Digital forensic as tool for fighting cyber crime in
Nigeria
Oluwatoyin Okurumeh*
&
Edeaghe Ehikhamenor**
*Corresponding Author
Dept. of Computer Science & Mathematics,
Babalola University, Ikeji Arakeji, Osun State
e-mail; okurumeh_toyin@yahoo.com
**Dept. of Oral Diagnosis & Radiology, College of Medical
Sciences,
University of Benin, Benin City.
OUTLINE OF PRESENTATION
• Preamble
• Definition
• Introduction/History
• Common internet crimes and expected sanctions.
• Review/update of cybercrime in Nigeria
• Expanded Digital Functions
• Illustrations
• Conclusion
Images of Our Evolution
Evolution of Man from Manual to Digital Era
What really Changed? All facets of our lives.
• Education
• Communication
• Romance/Love
• Culture
• Travelling
• Business/Trade
• Health
• Security
• Working/Jobs
• Technology
• The list is endless
Definitions/Semantics
• “the use of scientifically derived and proven methods towards the
preservation, collection, validation, identification, analysis,
interpretation, documentation and presentation of digital evidence
derived from digital source for the purpose of facilitating or furthering
the reconstruction of events found to be criminal or helping to
anticipate unauthorized actions shown to be disruptive to planned
operations.” (DFRWS, 2001)
• Digital Forensic also known as computer and network forensic is
considered as the application of science to the identification,
collection, examination and analysis of data (NIST, 2006)
• Utilization of computers to solve computer related vices.
Introduction; Time-line of activities.
Early years (1970s-1990s)
• Hardware, software, and
application diversity
• A proliferation of data file
formats
• Heavy reliance on timesharing and centralized
computing facilities
• Absence of formal
process, tools, and
training
„Golden years“
Era of crisis
(1990s-2000s)
(2010s-...)
• The widespread use of
Microsoft Windows, and
specifically Windows XP
• Relatively few file formats
of forensic interest
• Examinations largely
confined to a single
computer system
belonging to the subject
of the investigation
• Storage devices equipped
with standard interfaces
(IDE/ ATA)
• Growing size of storage
devices
• Increasing prevalence of
embedded flash storage
• Proliferation of hardware
interfaces
• Proliferation of operating
systems and file formats
• Pervasive encryption
• Use of the “cloud” for
remote processing and
storage, splitting a single
data structure into
elements.
• Intercontinental hacking
of identity eg recent
alleged Chinses hacking of
US.
Uses of digital forensic
• Digital evidence can be used for:
• Internal disciplinary hearing
• admissible in a court of law
• supporting data for internal incident reports
• Assist in furthering other investigation
• Research and development
• Data
• Profiling of criminals
Common Digital Vices
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Phising/Spoofing
Blackmail/Extortion
Accessing Stored Communications
Sports Betting
Non-Delivery of Merchandise
Electronic Harassment
Child Pornography
Prostitution
Drug Trafficking
Criminal Copyright Infringement
Terrorist recruitments by Militants.
Website Cloning
Etc.etc
Nigeria Episode
• The term “cybercrime” is now globally known and associated with Nigeria and
referred to as “419” scamming in Nigeria.
• This began in Nigeria with the realization of the full potentials of the internet, the
youths in the country discovered different ways of using the internet to carry out
different types of criminal activities.
• The incidence of cybercrime can be said to be on increase in the country due to the
lack of security awareness and under reportage of the crime (Okeshola and Adeta,
2013).
• Nigerian Cyber criminals are daily devising new ways of perpetrating this form of
crime and the existing methods of tracking these criminals are no longer suitable to
deal with new tricks (Ibikunle and Eweniyi, 2013).
• Internet world stats, showed in November 2007, Nigeria having the highest number
of internet users in Africa and computer crime and cyber survey conducted indicated
the country as the most fraudulent country in Africa.
• The same survey also ranked the Nigeria third among others identified with cyber
fraud and computer crime in the world.
• The people that fall victim to this crime are naïve and gullible at the prospects incited
by these fraudsters
Legislation Dilemma
• Cybercrimes and white collar crimes are particularly lucrative because they are generally
non- violent crimes that yield high profits and have relatively low risk of capture and if
caught and convicted usually results in relatively short prison sentences.
• Judges and Juries view cybercriminals as intelligent, misguided individuals rather than as
cyber thugs that they are.
• The internet is a major problem of legal investigators because of issues like jurisdiction. It
is possible for a criminal in one country to perpetrate a crime against a person in another
country and all the while using a server from a third world country. Law varies from
country to country and a felony in one country might not be illegal in another country.
• The use of the internet as totally changed crime scene investigation due to his dynamic
mode of operation. The internet used to perpetrate a crime today might be different
from the one used the next day.
• Internet access can be gained from different computers in an industrialized country
where criminals can gain access from a different computer at a different location every
time they logon, while it may be easy to prove that a particular computer was used to
access a given server at a given date and time, it may be very difficult to prove whose
finger print id on the keyboard (Kesseier, 2005).
Some Celebrated Cases
• Cynthia Osokogu--- Nigeria.
Victim of Facebook romance
• Brittni Colleps---- Both manual and digital evidence used.
Financial Cyber-crime in Nigeria
• Reports of Cyber Crime has increased over the years, one of the most frequently
attacked organizations in Nigeria is the Inter-switch, which has one of the highest
customer base electronic transaction in Nigeria (Ahmed, 2008).
• Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC) revealed in their annual report and
statement of account that underhand deals by bank staff and other attempt of fraud
cases resulted to about ₦10.1 billion and actual loss of about ₦2.76 billion in 2007
(Ahmed, 2008).
• A report from the Economic and Financial Crime Commission of Nigeria issued a
report in 2007 of how a retired civil servant with two other defrauded a Garman
citizen named Klaus Wagner a sum of $1,714,080 USD through the internet and
during this period Nigeria was ranked the third in terms of online crime (Okeshola,
2013).
• According to Ribadu (2007), the prominent forms of cybercrime in Nigeria include
Website cloning, false representations, identity thief, e-commerce fraud, credit card
theft, fraudulent electronic mails, internet banking and website defacing.
Our Response so far
• On the 5th of February, 2014, the President of Nigeria ‘Goodluck Jonathan’ introduced a
cybercrime bill, 2013 in the National Assembly.
• In the bill, the FG seeks Power to Intercept SMC, Email, BBM’s and Fax. The objective of the
bill includes among other goals, protecting the country’s national information structure and
establishing an integrated legal, regulatory and institutional framework to deal with
cybercrimes (Daily TRUST, 2014).
• As at now there is absence of appropriate laws to guarantee the legality of online
transaction, which as a result continues create fear in the mind of users and the potential
online users.
• The Director of Communications in the office of the National Security Adviser, at the
presentation of Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) Blueprint for Nigeria, spoke about the
increasing dependency on computer systems and network in Nigeria by the Government
and citizens to provide critical services.
• He pointed out that his office has put measures in place to protect all critical information
infrastructures and secure computer systems and network in Nigeria, his mitigation
measures includes the establishment of a fully functional digital forensic laboratory in the
office of NSA, other measures put in place is the establishment of a National Computer
Emergency Response Team Center for The monitoring, detection and analysis of the
activities in the cyberspace (Emejor, 2013).
Expanded Digital Functions. (Extract from MIT
Publication)
Forensic Research and Development Center (FORDEC)
ROLE
• Education
• Advocacy
• Humanitarian activities.
• Networking
• Developing Institutional Framework
• Research
• Data Collations
• Visit; www.forensicresearchgroup.org
Summary
• Digital forensics is a young maturing field which still needs many more
forensically sound solution.
• Advocacy, Support and Awareness.
• Assisting corporate legal teams with discovery and ensures
compliance with local laws and regulations.
• Company policies can also benefit from forensic capability
• Audit requirements and recommendations.
• Risk management, risk control and crime risk controlled.
• Intellectual property abuse and infringement.
• Intrusion analysis
Conclusion
• Thanks for this opportunity.
• Safe Journey to each and everyone of the participants.