Makoma is the Digital Forensics and incidence response practice lead for the Forensic Technology team based in Johannesburg, South Africa. She is part of the EMEA Data and Discovery Insights practice where she specialises in Digital Forensics, eDiscovery, Forensic Investigation Support and Cyber Incident response investigations.
Makoma has worked on investigations into diverse matters pertaining to fraud, corruption, cybercrime, theft and money-laundering. Makoma’s core areas of expertise include mobile device forensics, computer forensics, e-discovery, cloud forensics, forensic investigation support and cybercrime investigations.
Makoma’s notable projects include:
Forensic collection, preservation and processing of various electronic evidence onto an eDiscovery platform to support a fraud investigation for a client in South Africa. This included proper cataloguing of forensic evidence and ensuring that evidence follows proper chain of custody in terms of regulatory requirements.
Performed remote forensic acquisition of digital devices such as mobile and computer devices for clients across the African continent such as Zambia, Uganda and Nigeria during the global pandemic period. During the processes, considerations were made to on the pandemic restrictions that ensued and Makoma has continued to perform similar acquisitions post the pandemic period.
Mobile forensic investigation support for an alleged fraud matter, which included collection of electronically stored data from various types of mobile devices. Additionally, Makoma performed recovery of instant chat messages and performed an in depth analysis of artifacts from the mobile device file system such as log analysis and application data to support the investigation.
Assisted with an IP theft investigation for a global client who had multiple individuals leaving the firm to join the competitor. The forensic analysis of various digital devices was conducted to identify if the exiting employees had taken sensitive confidential information, such as intellectual property or trade secrets that belong to the employer.
Cyber incident response investigation into a Business Email Compromise incident for a client in the Financial sector who were victims of a spear phishing attack. During this investigation, Makoma collected logs and relevant forensic artifacts from the client’s email cloud platform to analyse and identify the source of a data breach.
Computer forensic analysis which included browser/ internet history, program execution, external removable media, deletion analysis and data recovery of files (where applicable).
Prior to joining Control Risks, Makoma worked at two of the ‘Big 4’ audit firms in South Africa as a Digital forensic analyst. Makoma holds a BSc Computer Science and Applied Mathematics degree and has over 8 years industry experience. She is a member of the ICFP (Institute of Commercial Forensic Practitioners) and has attained the (FP) SA professional designation. She has further attained the GCFE (GIAC Certified Forensic Examiner) global accreditation.
