Digital Forensic Readiness - Programme implementation and maturity assessment

Abstract

The number of cyberattacks on organisations are constantly increasing. Due to their sensitive data, banks are popular targets of such attacks. Due to a lack of digital forensic readiness, companies often find evidence missing or corrupted, leading to the inability to bring the incident before a court of law. Therefore, it is important to increase digital forensic readiness which not only increases the chances of successful prosecution, it can also considerably reduce down-time as well as save money for victimised organisations. Many digital forensic readiness frameworks exist but are often too general and therefore may lack applicability and scalability. Furthermore, most organisations are not aware of digital forensic readiness, hence they often show significant shortcomings in this area. Through literature research and interviews with industry experts, knowledge on the current status of digital forensic readiness at Swiss banks is extracted and utilised to create a framework. This study proposes the Digital Forensic Readiness Cycle, a framework that focuses on implementing digital forensic readiness in Swiss small and medium banks. Furthermore, the Digital Forensic Readiness Maturity Assessment tool helps banks to raise awareness by conducting a basic assessment of their digital forensic readiness.