Evidence Traceable Capability Alignment of Digital Forensic Frameworks for Data Breach Investigation
Abstract
Digital forensic frameworks vary in scope, procedural depth, evidence organization, and incident specificity, making framework selection difficult for data-breach investigations. This study develops an Evidence-Traceable Capability Alignment Index (ET-CAI) and applies it to five framework archetypes: IDFPM, SRDFIM, CFFTPM, D4I, and KARAFFE. Reproducible discovery used seven Scopus Advanced Search blocks. F1 returned 160 records, F2 returned 84, and the five named-verification searches returned nine. After six duplicate records were removed, 247 unique publications remained. Rule-based title-abstract mapping identified 134 records without a framework/process-model title signal, 49 without explicit proposal language, and 64 candidate publications requiring manual or primary-source verification. A purposive maximum-variation sample was then selected to represent integrated process, systematic investigation, field triage, artifact-centered reconstruction, and data-breach-specific designs. Six binary capabilities were scored using traceable evidence and exact locators where available. KARAFFE achieved 100% documented alignment, D4I 50.0%, SRDFIM and CFFTPM 33.3%, and IDFPM 16.7%. Sensitivity tests preserved the ordering. The 100% score denotes alignment with the selected documented capabilities, not perfect operational effectiveness, legal admissibility, or organizational readiness.
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