Digital forensics has leapt to the top of Charles Sturt University's (CSU's) most popular short courses as cybercrime becomes increasingly relevant to everyday lives.

Over 6 000 students from 35 countries registered for the digital forensics short course that ran for four weeks in October.

Associate Head of CSU's School of Computing and Mathematics, Associate Professor Tanveer Zia presented the course and believes its unprecedented popularity was due to recent high profile hackings and security breaches.

"As technology continues to infiltrate our lives, so too do security risks and information technology professionals must now learn the techniques to investigate security incidents and crimes involving digital data," Professor Zia said.

"Digital technologies have provided ease and anonymity which people with ill intentions can use to their advantage when committing fraud or crimes. We have become too accustomed to using and accessing private data with hand held devices and if this data gets into the wrong hands it can cause a lot of financial and personal damage.

"Digital forensics provides the necessary skills and knowledge for investigators and law enforcement agencies to examine crimes where digital data was used, establish a chain of custody, collect, validate and analyse data obtained, and present evidence in court to incriminate the people involved."

The course covered a range of topics and saw a global audience join in discussions and debates.

"We covered a number of technological, scientific and legal topics in the course including how to obtain information from a mobile phone or hand held device," Professor Zia said.

"Mobile phone and hand held device forensics is a rapidly changing field that poses challenges in trying to retrieve information. Unlike what you might see in television shows, you don't just start scrolling through contact lists or most recent calls. As with all digital investigations, you need to follow forensics procedures.

"Cybercrime has blurred the geographic boundaries of the information technology industry so it was great to see a global audience come together for this course. Digital forensics touches the jurisdictions and legal issues which are important for digital forensics and IT security professionals around the world."

The digital forensics short course was run in partnership with IT Masters. For information visit the IT Masters website.

For more information about information technology courses at CSU please visit the CSU website.