Many of us have received a message from a “Nigerian prince” or a supposed “friend” in Nigeria. The first one involves an inheritance that the scammer needs to give out right away; in the second, said friend is asking for help with funds because they are stuck in Nigeria with no money. Because Nigeria ranks first in the world when it comes to cybercrime, and third in Africa, the country is concerned with cybersecurity--defined by the author as the “preservation and protection of confidentiality, integrity and availability of information”--especially in light of the growing number of mobile devices in use. The goal is to effectively detect malicious traffic so as to have zero cybercrime in Nigeria--a rather lofty and ambitious goal!

The author claims that the book is for forensic scientists, cryptographers, and law enforcement agents as they undertake passive forensic investigations (after a crime has been committed) or active forensic investigations (while a crime is in progress). Stenographers are named as readers who would benefit from this book; however, how they would benefit is unclear.

The book covers various types of cybercrime, including phishing for identity theft, hacking, cyberterrorism, cyberstalking, ransomware, and software piracy. It delves into various reasons for the increase in cybercrime in Nigeria, for example, rising unemployment, urbanization, the lack of cybercrime laws (or the failure to enforce such laws should they exist), and the lack of forensic security experts. The author includes figures, equations, tables, graphs, and maps, including a table of forensic tools and how they help mobile device forensic experts. The book contains acknowledgements and a long list of references for each of the five chapters.

The book’s bottom line is A-BOT, a proposed digital surveillance software that links the client (the criminal or the attacker device) with the service investigator in order to obtain a payload of information, for example, location, call logs, and contacts, which can be used as evidence in adjudicating crimes. However, the book lacks evidence that it works; more research is needed to determine if A-BOT actually reduces cybercrime in Nigeria.

In the meantime, the work could use some editing. Typographical errors include failing to capitalize Nigeria, using the wrong word (“government to carter for its”), and mixing up the plural and the possessive, to name just a few.