Academic Patners
Air University
National Cyber Crime Forensics Lab
The main objective of the proposed lab is to work in close collaboration with the national bodies of Pakistan, such as NR3C (FIA), Pakistan Air Force (PAF), Army, Navy, and Police to counter their existing problems and facilitate them in areas where they lack research expertise. In particular, the lab will work in three main areas, namely social media forensics, computer forensics, and mobile phone forensics
Social Media Forensics
In recent years, social media has gained high popularity. Today, Facebook alone have over 2.13 billion monthly active users. Forensic analysis of social data is performed post-incident. Naturally, investigators will gravitate to where the evidence exists. Although the photo and video evidence is sometimes posted by the criminals themselves, investigators can also utilize information posted by others to both strengthen a case and even identify the perpetrator of a crime. Lab focus in this area would be to perform R&D of social media forensic techniques and tools
Computer Forensics
Computer forensics is the practice of collecting, analyzing and reporting on digital data. It can be used in the detection and prevention of crime and in any dispute where evidence is stored digitally. It is not just the content of emails, documents and other files which may be of interest to investigators but also the ‘metadata’ associated with those files. A computer forensic examination may reveal when a document first appeared on a computer, when it was last edited, when it was last saved or printed and which user carried out these actions. Lab focus in this area would be to perform R&D of computer forensic techniques and tools.
Mobile Forensics
Mobile forensics is about the acquisition and the analysis of mobile devices to recover digital evidences of investigative interest. This is useful for investigators as a method of gathering criminal evidence from a trail of digital data, which is often difficult to delete. Extraction of deleted mobile phone files used as criminal evidence is the primary work of mobile phone forensics. The continuous evolution of mobile phone technology allows the commercialization of new mobile phones, which creates new digital investigation problems. Lab focus in this area would be to perform R&D of mobile forensic techniques and tools.
Our People
Our core members and researchers are academics, developers, administrators and MS/PhD students. Our industrial partners are public and private cyber security organizations that advise us on the design, implementation and commercialization of the R&D work originating from our Lab.
Dr. Zunera Jalil
Principal Investigator NCF Lab
Dr. Kashif Kifayat
Principal Investigator NCF Lab
Dr. Mehdi Hassan
Co-Principal Investigator
Social Media Forensics