The digital forensics industry in SA was a bit of a late starter, only really kicking off in the late nineties, but the country has seen a significant surge in this field over the last 18 months - both in the private and law enforcement environments.
This is according to Danny Myburgh, CEO of computer and digital forensics services supplier Cyanre. He says it is encouraging to see local legislation is in place and is being improved. "Cyber threats are identified by government and the SA Police Service as a priority and we are seeing guilty verdicts for cyber crime in our courts."
Myburgh describes digital forensics as: "The forensic science of accurately identifying, collecting analysing, interpreting and presenting digital artefacts or evidence, with the aim of determining 'who did what, and how?' - and presenting these findings in judicial proceedings to prosecute the perpetrator."
And it is a challenging game, he says, because it is one thing finding the evidence - but to collect and preserve it in such a way that it is acceptable in court, is another.
"A further challenge is that it might take days - even weeks - to trace the steps of a hacker on a network, which took only a few minutes or hours to hack."
Here are five companies that specialise in overcoming the challenge of making charges stick in court, on the back of digital forensics investigation:
1. Cyanre
2. Deloitte
3. EY (Ernst & Young)
4. KPMG
5. PwC
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