Criminal Profiling in Digital Forensics: Assumptions, Challenges and Probable Solution

Cybercrime has been regarded understandably as a consequent compromise that follows the advent and perceived success of the computer and internet technologies. Equally effecting the privacy, trust, finance and welfare of the wealthy and low-income individuals and organizations, this menace has shown no indication of slowing down. Reports across the world have consistently shown exponential increase in the numbers and costs of cyber-incidents, and more worriedly low conviction rates of cybercriminals, over the years. Stakeholders increasingly explore ways to keep up with containing cyber-incidents by devising tools and techniques to increase the overall efficiency of investigations, but the gap keeps getting wider. However, criminal profiling – an investigative technique that has been proven to provide accurate and valuable directions to traditional crime investigations – has not seen a widespread application, including a formal methodology, to cybercrime investigations due to difficulties in its seamless transference. This paper, in a bid to address this problem, seeks to preliminarily identify the exact benefits criminal profiling has brought to successful traditional crime investigations and the benefits it can translate to cybercrime investigations, identify the challenges posed by the cyber-scene to its implementation in cybercrime investigations, and proffer a practicable solution.