Research Article
European Directive 2013/40 and Digital Forensics
Ljubiša Zdravković*
,
Milica Zdravković Jovanović
Issue:
Volume 13, Issue 1, June 2026
Pages:
1-8
Received:
1 September 2025
Accepted:
15 September 2025
Published:
16 January 2026
DOI:
10.11648/j.net.20261301.11
Downloads:
Views:
Abstract: European Directive 2013/40 is the first comprehensive document created by the EU in the field of cyber security. It represents the EU's comprehensive vision of how to best prevent and respond to cyber interference and attacks, and on the other hand, enable the development of information technologies. It promotes respect for basic EU values, defines illegal behavior, advocates the application of existing international regulations in the field of high-tech crime, assists other countries outside the EU in building capacity to fight high-tech crime, and promotes cooperation in this area. The speed of technological development has influenced the development of digital forensics as a young scientific discipline, which, together with the parallel development of other sciences, applies new methods that affect the speed and simplicity of collecting solid evidence, investigates anti-forensic activities, with the aim of discovering the truth about committed illegal act. In response to high-tech crime, there was a need for the development of a new scientific discipline that will deal with it, as well as the regulation of legal bases related to the successful prosecution of criminal offenses in this area. Digital forensics is the application of investigation methods and analysis techniques in order to find suitable evidence for the court, in high-tech crimes. In order to prove the committed illegal acts and prosecute and sanction their perpetrators, it is necessary to apply the procedures of digital forensics as a scientific discipline with extremely significant practical application. Precisely digital forensics as a relatively new scientific discipline (established in 1999 by IECO - International Organization on Digital Evidence) provides the only reliable tool for the investigation of high-tech crime, the acquisition and analysis of digital data and the preparation and presentation of digital evidence before the court. It should be emphasized that for a digital forensic scientist, the monitoring and development of information technologies is of crucial importance. Sometimes differences in the operating system or version of a program are essential. That is why it is important to have digital forensic experts profiled according to their professional field (operating systems, databases, network systems, as well as profiling according to other ICT systems).
Abstract: European Directive 2013/40 is the first comprehensive document created by the EU in the field of cyber security. It represents the EU's comprehensive vision of how to best prevent and respond to cyber interference and attacks, and on the other hand, enable the development of information technologies. It promotes respect for basic EU values, defines...
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