fraud in automobile insurance. Naïve Bayesian visualization is selected to analyze and interpret the classifier predictions. We illustrate how ROC curves can be deployed for model assessment in order to provide a more intuitive analysis of the models.

Paper Session Iv: Development And Delivery Of Coursework - The Legal/Regulatory/Policy Environment Of Cyberforensics, John W. Bagby, John C. Ruhnka

Annual ADFSL Conference on Digital Forensics, Security and Law

This paper describes a cyber-forensics course that integrates important public policy and legal issues as well as relevant forensic techniques. Cyber-forensics refers to the amalgam of multi-disciplinary activities involved in the identification, gathering, handling, custody, use and security of electronic files and records, involving expertise from the forensic domain, and which produces evidence useful in the proof of facts for both commercial and legal activities. The legal and regulatory environment in which electronic discovery takes place is of critical importance to cyber-forensics experts because the legal process imposes both constraints and opportunities for the effective use of evidence gathered through …

Designing A Data Warehouse For Cyber Crimes, Il-Yeol Song, John D. Maguire, Ki Jung Lee, Namyoun Choi, Xiaohua Hu, Peter Chen

Journal of Digital Forensics, Security and Law

One of the greatest challenges facing modern society is the rising tide of cyber crimes. These crimes, since they rarely fit the model of conventional crimes, are difficult to investigate, hard to analyze, and difficult to prosecute. Collecting data in a unified framework is a mandatory step that will assist the investigator in sorting through the mountains of data. In this paper, we explore designing a dimensional model for a data warehouse that can be used in analyzing cyber crime data. We also present some interesting queries and the types of cyber crime analyses that can be performed based on …

A Curriculum For Teaching Information Technology Investigative Techniques For Auditors, Grover S. Kearns

Journal of Digital Forensics, Security and Law

Recent prosecutions of highly publicized white-collar crimes combined with public outrage have resulted in heightened regulation of financial reporting and greater emphasis on systems of internal control. Because both white-collar and cybercrimes are usually perpetrated through computers, internal and external auditors’ knowledge of information technology (IT) is now more vital than ever. However, preserving digital evidence and investigative techniques, which can be essential to fraud examinations, are not skills frequently taught in accounting programs and instruction in the use of computer assisted auditing tools and techniques – applications that might uncover fraudulent activity – is limited. Only a few university-level …

Development And Delivery Of Coursework: The Legal/Regulatory/Policy Environment Of Cyberforensics, John W. Bagby, John C. Ruhnka

Journal of Digital Forensics, Security and Law

This paper describes a cyber-forensics course that integrates important public policy and legal issues as well as relevant forensic techniques. Cyber-forensics refers to the amalgam of multi-disciplinary activities involved in the identification, gathering, handling, custody, use and security of electronic files and records, involving expertise from the forensic domain, and which produces evidence useful in the proof of facts for both commercial and legal activities. The legal and regulatory environment in which electronic discovery takes place is of critical importance to cyber-forensics experts because the legal process imposes both constraints and opportunities for the effective use of evidence gathered through …

Computer Forensics Field Triage Process Model, Marcus K. Rogers, James Goldman, Rick Mislan, Timothy Wedge, Steve Debrota

Journal of Digital Forensics, Security and Law

With the proliferation of digital based evidence, the need for the timely identification, analysis and interpretation of digital evidence is becoming more crucial. In many investigations critical information is required while at the scene or within a short period of time - measured in hours as opposed to days. The traditional cyber forensics approach of seizing a system(s)/media, transporting it to the lab, making a forensic image(s), and then searching the entire system for potential evidence, is no longer appropriate in some circumstances. In cases such as child abductions, pedophiles, missing or exploited persons, time is of the essence. In …