Computers and the internet have become an integral part of our lives. People have grown accustomed to feeling constantly connected to the outside world, and in the past couple of decades online social networks and three-dimensional online virtual worlds have gained great popularity. In addition to social connections, virtual worlds (such as Second Life, a popular virtual world) offer their users opportunities for both work and play, and let them take part in things that might have been impossible in real life. However, the human factor plays a big role in the formation of the virtual community. The feeling of false anonymity online might lead to a feeling of freedom from any laws that govern the real world, and possibly facilitate offensive behaviour. The problem addressed by this study is the need to determine whether digital forensic techniques can be applied to an incident inside the Second Life environment (i.e. offensive behaviour between avatars, while logged in to Second Life), as well as to find possible sources of evidence accessible via the standard Second Life viewer. The former also requires a classification of various offenses committed in Second Life, in order to determine which actions are to be regarded as offences, and whether these actions occur inside or outside of the Second Life environment. In this dissertation the author’s own classification of various real-life offences is provided, together with a mapping of these offences to their alternatives in Second Life. Second Life is analysed and explored from a forensic perspective. A new digital forensic process model, derived from various existing models in the literature, has been developed by the author for this study. The model is designed to accommodate for the specifics of a virtual world environment. An exploratory experiment has been undertaken by the author in order to investigate how inexperienced users perceived Second Life, as well as how they reacted to attacks from other users, to identify the possible sources of evidence, and suggest possible digital forensic techniques based on the gathered data. / Dissertation (MSc)--University of Pretoria, 2015. / Computer Science / MSc / Unrestricted

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The main focus of this dissertation thesis is the use of virtual worlds in marketing with a special focus on the virtual world known as Second Life. The Second Life environment research was conducted in several steps. The first step was personal online observation of Second Life where the Czech Republic has its representation in a company called Bohemia. The purpose of this online research was to find out respondents{\crq} subconscious, their experiences, and how they perceive the economic subjects which are presented in this virtual world.The research of the virtual world Second Life continued by creating five case studies of selected economic subjects, which are present in Second Life. For this reason the following were picked, Raiffeisenbank, CzechTourism agency, Pivovary Staropramen a.s. virtual pub. The other two case studies were focused on education and therefore Philosophical Faculty of University Palackého Olomouc and an entrant from private sector WebSchool s.r.o. company were chosen. The data obtained from this research helped to apply a Cost benefit analysis in the virtual pub Staropramen case study. This analysis is one of the possible methods of economic assessment of the investment related existence in Second Life.On the basis of information gained from personal online research and completed analysis I projected a process of entrance into the virtual world Second Life with the use of select marketing tools. These tools are folded so that any subject that considers the use Second Life as one of the innovative ways of marketing communication is able to fulfill its goals and will not end up as a passive background of this virtual world. For this reason, I consider the main goal of this dissertation to be achieved.