Towards forensic-ready software systems

As software becomes more ubiquitous, and the risk of cyber-crimes increases, ensuring that software systems are forensic-ready (i.e., capable of supporting potential digital investigations) is critical. However, little or no attention has been given to how well-suited existing software engineering methodologies and practices are for the systematic development of such systems. In this paper, we consider the meaning of forensic readiness of software, define forensic readiness requirements, and highlight some of the open software engineering challenges in the face of forensic readiness. We use a real software system developed to investigate online sharing of child abuse media to illustrate the presented concepts.