A systematic literature review in cyber forensics: current trends from the client perspective

Abstract

Nowadays, with the demand of web applications there is also an increase in the number of problems and crimes that demand an investigation that requires digital forensics techniques in order to manage web evidence. Although there are several studies that address cyber forensics, they are mainly oriented to manage evidence at server side, as far as we know, no systematic literature reviews have been reported on how cyber forensics is addressed at clients’ side; considering the internationals standards. Thus, this paper presents a literature review about how cyber forensics is addressed at clients’ side related to techniques of identification, collection, analysis, preservation and report of digital evidence. Also, a review of how standards are being used in cyber forensics focused on the client side. The aim of this study is to provide a background of relevant activities that are considered by investigators to handle potentially digital evidence from web environments, considering what internationals standards are solving for this purpose. Thus, a total of 37 studies have been selected and analyzed in this study. Moreover, this study provides important insights about the need to create methodologies aligned with formal standards that support the management of the evidence in an appropriate way.