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Dr Ian Kennedy

SFHEA FBCS MCSFS CEng CITP PGCE

Profile summary

  • Central Academic Staff
  • Senior Lecturer in Cyber security
  • Faculty of Science, Technology, Engineering & Mathematics
  • School of Computing & Communications
  • ian.m.kennedy

Web links

Professional biography

Ian Kennedy graduated with a control systems engineering degree and has over twenty years practice in industry, initially in software development and commissioning then subsequently as a digital forensic investigator/expert witness; working in a rich variety of sectors such as health, criminal justice, corporate consultancy and the civil service.  He has completed over 300 investigations, including a number of high profile cases. This has enabled him to amass experience and knowledge of trends in criminal activity and the failings of cyber security practice in the real world over an extended period of time. 

Since 2014, he has been a full-time academic, after taking up a part-time position alongside his practice in 2008.

Prior to his role at open University, he was the Program Leader for the Computer Forensics and Security undergraduate programme at Canterbury Christ Church University

Research interests

  • Reliability of digital evidence
  • Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) and ICS/SCADA forensics/security
  • Machine learning assisted investigations and the malicious use of artificial Intelligence
  • Cloud forensics

Teaching interests

He has experience and interest in teaching across a wide variety of areas including:

  • Digital forensics
  • Cyber security
  • Malware analysis
  • Computer security
  • Computer programming
  • Ethical hacking
  • Academic study and research skills

External collaborations

External Examiner

  • Teeside University, MSc Digital Forensics and Cyber Investigation (2020-present)
  • Birmingham City University, BSc (Hons) Cyber Security (2019-present)

Academic editorial work

  • Member of the Editorial Board for Science and Justice journal (Digital Forensics) (2020-present)
  • Member of the board of referees for Science and Justice journal (2019-present)
  • Member of the board of referees for FSI: Digital Investigation journal (2019-present)

Membership or offices held in learned societies and professional bodies  

  • BCS Assessor for prospective CEng and CITP candidates (2019-present)
  • Invited to author updates of the digital forensics accreditation standards for The Chartered Society of Forensic Sciences (2016)

University of Warwick

Teaching and assessing on their overseas programme MSc Cyber Security and Management at venues in Malaysia (2018, 2019) and Singapore (2019, 2020).

European Cybercrime Training and Education Group (ECTEG)

Special Advisor to Project Agile in Cyprus to update course material for the Network and Internet Investigations and Internet Investigations courses (2019). 

Publications

The case for Zero Trust Digital Forensics (2022-03)
Neale, Chris; Kennedy, Ian; Price, Blaine; Yu, Yijun and Nuseibeh, Bashar
Forensic Science International: Digital Investigation, 40, Article 301352

Towards Increasing Trust In Expert Evidence Derived From Malware Forensic Tools (2020)
Kennedy, Ian; Bandara, Arosha and Price, Blaine
Journal of Digital Forensics Security and Law, 15, Article 3(2)

Chapter 7 - Procedures at Digital Crime Scenes (2016-11-11)
Kennedy, Ian and Day, Ed
In: Bryant, Robin and Bryant, Sarah eds. Policing Digital Crime (pp. 147-160)
ISBN : 978-1-138-25744-3 | Publisher : Ashgate | Published : Farnham, Surrey, UK

Chapter 10 Opportunities and challenges for the future (2016-11-11)
Bryant, Robin; Day, Ed and Kennedy, Ian
In: Bryant, Robin and Bryant, Sarah eds. Policing Digital Crime (pp. 201-217)
ISBN : 978-1-138-25744-3 | Publisher : Ashgate | Published : Farnham, Surrey, UK

Chapter 6 Investigating digital crime (2016)
Bryant, Robin and Kennedy, Ian
In: Bryant, Robin and Bryant, Sarah eds. Policing Digital Crime (pp. 123-145)
ISBN : 978-1-138-25744-3 | Publisher : Ashgate | Published : Farnham, Surrey, UK

Chapter 8 Digital Forensic Analysis (2016)
Kennedy, Ian and Day, Ed
In: Bryant, Robin and Bryant, Sarah eds. Policing Digital Crime (pp. 161-185)
ISBN : 978-1-138-25744-3 | Publisher : Ashgate | Published : Farnham, Surrey, UK

Chapter 3 - Investigating digital crime (2008-06)
Kennedy, Ian
In: Bryant, Robin P. ed. Investigating digital crime (pp. 49-78)
ISBN : 978-0-470-51600-3 | Publisher : John Wiley and Sons | Published : Chichester, West Sussex, UK

Accelerating Cyber-Breach Investigations through Novel use of Artificial Immune System Algorithms (2022)
Donnachie, Benjamin; Verrall, Jason; Hopgood, Adrian; Wong, Patrick and Kennedy, Ian
In : Artificial Intelligence XXXIX: 42nd SGAI International Conference on Artificial Intelligence. Lecture Notes in Computer Science (13-15 Dec 2022, Cambridge, UK) (pp. 297-302)

Towards Scientific Malware Analysis (2010-09)
Kennedy, Ian
In : Proc. 4th International Conference on Cybercrime Forensics Education & Training CFET 2010 (2-3 Sep 2010, Canterbury, Kent)

A Framework for the Systematic Evaluation of Malware Forensic Tools (2017-08-12)
Kennedy, Ian Martin
PhD thesis The Open University

Presenting digital evidence in court (2023)
Kennedy, Ian
BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT

Evaluating Malware Forensics Tools (2022-09-26)
Kennedy, Ian; Bandara, Arosha and Price, Blaine
arxiv

The Trojan Defence (2011-05-18)
Kennedy, Ian
The Open University

Playing With Fire: Dissecting Malicious Software (2010-05-01)
Kennedy, Ian
Digital Forensics Magazine

A silent digital witness (2007-09-21)
Kennedy, Ian
Solicitors Journal

Computer CSI (2007-04)
Kennedy, Ian
Personal Computer World

Presenting digital evidence to court (2006-10-04)
Kennedy, Ian
The Chartered Institute for IT

It was the big wooden horse, your Honour (2006-08-04)
Kennedy, Ian
The Chartered Institue for IT

The electronic autopsy - digital forensics Part 1 (2006-04-08)
Kennedy, Ian
The Chartered Institute for IT

Looking for foul play - digital forensics Part 2 (2006-04-08)
Kennedy, Ian
The Chartered Institute for IT