Ikuesan Richard Adeyemi

University of Pretoria | UP · Department of Computer Science

This article introduces a robust metaverse forensic framework designed to facilitate the investigation of cybercrime within the dynamic and complex digital metaverse. In response to the growing potential for nefarious activities in this technological landscape, the framework is meticulously developed and aligned with international standardization,...

In Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), the absence of standardized forensic processes presents substantial hurdles to effective investigations. As IIoT devices become ubiquitous in critical infrastructure, ensuring consistency and reliability in forensic procedures becomes imperative. This paper aims to front the critical need for standardized II...

The growing sophistication of malware has resulted in diverse challenges, especially among security researchers who are expected to develop mechanisms to thwart these malicious attacks. While security researchers have turned to machine learning to combat this surge in malware attacks and enhance detection and prevention methods, they often encounte...

Given the presence of handwritten documents in human transactions, including email sorting, bank checks, and automating procedures, handwritten characters recognition (HCR) of documents has been invaluable to society. Handwritten Chinese characters (HCC) can be divided into offline and online categories. Online HCC recognition (HCCR) involves the t...

A fake website is considered a website that is intended to cause harm and manipulate users, especially novice users without some knowledge of indicators of fakeness. Understanding the indicators of fake websites is thus considered an important concept to avoid being a victim of malicious attacks in online engagements. In some cases, such knowledge...

Metaverse is a virtual space where users can interact with each other. It is a combination of virtual reality, augmented reality, and mixed reality. This evolving technology can offer many exciting opportunities that can be used for individuals and businesses. Although this technology has many advantages, people are misusing it for their benefit. M...

Developing a generic digital forensic solution in a cloud computing platform that can address the functional requirements of digital forensic stakeholders is a complex process. The solution would require a technology-independent architectural design that addresses the challenges of incident threat identification, triggering, incident threat isolati...

Reconnaissance and enumeration are both equally significant phases of the penetration testing lifecycle. In hindsight, both reconnaissance and enumeration seem to be very similar as the pair involve information gathering. Whilst reconnaissance leverages passive approaches without direct interaction with the target, enumeration exploits susceptibili...

Cyber security is considered a necessity for anyone in todays modern world. Awareness of cyber security standards and best practices have become mandatory to safeguard ones child in this day and age. High schoolers today do not understand cyber security threats due to the lack of parental involvement or the lack of educational material and courses...

The popularity of unique image compression features of image files opens an interesting research analysis process, given that several digital forensics cases are related to diverse file types. Of interest has been fragmented file carving and recovery which forms a major aspect of digital forensics research on JPEG files. Whilst there exist several...

Ransomware attacks have increased significantly in recent years, causing great destruction and damage to critical systems and business operations. Attackers are unfailingly finding innovative ways to bypass detection mechanisms, whichencouraged the adoption of artificial intelligence. However, most research summarizes the general features of AI and...

The current global pandemic occasioned by the SARS-CoV-2 virus has been attributed, partially, to the growing range of cyber vises within the cyber ecosystem. One area of such impact is the increasing tendencies of cyber-bullying among students. Cyberbullying -- the act of subjugating others using a cyber platform -- is a growing concern among educ...

Ransomware attacks have increased significantly in recent years, causing great destruction and damage to critical systems and business operations. Attackers are unfailingly finding innovative ways to bypass detection mechanisms, which encouraged the adoption of artificial intelligence. However, most research summarizes the general features of AI an...

The current global pandemic occasioned by the SARS-CoV-2 virus has been attributed, partially, to the growing range of cyber vises within the cyber ecosystem. One area of such impact is the increasing tendencies of cyber-bullying among students. Cyberbullying -the act of subjugating others using a cyber platform- is a growing concern among educator...

Blockchain technology has in many ways shown a promising technology where trust can be created between parties. With blockchain, trusted parties can easily transact or exchange information over a cryptographically secured distributed environment. However, based on the blockchain architecture, conducting digital forensic processes faces several prob...

Securing digital evidence is a key factor that contributes to evidence admissibility during digital forensic investigations, particularly in establishing the chain of custody of digital evidence. However, not enough is done to ensure that the environment and access to the evidence are secure. Attackers can go to extreme lengths to cover up their tr...

The recent wave of the global Covid-19 pandemic has led to a surge in text-based non-technical cybercrime attacks within the cyber ecosystem. Information about such cyber-attacks is often in unstructured text data and metadata, a rich source of evidence in a digital forensic investigation. However, such information is usually unavailable during a d...

While the Internet of Things (IoT), Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs), and the techniques for extracting digital data have seen continuous advancements, so does the cyber-threat landscape. Virtual sensors which normally use abstraction layers that operate over a physical infrastructure to achieve their objectives, have seen rapid adoption, for exampl...

For reliable and relevant scientific evidence to be admitted in a court of law, it is important to apply digital forensic investigation techniques to corroborate a suspected potential security incident. Mainly, traditional digital forensics techniques have focused on computer desktops and servers. However, recent advances in digital media and platf...

Continuous and emerging advances in Information and Communication Technology (ICT) have enabled Internet-of-Things (IoT)-to-Cloud applications to be induced by data pipelines and Edge Intelligence-based architectures. Advanced vehicular networks greatly benefit from these architectures due to the implicit functionalities that are focused on realizi...

Continuous and emerging advances in Information and Communication Technology (ICT) have enabled Internet-of-Things (IoT)-to-Cloud applications induced by data pipelines and Edge Intelligence-based architectures. Advanced vehicular networks greatly benefit from these architectures due to the implicit functionalities focused on realizing the Internet...

The Internet of things (IoT) technology has been adopted by many organisations as a way of improving business operations and discovering new business opportunities. However, the threat-related landscape and security ramifications that comes with this adoption has become a subject of focus. As a result, there is a need to significantly explore IoT r...

The emergence of unmanned aerial vehicles (also referred to as drones) has transformed the digital landscape of surveillance and supply chain logistics, especially in terrains where such was previously deemed unattainable. Moreover, the adoption of drones has further led to the proliferation of diverse drone types and drone-related criminality, whi...

Complexity and sophistication among multimedia-based tools have made it easy for perpetrators to conduct digital crimes such as counterfeiting, modification, and alteration without being detected. It may not be easy to verify the integrity of video content that, for example, has been manipulated digitally. To address this perennial investigative ch...

An increase in the use of cloud computing technologies by organizations has led to cybercriminals targeting cloud environments to orchestrate malicious attacks. Conversely, this has led to the need for proactive approaches through the use of digital forensic readiness (DFR). Existing studies have attempted to develop proactive prototypes using dive...

Using a face validity approach, this paper provides a validation of the Database Forensic Investigation Metamodel (DBFIM). The DBFIM was developed to solve interoperability, heterogeneity, complexity, and ambiguity in the database forensic investigation (DBFI) field, where several models were identified, collected, and reviewed to develop DBFIM. Ho...

The phenomenon of network vigilantism is autonomously attributed to how anomalies and obscure activities from adversaries can be tracked in realtime. Needless to say, in today dynamic, virtualized, and complex network environments, it has become undeniably necessary for network administrators, analysts as well as engineers to practice network vigil...

The phenomenon of network vigilantism is autonomously attributed to how anomalies and obscure activities from adversaries can be tracked in real-time. Needless to say, in today's dynamic, virtualized, and complex network environments, it has become undeniably necessary for network administrators, analysts as well as engineers to practice network vi...

The prevalence of HTTP web traffic on the Internet has long transcended the layer 7 classification, to layers such as layer 5 of the OSI model stack. This coupled with the integration-diversity of other layers and application layer protocols has made identification of user-initiated HTTP web traffic complex, thus increasing user anonymity on the In...

Sensorial escalation, heterogeneity, pervasiveness, and increased connectivity have created a haven for cyber-criminals, where potential attacks are being exacerbated on a daily basis. In essence, most automated systems are not built to be able to dynamically detect potential security incidents or to provide digital forensic evidence that could be...

Mobile Forensics (MF) field uses prescribed scientific approaches with a focus of recovering Potential Digital Evidence (PDE) from mobile devices levaraging forensic techniques. Consequently, increased proliferation, mobile-based services, and the need for new requirements have led to the development of the MF field, which has in the recent past be...

For every contact that is made in a database, a digital trace will potentially be left and most of the database breaches are mostly aimed at defeating the major security goals (Confidentiality, Integrity, and Authenticity) of data that reside in the database. In order to prove/refute a fact during litigation, it is important to identify suitable in...

Currently, about half of all global enterprises are adopting and using some form of cloud computing services. In cloud computing, potential digital evidence is distributed across multiple isolated virtual machine instances. Investigating deleted or inactive virtual instances of a cloud is a challenge to digital forensics, and the traditional method...

Internet of Things (IoT) are becoming commonplace in homes, buildings, cities, and nations, and IoT networks are also getting more complex and interconnected. The complexity, interconnectivity, and heterogeneity of IoT systems, however, complicate digital (forensic) investigations. The challenge is compounded due to the lack of holistic and standar...

Machine learning has been shown as a promising approach to mine larger datasets, such as those that comprise data from a broad range of Internet of Things devices, across complex environment(s) to solve different problems. This paper surveys existing literature on the potential of using supervised classical machine learning techniques, such as K-Ne...

Database forensic investigation (DBFI) is an important area of research within digital forensics. It’s importance is growing as digital data becomes more extensive and commonplace. The challenges associated with DBFI are numerous, and one of the challenges is the lack of a harmonized DBFI process for investigators to follow. In this paper, therefor...

Even though the cloud paradigm and its associated services has been adopted in various enterprise applications, there has been major issues with regard to authenticating users’ critical data. Single Sign on (SSO) is a user authentication technique through which a server authenticates and allows a user to use a single aspect of login credentials, fo...

The threats posed by botnets in the cyberspace continue to grow each day and it has become very hard to detect or infiltrate the cynicism of bots. This, is owing to the fact, that, the botnet developers each day, keep changing the propagation and attack techniques. Currently, most of these attacks have been centered on stealing computing energy, th...

A Cloud Forensic Readiness as a Service (CFRaaS) model allows an environment to preemptively accumulate relevant potential digital evidence (PDE) which may be needed during a post‐event response process. The benefit of applying a CFRaaS model in a cloud environment, is that, it is designed to prevent the modification/tampering of the cloud architec...

The gradual migration from a traditional networking platform to a Software-Defined Networks (SDN) paradigm presents potential challenges to digital investigation processes. This is particularly applicable in the identification, extraction, and preservation of potential digital evidence in SDN environments. Several digital forensic investigation pro...

Smart homes or home automation devices are increasingly adopted as they become more useful and simplify daily tasks in our lives. Due to advances in the Internet of Things (IoT) and its inherent vulnerabilities, many households are therefore becoming vulnerable to cyber-attacks. With a vast array of electronic devices and sensors, smart homes can b...

The relationship between negative and positive connotations with regard to malware in the cloud is rarely investigated according to the prevailing literature. However, there is a significant relationship between the use of positive and negative connotations. A clear distinction between the two emanates when we use the originally considered maliciou...

While the Internet of Things (IoT) is still gaining rapid adoption in an upward trajectory means across many smart areas in recent years, still, there is a need to develop a scalable ecosystem that is able to support future IoT implementations, given the heterogeneity and increased information flow among IoT devices. The lack of effective interoper...

The proliferation of ubiquitous and pervasive computing devices has led to the emergence of research areas like Internet of things, and the Big-Data, which has seen a rise in obfuscation of online identity thus fueling an increase in online anonymity. Online anonymity constitutes a major platform for the exploitation of the potentials of cyber-crim...

the need for a reliable and complementary identifier mechanism in a digital forensic analysis is the focus of this study. Mouse dynamics have been applied in information security studies, particularly, continuous authentication and authorization. However, the method applied in security is void of specific behavioral signature of a user, which inhib...

Technology-assisted living is a growing trend in most developing nations, particularly for young-aged demographic countries, as it presents a platform for personal development and knowledge management. However, this society-scaping trend has also introduced the myriad opportunity for the formation of complex crime, which is often beyond the (immedi...

Over the years there has been a significant increase in the exploitation of the security vulnerabilities of Windows operating systems, the most severe threat being malicious software (malware). Ransomware, a variant of malware which encrypts files and retains the decryption key for ransom, has recently proven to become a global digital epidemic. Th...

The extraction of digital evidence from storage media is a growing concern in digital forensics, due to the time and space complexity in acquiring, preserving and analysing digital evidence. Microsoft Windows Registry is an example of a potential source of digital evidence that contains a database of evidential information about both the system and...

The Integration of mouse dynamics in user authentication and authorization has gained wider research attention in the security domain, specifically for user identification. However, same cannot be said for user identification from the forensic perspective. As a step in this direction, this paper proposes a mouse behavioral dynamics visualization to...

This paper studies the NTRU public key cryptosystem to identify the most influential parameters for decryption failure confirming that decryption failure is key-dependent. The study uses binary polynomials and analyzes the correlation between the parameter sets recommended in the EESS 1v2 (2003) and Jeffrey Hoffstein et al. (2003). The observed rel...

The process through which an insider to an organization can be described or classified is lined within the orthodox paradigm of classification in which an organization considers only subject with requisite employee criterion as an insider to that organization. This is further clouded with the relative rigidity in operational security policies being...

User attribution, the process of identifying a human in a digital medium, is a research area that has receive significant attention in information security research areas, with a little research focus on digital forensics. This study explored the probability of the existence of a digital fingerprint based on human thinking style, which can be used...

Comprehension of the statistical and structural mechanisms governing human dynamics in online interaction plays a pivotal role in online user identification, online profile development, and recommender systems. However, building a characteristic model of human dynamics on the Internet involves a complete analysis of the variations in human activity...

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Dataset used in the machine learning process. (RAR)

Researches on human thinking styles have received wide attention, especially in online education; an aspect of human computer interaction. However, the deciphering of specific thinking styles of an online user has suffered setbacks due to the limited exposition on the probability of online thinking style signature of users. This study explored this...

The notion of online anonymity is based on the assumption that on the Internet the means of identification are limited to network and system identifiers, which do not directly relate to the identity of the user. Personality traits as a form of identity have recently been explored. A myriad of relationships between the Internet and human personality...

Establishing facts on cyber crime is gradually gaining wider relevance in prosecuting cyber criminals. The branch of cyber policing saddled with this responsibility is the network forensic community (researchers, developer, and investigator). However, the recurring rate of advances in cybercrime poses greater challenge to the available improvements...

The borderline separating users on the Internet is limited to the classical object-system identifiers such as users-login-ID, and network parameters, which is assumed to belong to a benign user. These assumptions provide subtle platform for malicious action in addition to exploitation of the vulnerability in online anonymity. The study proposes a h...

The process through which an insider to an organization can be described or classified is lined within the orthodox paradigm of classification in which an organization considers only subject with requisite employee criterion as insider to that organization. This is further clouded with the relative rigidity in operational security policies being im...

It is no longer a hidden fact, that insider misuse, either intentional of unintentional, constitutes grave consequence to business continuity. Detection and prediction of such misuse are however facing practical setbacks, due in part to the relative proximity of an insider to organizational assets, as well as human dynamics in relation to societal...