Is Artificial Intelligence-Based Automation for Cybercrime Investigation the Need of the Hour? An Exploratory Study

Investigation of cybercrimes is an ever evolving and complex process. With the emergence of new technologies around smart wearables, home automation, cloud computing and services like cryptocurrencies in play, it is becoming increasingly difficult for the incident response teams to keep up with the pace by which modern technologies are being used by the criminals. This article presents an exploratory study on the current challenges being faced by academic researchers, industry professionals and law enforcement officers. The article discusses the responses collected from cybercrime investigation experts, researchers working in incident response teams, law enforcement agencies, and academia. All the responses were collected through an online Google form. Data collected in the questionnaire was completely voluntary and consensual. Survey results emphasise and suggest the need of artificial intelligence/machine learning to improve existing processes and build automation against emerging cybercrimes.