"Researchers Fight Cybercrime With New Digital Forensic Tools and Techniques"
Irfan Ahmed, Ph.D., associate professor of computer science, equips the good guys fighting the never-ending cybersecurity conflict with digital forensic tools and the knowledge to use them. Ahmed is the director of the Security and Forensics Engineering (SAFE) Lab in the Department of Computer Science and Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) Engineering, leading a pair of projects supported by the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) aimed at protecting critical industrial systems from the bad guys and demonstrating that the same tools developed for investigating cyberattacks can be used for other crimes. The SAFE lab focuses on protecting Industrial Control Systems (ICS) used in the operation of nuclear plants, dams, electricity delivery systems, and a vast array of other components of the US critical infrastructure. One of Ahmed's DHS-funded initiatives, titled "Digital Forensic Tools and Techniques for Investigating Control Logic Attacks in Industrial Control Systems," enables him to develop devices and methods that cyber detectives can use to investigate attacks on sensitive critical infrastructure. This article continues to discuss the work to protect nuclear plants, dams, and other critical infrastructure from cyberattacks.