ABSTRACT
The Digital Computational Age has unmitigated the rational capabilities by making available a large amount of data storage and controlling capacity as it has a major role play in information insertion, deletion and updation in every profit-making business sector. But this digital computational tool box is being used by illegal people for nefarious gain. These illegal activities have created a major concern in almost all types of organizations as intruders are adopting various means to enter into organizational network resources. Identifying, detecting and preventing such types of malicious activities look theoretically simple but inconsequential in practice. The geographical distribution, diversified technologies, linked connections and existing security policies have exposed the size and complexity of network-interconnected systems. In this era of digital computational technology, the need and activeness of Forensic Law Enforcement Agencies are being shifted as traditional crimes concerning finance and economical theft have improved itself and hence technologically sophisticated. The threats that were physical and situational involving paper trails were clearly understood and defended, but those are being replaced by electronic pathways. So in this Digital Age, a new type of computer frauds and cybercrimes has become complex to be identified and analyzed due to the anonymity of the cyberattacker. Moreover, these categories of digital crimes consist of encroachment by illegitimate cyberattackers and users who exploit system vulnerabilities, misuse of system resources, computer viruses, worms and Trojan horses. So computer frauds and cybercrimes tend to have an exponential growth in comparison with the growth of security techniques and solutions. Digital forensic examination and inspection is one of the segments of forensic sciences that consist of intrinsically mathematical calculations to analyze a large heterogeneous diversified data from a digital exploration and enquiry than is present in any other types of exploration of forensic science.
In this study, this chapter has introduced the field of digital forensics and its branches, digital investigation models and digital investigational stepladder to combat with various computer frauds and cybercrime. The researchers have also found data fusion and data mining from the computer science discipline as supportive analysis techniques to unearth new perceptions, relative and concealed patterns within heterogeneous large data sets. Also, the powerful digital forensic investigational management based on data fusion and mining can provide the necessary infrastructure to support digital threat analysis and to derive supportive and corroborative crime evidence to stand in the court of law to punish cybercriminals, which must be an essential element of any next-generation security systems.
