This dissertation intended to develop a digital forensic setup & data encryption, underpinning Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) Algorithm in Rwanda. It was guided by specific objectives which are to identify common challenges faced by investigators in maintaining the digital evidence’s integrity in digital forensicsinvestigations, to review the existing solutions used in securing digital evidence, to design a novel digital forensic model that will help investigators in preserving the integrity of evidence, and to simulate the newdigital forensic and data encryption model. The total population was 300 people and the sample size was 171. Both primary and secondary data were used. Questionnaires were sent to the respondents and collected back. With thisinstrument, questions were being asked to particular respondents. The findings have proven that 31.58% of respondents strongly agreed, 59.06% of respondents agreed, 5.26% of respondents were notsure, 2.93% of respondents disagreed, and 1.17% of respondents strongly disagreed that explosion of complexity is one of the common challenges faced by investigators in maintaining the digital evidence’s integrity in digital forensics investigations. The findings indicated that 36.26% of respondents strongly agreed, while 63.74% agreed that back up of data is one of the existing methods used in securing digital evidence. Findings also revealed that 88.88% of respondents strongly agreed, while 11.12% agreed that theuse strong passwords is one of the existing methods used in securing digital evidence. Lastly, 25.14% of respondents strongly agreed, 63.74% of respondents agreed, 9.36% of respondents were not sure, while 1.75% of respondents disagreed that taking care when working remotely is one of the existing methods used in securing digital evidence. The findings related to the third objective of this study have indicated that each block will be decrypted without depending on other blocks hence making the processes safer andlastly the encryption of blocks can happen in parallel which will increase the performance of the process. The decryption part ensures that each block is decrypted independently. Evidence will be decrypted in blocks. Evidence be decrypted if the user provides a correct key which matches evidence file to be decrypted. This is being emphasized basing on clear evidence from respondent’s views during analysis of the findings. As recommendations from the study. The research results however revealed some areas that still need continuous improvement. Thus , the research has given different recommendations to different people who will intervene in the use of this new forensic setup.

Keywords : Digital Forensic; Encryption/Decryption; Advanced Encryption Standard (AES)