Information Technology, Cyber & Computer forensics

Traffic analysis consists of capturing network traffic in order to identify and respond to anomalies that could be indicative of security threats or other areas of concern.  The communication, network, and technological infrastructures are expanding at a rapid pace and increasingly complex. Moreover, the global community has expanded interconnectedness as routine resulting in extraordinary production of data. 
 
In the event of a cyber attack, the capacity to capture network traffic for analysis is critical to the success of a forensic investigation. Zhou, Yan, Fu, and Yao (2018) determined that the attributes displayed on the slide depict the relevance of capturing network traffic for subsequent analysis. As an analyst, it is important to have the correct tools depending on what is to be done, however if the nucleus is the data and if the rate, type, source, destination and other traffic factors can’t be determined, then you are still ill-equipped.  Capturing network data for investigative purposes is necessary not only to initiate investigations, but allows documentation of lessons learned to improve present infrastructure operations.  However, for it to be value-added, packets must be captured.

Terrorism by an Islamist group known as Boko Haram has been raging in Nigeria since 2009 and has spilled over into neighboring countries of Cameroon, Chad and Niger. Consequently, two million people have been displaced, 100,000 lives lost and properties worth N3.2 trillion ($9 billion) destroyed in the three-worst hit northeastern states of Adamawa, Borno and Yobe. The Federal Government has been collaborating with the international community in the counter-terrorism, gaining huge successes including the rescuing of nearly 200 of the 276 Chibok schoolgirls kidnapped in 2014 and dislodging the terrorists from their base in the infamous Sambisa Forest. However, the Government’s militarized approach toward the counter-terrorism has been critiqued in the literature, with suggestions for a multi-dimensional approach. This book recommends a research approach and proposes the Adoption and Use of Cyber Technology by Terror Groups Model (AUCTTGM). The model is expected to explain and predict factors determining terror groups’ cyber technology usage to threaten the peace and spread annihilative extremist propaganda in society as well as proffer clues to the ways of ending terrorism for good.

There has been a wide usage of anti-computer forensics all over the world. This paper takes an overview of, and an analysis of the most widely used anti-forensic techniques in the world. Mostly, these techniques hide or make it unrecoverable digital tracks of a crime in any form of magnetic media. Computer forensics department holds the mandate of collecting as much information and documentation about a crime as possible, regardless of whether such information is computer related or not. As such, computer forensics identifies the discipline involved in the study of the techniques and methodologies necessary for collection, analysis and presentation of unequivocal evidence, necessary in legal proceedings. Innovatively, there are anti-investigation techniques, aimed at making information collected by automated tools as well as fresh-and-blood investigators. With the help of modern operating systems, especially by the nature of management of data, events, and information, it is easy to find these individuals. However, due to the different techniques applied by computer users, it is hard to find people who use anti-computer forensics.