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Qualifications and Skill Levels of Digital Forensics Practitioners in South Africa: An Exploratory Study

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ICT Education (SACLA 2018)

Part of the book series: Communications in Computer and Information Science ((CCIS,volume 963))

Abstract

Digital forensic investigations require competence in skills associated with an investigation which is often measured through qualifications consisting of scholastic education, digital forensic training, digital forensic certification, and digital forensics work-related experience. While prior research has been conducted into the qualifications of digital forensic practitioners within the South African environment, the association between qualifications and measures of skill has not been addressed. This research study utilises a conceptual research framework to test the association between qualifications and the skills levels of digital forensic practitioners in South Africa. The findings show that continuous training and the level of testimony provided by a digital forensics practitioner in a civil or criminal procedure are positively associated with overall skills level. Other factors such as formal education, number of forensics training courses, certification, and work-related experience did not have a direct association with the measured skill. Further research is hence needed to understand the role of these factors in improving skill levels.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    www.qualtrics.com.

  2. 2.

    The research project was approved by our university and complied with the institutionally prescribed codes of ethics.

  3. 3.

    In South Africa the ‘Honours’ degree is an extension of the Bachelor degree which enables a student to commence with Master-studies thereafter. It is thus similar to the final study-year of the (longer) U.S. American Bachelor curriculum.

  4. 4.

    Such advancement might even be expected to motivate educational innovation in tertiary-academic digital forensics courses: see for example [19].

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Information Systems, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa

    Mannis Stenvert & Irwin Brown

Authors
  1. Mannis Stenvert
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  2. Irwin Brown
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Correspondence to Mannis Stenvert .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Information Systems, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa

    Salah Kabanda

  2. Computer Science, University of Cape Town, Rondebosch, Cape Town, South Africa

    Hussein Suleman

  3. University of Pretoria, Pretoria, South Africa

    Stefan Gruner

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Stenvert, M., Brown, I. (2019). Qualifications and Skill Levels of Digital Forensics Practitioners in South Africa: An Exploratory Study. In: Kabanda, S., Suleman, H., Gruner, S. (eds) ICT Education. SACLA 2018. Communications in Computer and Information Science, vol 963. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-05813-5_23

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-05813-5_23

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-05812-8

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-05813-5

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