Towards Development of Ready-to-Use Hands-on Labs with Portable Operating Environments for Digital Forensics Education
Tran Ngoc Bao Huynh, Haowen Xu, Brian Almaguer, Jun Dai, Xiaoyan Sun · 2025
Digital forensics is a critical field that plays an essential role in investigating cyber crimes, security incidents, and other crimes utilizing digital devices. Despite the heightened need for more experts in this field, the workforce faces constant shortages. For effective workforce development, the field currently lacks accessible, engaging, and valuable educational materials. To combat this issue, we propose INFER, a set of instructional hands-on labs for digital forensics education. In these labs, we designed an experiential learning experience that is a comprehensive program that is easily accessible for different levels of education in a portable environment and can be used on different operating systems. We conducted a study with students and had them take surveys before and after the labs to determine the value of the labs. We also hosted a workshop to invite professors and educators in the field to evaluate the usability of the materials. Based on the results, INFER is a beneficial resource that can help develop a future workforce of digital forensics professionals.