About Us

The DigiForS research group undertakes research in Digital Forensic Science. DigiForS’s main objective is to find innovative security solutions for state-of-the-art technologies. This includes finding solutions that will help to make emerging technologies safe for use, using security technologies to enable new applications, find solutions that will better protect existing technology, as well as extracting forensically relevant information. Emerging problem areas receiving attention include: digital forensics, distributed trust and security issues in pervasive computing. More established problem areas in which work is ongoing include: privacy, vulnerability scanning, intrusion detection, database and workflow security, as well as a host of related areas. As well as collaborating very closely with industry, the DigiForS research team also collaborates with researchers in various countries such as UK, Germany, Switzerland, USA, Kenya, Swaziland, Namibia and Malaysia.

Research Focus

Our research activities include these focus areas:

  • Digital forensic Science
    The science of digital investigation. This include the science of the reliability of digital evidence acquisition and preservation, potential digital evidence identification, methodologies for effective analysis and presentation of digital evidence. The core of this research area is the attainment of reliable digital artefacts/evidence acquisition, preservation, analysis and presentation processes which can stand legal scrutiny and admissibility. This thus implies the development of policy, framework, model, metamodel, processes and procedure.
  • Digital policing and Forensics
    Digital policing and Forensics for developing nations
  • IoT device attribution
    The identification of IoT device in a smart city, using radio frequency identifiers
  • Digital Forensic Readiness in Online Examinations
    Application of various digital forensic readiness techniques to counter online examination fraud.

Staff

PROF Hein Venter

Prof. Hein S. Venter graduated at the Rand Afrikaans University (RAU) in 1996, majoring in Computer Science and Informatics. He successfully obtained a B.Sc (Hons.) degree in Computer Science in 1997. In 1999 he received the M.Sc degree (Cum Laude) in Computer Science. Since February 2000 he has been a junior lecturer in the Department of Computer Science at the RAU and was promoted to full lecturer in February 2002. Since February 2003 he has been a senior lecturer in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Pretoria. His research interests are in computer and Internet security, which include network security, Intrusion detection, information privacy, and digital forensics. Prof. Venter has published in a number of accredited international subject journals. A number of acclaimed international and national, Computer and Information Security conferences, were attended where he presented his research papers. He is also a member of the organising committee of the Information Security for South Africa (ISSA) national conference and the South African Institute of Computer Scientists and Information Technologists (SAICSIT) national conference. Prof. Venter is also involved in consultation work from time to time, involving setting up and creating information and computer security courses for industry, as well as security consultation work.

Currently Supervising:
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PROF Martin Olivier

Martin Olivier is a professor at the Department of Computer Science in the School of Information Technology at the University of Pretoria. In addition to normal teaching and research duties, he is the research coordinator of the School of Information Technology. His current research interests include privacy and digital forensics as well as database, application and system security. Research Activities are carried out in the Information and Computer Security Architecture Research Group at the University of Pretoria. He is author or co-author of more than 80 academic publications. More than a dozen students have completed their Masters or Doctoral studies under his guidance. He is a member of the editorial board of Data & Knowledge Engineering. He is also a member of IFIP working group 11.3 on database and application security, IFIP working group 11.9 on digital forensics, the ACM, the Computer Society of South Africa and the Suid-Afrikaanse Akademie vir Wetenskap en Kuns (South African Academy for Science and Art). Prof Olivier holds a BSc degree in Mathematical Sciences, BSc (Honours), MSc and PhD degrees in Computer Science, a BA degree in Humanities and a BA (Honours) degree in Philosophy.

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DR Richard Adeyemi Ikuesan

An active researcher currently pioneering a digital policing and forensic project for developing nations, using Nigeria and South Africa as a hub for West Africa and Southern Africa respectively. He received his Bachelor degree (B.Eng.) in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the Federal University of Technology Minna, Nigeria. Furthering his studies in Information Assurance and Security, He received his M.Sc. and Ph.D. in Computer Science with distinctions from the Universiti Teknologi Malaysia. As a scholar, he has published in several DHET accredited journals and international conferences. He was a recipient of the prestigious Australia Awards-Africa postdoctoral fellowship, and a member of several professional association. Furthermore, he is a certified forensic investigator. Dr. Richard as a mentor and a teacher, you will prefer his guidance and perseverance in bringing out the best in his mentees.

Currently Supervising:
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MRS Stacey Baror Henry

Ms. Stacey Baror graduated B.Sc (Hons.) at the University of Pretoria in 2013, majoring in Computer Science. She received an M.Sc degree (Cum Laude) in Computer Science in 2017. Since February 2014 she has been an Assistant lecturer in the Department of Computer Science, University of Pretoria. In 2018 she was a part-time lecturer, to resume full lecturing position in January 2019 at the Department of Computer Science, University of Pretoria. Her research interests are in information security, Cloud computing, Digital forensics, Natural language processing, Software architecture and Software engineering. Ms Baror has published in a number of accredited international subject journals, as well as a number of acclaimed international and national. Ms Baror is also involved in information security consulting, life coaching and Computer science research training. Developing and implementing organizational information security policy and standards are some of the interesting consulting work she is involved.

Currently Supervising:
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Industry

Digital Forensic Lab

We are looking for collaboration within the industry and aim to establish a Digital Forensics Lab in the near future.