Digital forensics refers to the process of retrieval, preservation, analysis, and presentation of electronic evidence for use in investigations and prosecutions of various forms of crime, including cybercrime. Cybercriminals wreak havoc in a multitude of ways identity theft, cyberbullying, data leakage, distributed denials of service, and malware attacks on medical devices and smart vehicles. They stand ready to bring businesses and governments to their knees. Cyberattacks can have a significant socioeconomic impact on both global enterprises and individuals. Therefore, cybercriminals should be promptly identified, and high-quality evidences of the attacks should be made available in the courtroom. This paper provides an overview of digital forensics and electronic evidence, looking in particular at the digital forensics process, common digital forensics practices, standards for digital forensics and electronic evidence, and best practices in digital forensics globally[i]with some emphasis on Cameroon.
[i] International cybercrime has now become so extensive, underground suppliers are cropping up on the dark web offering easy access to the tools, programming frameworks, and services required to carry out cyberattacks. A notable example is Tox, a ransomware construction kit discovered by McAfee Labs on the dark web in May 2015. Briefly, the Tox framework can be customized and used to spread and coordinate infections in return for 20 percent of every ransom paid.
