This paper reviews the existing methodologies and best practices for digital investigations phases like collecting, evaluating and preserving digital forensic evidence and chain of custody of cybercrimes. Cybercriminals are adopting new strategies to launch cyberattacks within modified and ever changing digital ecosystems, this article proposes that digital investigations must continually readapt to tackle cybercrimes and prosecute cybercriminals, working in international collaboration networks, sharing prevention knowledge and lessons learned. The authors also introduce a compact cyber forensics model for diverse technological ecosystems called Cyber Forensics Model in Digital Ecosystems (CFMDE). Transferring the knowledge, international collaboration, best practices and adopting new digital forensic tools, methodologies and techniques will be hereinafter paramount to obtain digital evidence, enforce organizational cybersecurity policies, mitigate security threats, fight anti-forensics practices and indict cybercriminals. The global Digital Forensics community ought to constantly update current practices to deal with cybercriminality and foreseeing how to prepare to new technological environments where change is always constant.
1 July 2019 in Journal of Cases on Information Technology
Traditional cybersecurity, security or information security awareness programs have become ineffective to change people's behavior in recognizing, failing to block or reporting cyberthreats within their organizational environment. As a result, human errors and actions continue to demonstrate that we are the weakest links in cybersecurity. This article studies the most recent cybersecurity awareness programs and its attributes. Furthermore, the authors compiled recent awareness methodologies, frameworks and approaches. The authors introduce a suggested awareness training model to address existing deficiencies in awareness training. The Cybersecurity Awareness TRAining Model (CATRAM) has been designed to deliver training to different organizational audiences, each of these groups with specific content and separate objectives. The authors concluded their study by addressing the need of future research to target new approaches to keep cybersecurity awareness focused on the everchanging cyberthreat landscape.
These days organizations are continually facing being targets of cyberattacks and cyberthreats; the sophistication and complexity of modern cyberattacks and the modus operandi of cybercriminals including Techniques, Tactics and Procedures (TTP) keep growing at unprecedented rates. Cybercriminals are always adopting new strategies to plan and launch cyberattacks based on existing cybersecurity vulnerabilities and exploiting end users by using social engineering techniques. Cybersecurity audits are extremely important to verify that information security controls are in place and to detect weaknesses of inexistent cybersecurity or obsolete controls. This article presents an innovative and comprehensive cybersecurity audit model. The CyberSecurity Audit Model (CSAM) can be implemented to perform internal or external cybersecurity audits. This model can be used to perform single cybersecurity audits or can be part of any corporate audit program to improve cybersecurity controls. Any information security or cybersecurity audit team has either the options to perform a full audit for all cybersecurity domains or by selecting specific domains to audit certain areas that need control verification and hardening. The CSAM has 18 domains; Domain 1 is specific for Nation States and Domains 2-18 can be implemented at any organization. The organization can be any small, medium or large enterprise, the model is also applicable to any Non-Profit Organization (NPO).
The objective of this chapter is to provision a comprehensive literature review of the most relevant approaches for conducting cybersecurity audits. The study includes auditing perspectives for specific scopes and the best practices that many leading organizations are providing for security and auditing professionals to follow. The chapter reviews relevant features for auditing approaches in the following order: ISO/IEC 27001:2013, ISO/IEC 27002:2013, Control Objectives for Information and Related Technology (COBIT) 2019, Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) 4, AICPA, ISACA, NIST SP 800-53, NIST CSF v1.1, IIA, PCI DSS, ITAF, COSO, ENISA, NERC CIP, and CSAM.
This chapter presents the outcome of one empirical research study that assess the implementation and validation of the cybersecurity awareness training model (CATRAM), designed as a multiple-case study in a Canadian higher education institution. Information security awareness programs have become unsuccessful to change people's attitudes in recognizing, stopping, or reporting cyberthreats within their corporate environment. Therefore, human errors and actions continue to demonstrate that we as humans are the weakest links in cybersecurity. The chapter studies the most recent cybersecurity awareness programs and its attributes. Furthermore, the author compiled recent awareness methodologies, frameworks, and approaches. The cybersecurity awareness training model (CATRAM) has been created to deliver training to different corporate audiences, each of these organizational units with peculiar content and detached objectives. They concluded their study by addressing the necessity of future research to target new approaches to keep cybersecurity awareness focused on the everchanging cyberthreat landscape.
This study validates a comprehensive cybersecurity audit model through empirical analysis in three higher education institutions in Canada. The research aims to enhance cybersecurity resilience by assessing the effectiveness of cybersecurity controls across diverse educational environments. Given the increasing frequency and sophistication of cyberattacks targeting educational institutions, this research is essential to ensure the protection of sensitive academic and personal data. Data were collected through detailed audits involving system vulnerabilities, compliance with security policies, and incident response management at each institution. The findings underscore the importance of tailored cybersecurity strategies and continuous auditing to mitigate cyber risks in the Canadian higher education sector. This study contributes to the field by validating a versatile audit tool that can be adapted to various institutional contexts, promoting enhanced cybersecurity practices and evaluating the effectiveness of cybersecurity safeguards across the higher education sector in Canada. The results of the audit model validations provide the cybersecurity maturity rating of each institution. Further research is recommended to refine the model and explore its application in other industries and sectors.