Recovering Residual Forensic Data from Smartphone Interactions with Cloud Storage Providers

There is a growing demand for cloud storage services such as Dropbox, Box, Syncplicity and SugarSync. These public cloud storage services can store gigabytes of corporate and personal data in remote data centres around the world, which can then be synchronized to multiple devices. This creates an environment which is potentially conducive to security incidents, data breaches and other malicious activities. The forensic investigation of public cloud environments presents a number of new challenges for the digital forensics community. However, it is anticipated that end-devices such as smartphones, will retain data from these cloud storage services. This research investigates how forensic tools that are currently available to practitioners can be used to provide a practical solution for the problems related to investigating cloud storage environments. The research contribution is threefold. First, the findings from this research support the idea that end-devices which have been used to access cloud storage services can be used to provide a partial view of the evidence stored in the cloud service. Second, the research provides a comparison of the number of files which can be recovered from different versions of cloud storage applications. In doing so, it also supports the idea that amalgamating the files recovered from more than one device can result in the recovery of a more complete dataset. Third, the chapter contributes to the documentation and evidentiary discussion of the artefacts created from specific cloud storage applications and different versions of these applications on iOS and Android smartphones

The problems and challenges of managing crowd sourced audio-visual evidence

A number of recent incidents, such as the Stanley Cup Riots, the uprisings in the Middle East and the London riots have demonstrated the value of crowd sourced audio-visual evidence wherein citizens submit audio-visual footage captured on mobile phones and other devices to aid governmental institutions, responder agencies and law enforcement authorities to confirm the authenticity of incidents and, in the case of criminal activity, to identify perpetrators. The use of such evidence can present a significant logistical challenge to investigators, particularly because of the potential size of data gathered through such mechanisms and the added problems of time-lining disparate sources of evidence and, subsequently, investigating the incident(s). In this paper we explore this problem and, in particular, outline the pressure points for an investigator. We identify and explore a number of particular problems related to the secure receipt of the evidence, imaging, tagging and then time-lining the evidence, and the problem of identifying duplicate and near duplicate items of audio-visual evidence

BitTorrent Sync: First Impressions and Digital Forensic Implications

With professional and home Internet users becoming increasingly concerned with data protection and privacy, the privacy afforded by popular cloud file synchronisation services, such as Dropbox, OneDrive and Google Drive, is coming under scrutiny in the press. A number of these services have recently been reported as sharing information with governmental security agencies without warrants. BitTorrent Sync is seen as an alternative by many and has gathered over two million users by December 2013 (doubling since the previous month). The service is completely decentralised, offers much of the same synchronisation functionality of cloud powered services and utilises encryption for data transmission (and optionally for remote storage). The importance of understanding BitTorrent Sync and its resulting digital investigative implications for law enforcement and forensic investigators will be paramount to future investigations. This paper outlines the client application, its detected network traffic and identifies artefacts that may be of value as evidence for future digital investigations.Comment: Proc. of Digtial Forensics Research Workshop (DFRWS EU 2014

Medical Cyber-Physical Systems Development: A Forensics-Driven Approach

The synthesis of technology and the medical industry has partly contributed to the increasing interest in Medical Cyber-Physical Systems (MCPS). While these systems provide benefits to patients and professionals, they also introduce new attack vectors for malicious actors (e.g. financially-and/or criminally-motivated actors). A successful breach involving a MCPS can impact patient data and system availability. The complexity and operating requirements of a MCPS complicates digital investigations. Coupling this information with the potentially vast amounts of information that a MCPS produces and/or has access to is generating discussions on, not only, how to compromise these systems but, more importantly, how to investigate these systems. The paper proposes the integration of forensics principles and concepts into the design and development of a MCPS to strengthen an organization's investigative posture. The framework sets the foundation for future research in the refinement of specific solutions for MCPS investigations.Comment: This is the pre-print version of a paper presented at the 2nd International Workshop on Security, Privacy, and Trustworthiness in Medical Cyber-Physical Systems (MedSPT 2017

BitTorrent Sync: Network Investigation Methodology

The volume of personal information and data most Internet users find themselves amassing is ever increasing and the fast pace of the modern world results in most requiring instant access to their files. Millions of these users turn to cloud based file synchronisation services, such as Dropbox, Microsoft Skydrive, Apple iCloud and Google Drive, to enable "always-on" access to their most up-to-date data from any computer or mobile device with an Internet connection. The prevalence of recent articles covering various invasion of privacy issues and data protection breaches in the media has caused many to review their online security practices with their personal information. To provide an alternative to cloud based file backup and synchronisation, BitTorrent Inc. released an alternative cloudless file backup and synchronisation service, named BitTorrent Sync to alpha testers in April 2013. BitTorrent Sync's popularity rose dramatically throughout 2013, reaching over two million active users by the end of the year. This paper outlines a number of scenarios where the network investigation of the service may prove invaluable as part of a digital forensic investigation. An investigation methodology is proposed outlining the required steps involved in retrieving digital evidence from the network and the results from a proof of concept investigation are presented.Comment: 9th International Conference on Availability, Reliability and Security (ARES 2014

Forensic investigation of P2P cloud storage services and backbone for IoT networks : BitTorrent Sync as a case study

Cloud computing has been regarded as the technology enabler for the Internet of Things (IoT). To ensure the most effective collection of IoT-based evidence, it is vital for forensic practitioners to possess a contemporary understanding of the artefacts from different cloud services. In this paper, we seek to determine the data remnants from the use of BitTorrent Sync version 2.0. Findings from our research using mobile and computer devices running Windows 8.1, Mac OS X Mavericks 10.9.5, Ubuntu 14.04.1 LTS, iOS 7.1.2, and Android KitKat 4.4.4 suggested that artefacts relating to the installation, uninstallation, log-in, log-off, and file synchronisation could be recovered, which are potential sources of IoT forensics. We also present a forensically sound investigation methodology for BitTorrent Sync