Evaluation and analysis of a software prototype for guidance and implementation of a standardized digital forensic investigation process

Performing a digital forensic investigation requires a standardized and formalized process to be followed. The authors have contributed to the creation of an international standard on digital forensic investigation process, namely ISO/IEC 27043:2015, which was published in 2015. However, currently, there exists no application that would guide a digital forensic investigator to implement such a standardized process. The prototype of such an application has been developed by the authors and presented in their previous work. The prototype is in the form of a software application which has two main functionalities. The first functionality is to act as an expert system that can be used for guidance and training of novice investigators. The second functionality is to enable reliable logging of all actions taken within the investigation processes, enabling the validation of use of a correct process. The benefits of such a prototype include possible improvement in efficiency and effectiveness of an investigation and easier training of novice investigators. The last, and possibly most important benefit, includes that higher admissibility of digital evidence will be possible due to the fact that it will be easier to show that the standardized process was followed. This paper presents an evaluation of the prototype. Evaluation was performed in order to measure the usability and the quality of the prototype software, as well as the effectiveness of the prototype. The evaluation of the prototype consisted of two main parts. The first part was a software usability evaluation, which was performed using the Software Usability Measurement Inventory (SUMI), a reliable method of measuring software usability and quality. The second part of evaluation was in a form of a questionnaire set up by the authors, with the aim to evaluate whether the prototype meets its goals. The results indicated that the prototype reaches most of its goals, that it does have intended functionalities and that it is realatively easy to learn and use. Areas of improvement and future work were also identified in this work.