IWCC

The societies of today’s world are becoming increasingly dependent on online services, where commercial activities, business transactions, government services and biomedical diagnostics are realized. This tendency has been evident during the recent COVID-19 pandemic. These developments, along with the growing number of military conflicts worldwide (Ukraine, Israel, etc.), have led to the fast development of new cyber threats and numerous information security issues that are exploited by cybercriminals. The inability to provide trusted, secure services in contemporary computer network technologies has a tremendous socio-economic impact on global enterprises as well as individuals.

Moreover, the frequently occurring international frauds impose the necessity to conduct investigations spanning multiple domains and countries. Such examination is often subject to different jurisdictions and legal systems. A good illustration of the above is the Internet, which has made it easier to prepare and perpetrate traditional – but now cyber-enabled – crimes. It has acted as an alternate avenue for criminals to conduct their activities and launch attacks with relative anonymity, a high degree of deniability, and the opportunity to operate in a border-agnostic environment. Worrying developments in the abuse of artificial intelligence and machine learning technologies lead to the increased capabilities of malign actors who leverage these tools to design and propagate disinformation, which is especially dangerous (and effective) during emergencies and crises of all kinds. The developments in Generative Artificial Intelligence have also enabled the increase of criminal capabilities in the production, dissemination, and weaponization of high-quality, convincing fake contact (text, audio, images, and videos), which translates not only to the truth and trust decay among the affected societies but also to the enhanced capabilities in orchestrating the sophisticated cyber crimes.

Furthermore, nowadays, the majority of life-science-based techniques and resulting data hinge on information technologies. Despite their considerable advantages, dependence on cyber technologies also exposes vulnerabilities. Various threats in the digital realm could target biomedical systems, leading to adverse consequences. The field of CyberBioSecurity was established to assist bio-related sciences in comprehending potential cyber threats and formulating defense approaches, recovery protocols, and resilience strategies. The increased complexity of communications and the networking infrastructure is making the investigation of these new types of crimes difficult. Traces of illegal digital activities are difficult to analyze due to large volumes of data. Nowadays, the digital crime scene functions like any other network, with dedicated administrators functioning as the first responders.

This poses new challenges for law enforcement and intelligence communities and forces computer societies to utilize digital forensics to combat the increasing number of cybercrimes. Forensic professionals must be fully prepared to be able to provide court-admissible evidence. To make these goals achievable, forensic techniques should keep pace with new technologies. Prevention, mitigation, and interdiction of new and emerging threats necessitates an increasingly thorough and multidisciplinary approaches, but also requires the collaboration of all relevant actors and stakeholders in designing the technology regulation and cyber governance measures.

The aim of this workshop is to bring together the research outcomes provided by researchers from academia and the industry. The other goal is to show the latest research results in digital forensics and cyberbiosecurity amongst others. We strongly encourage prospective authors to submit articles presenting both theoretical approaches and practical case reviews, including work-in-progress reports.