Special Issue of The Computer Journal on Digital Forensics (in Thomson Reuters Master Journal List)

Today’s world’s societies are becoming more and more dependent on open networks such as the internet, where commercial activities, business transactions and government services are realised. This has led to the fast development of new cyber threats and numerous information security issues, which are exploited by cyber criminals. The inability to provide trusted secure services in contemporary computer network technologies has a tremendous socio-economic impact on global enterprises as well as individuals.
Moreover, frequently occurring international frauds make it necessary to conduct investigations of facts across international borders. Such examinations are often subject to different jurisdictions and legal systems. The internet has acted as an alternate avenue for the criminals to conduct their activities and launch attacks with relative anonymity. Traces of illegal digital activities are often buried in large volumes of data, making detecting offences and collecting evidence difficult. Nowadays, digital crime scenes function like any other network, with dedicated administrators acting as first responders.

This poses new challenges for law enforcement policies and requires the services of digital forensics to combat the increasing number of cybercrimes. Digital forensics is a recently emerged research area and has attracted the attention of computer professionals, law enforcement experts and practitioners. It is a multidisciplinary area that includes, for example, law, computer science, finance, networking, data mining and criminal justice. However, despite increased interest, the field still faces diverse challenges, most commonly related to the efficiency of the digital evidence processing and the resulting forensic procedures.
The aim of this special issue is to bring together the research accomplishments of researchers from academia and industry. It is to show the latest research results in the field of digital forensics and to present the development of tools and techniques that assist the investigation process of potentially illegal cyber activity.

We encourage prospective authors to submit related distinguished research papers on theoretical approaches and practical case reviews.
Topics of interests include, but are not limited to:
• Digital forensics tools and applications
• Digital forensics case studies and best practices
• Formal standards, procedures and methods in digital forensics
• Privacy issues in digital forensics
• Computer and network forensics
• Network traffic analysis, traceback andattribution
• Incident response, investigation and evidence handling
• Integrity of digital evidence and liveinvestigations
• Identification, authentication and collection of digital evidence
• Cybercrime-related investigations
• Anti-forensic techniques and methods
• Watermarking and intellectual property theft
• Analysis techniques for digital forensics and information assurance research
• Social networking forensics
• Steganography/steganalysis and covert/subliminal channels in digital forensics
• New methods for detecting and eliminating network steganography
• Political and business issues related to digital forensicsand anti-forensic techniques and methods

Original and high quality contributions that have not yet been published or are not currently under review by other journals or peer-reviewed conferences are sought. The submitted papers should be formatted according to the journal style. For more detailed information concerning the requirements for submission, please refer to the journal homepage here.

All manuscripts and any supplementary material should be submitted to Section B of the Computer Journal through the online submission system available at http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/compj.

Authors must state in their cover letter that the paper is for the special issue “Digital Forensics”.
All papers will be rigorously reviewed based on their originality, high scientific quality, organization, clarity of writing, conclusions and relevance to this Special Issue. The manuscripts will be accepted or rejected in line with the usual standards of The Computer Journal.
Besides normal submissions, selected best papers of the IWNS 2011 (International Workshop on Network Steganography) and IWDF 2011 (International Workshop on Digital Forensics) can be submitted to this special issue. There should be at least 40%difference between the extended/revised paper and the workshop paper, and the papers will be handled as all other papers in matters of refereeing and selection.

**Important dates**

Manuscript due: 10 July 2011
Acceptance/rejection notification: 1 October 2011
Final manuscript due: 1 November 2011
Publication date: 2012

**Guest editors**

Dr Wojciech Mazurczyk
Institute of Telecommunications
Warsaw University of Technology, Poland
Email: wmazurczyk@tele.pw.edu.pl

Dr Krzysztof Szczypiorski
Institute of Telecommunications
Warsaw University of Technology, Poland
Email: ksz@tele.pw.edu.pl