A Strategic Model for Forensic Readiness
Jan Collie · Athens Journal of Sciences · 2018
Forensic readiness has been defined as: '…the capability of an organisation to use digital evidence in a forensic investigation'.For businesses, especially medium or small enterprises, gaining this capability can seem time consuming and expensive: it may involve a number of processes, it may require new hardware and software and people with specialised skill sets may need to be hired in order to implement any plan.Yet developing and maintaining a forensic readiness capability is vital in the digital age.Fraud and cybercrime cost almost £11bn in the UK alone last year.Across the European Union, the national annual cost of cybercrime now accounts for 0.41% of GDP.Recent figures have also shown that up to 62% of digital incidents are caused by insiders, either accidentally or knowingly.An astonishing 91% of cybersecurity attacks begin with a single email.This research proposes a structured, strategic approach to forensic readiness for businesses that is economic to implement and run.It is based on people and processes rather than complex electronic systems.Key to this approach is a firm's best asset -its own staff.It is theorised that the foundation stone of forensic readiness is a strong internal security culture.In order to achieve this aim, a unique, scalable model for efficient and inclusive planning is put forward with a reporting construct which aims to assure company-wide involvement.