Digital forensics and the issues of identity

The issue of what we consider to be the identity of a person has become increasingly complex as we have made ever greater use of the facilities and services that have been made available by developing technologies and the Internet. In the past people normally had one identity, while in the current environment it is acceptable to maintain separate ‘identities’ for different aspects of our on-line interactions. Proving beyond a reasonable doubt that an individual that is suspected of a crime that is based on the technologies that we increasingly rely on was the actual perpetrator has always been problematic. It is relatively easy to determine the device that was used, but proving that the suspect was the person that used it has always been more difficult. This paper looks at a range of issues that have affected what we consider to be reasonable proof of identity and a number of the problems that this causes in identifying the perpetrator of a crime

Forensically ready digital identity management systems, issues of digital identity life cycle and context of usage

Collecting necessary digital and network forensics to prove the identity of an individual who is responsible for a crime, or suspected of a malicious attack, or has used a device during an incident, with minimum doubt to the court or other legitimate organisations based on the digital forensic investigation model is one of the most important legal and security issues of digital identity management systems (DIMSs). Without a good understanding and identification of the most important parameters of DIMS based on the digital forensic investigation model, it is not possible to do digital forensic investigation and provide required evidence. Therefore, the main goal of this paper is to identify and prioritise DIMS parameters by considering a user’s digital identity lifecycle, the contexts of usage challenges, and constraints that should be considered in a digital forensic readiness model

Survey on remnant data research: the artefacts recovered and the implications in a cyber security conscious world

The prevalence of remnant data in second hand storage media is well documented. Since 2004 there have been ten separate papers released through Edith Cowan University alone. Despite numerous government agencies providing advice on securing personal and corporate information, and news articles highlighting the need for data security, the availability of personal and confidential data on second hand storage devices is continuing, indicating a systemic laissez faire attitude to data security, even in our supposedly cyber security conscious world. The research continues, but there seems to be a lack of correlation of these studies to identify trends or common themes amongst the results. The fact that this type of research continues to be conducted highlights the deficiencies in the methods used to advertise warnings publicised by Government departments and industry experts. Major media organisations seem reluctant to broadcast these warnings, unless there is a bigger story behind the issue. This paper highlights the ongoing issues and provides insight to the factors contributing to this growing trend

Use of KAOS in operational digital forensic investigations

Abstract. This paper focuses on the operations involved in the digital forensic process using the requirements engineering framework KAOS. The idea is to enforce the claim that a requirements engineering approach to digital forensics produces reusable patterns for future incidents. Our patterns here will be opera-tion-focused, rather than requirement-focused, which is simpler because the op-erations can potentially be exhaustively enumerated and evaluated. Thus, for example, given the complexity of the Ceglia versus Zuckerberg Facebook case involving alleged document forgery, we can show that one of the benefits com-ing out of the modelling exercise was the set of operations needed. This will give an estimate for the future of what kind of capabilities and resources are needed for other complex document-forgery cases involving computers. It may also help to plan investigations and prioritise the use of resources more widely within the case workload of investigators.

Security and computer forensics in web engineering education

The integration of security and forensics into Web Engineering curricula is imperative! Poor security in web-based applications is continuing to cost organizations millions and the losses are still increasing annually. Security is frequently taught as a stand-alone course, assuming that security can be 'bolted on' to a web application at some point. Security issues must be integrated into Web Engineering processes right from the beginning to create secure solutions and therefore security should be an integral part of a Web Engineering curriculum. One aspect of Computer forensics investigates failures in security. Hence, students should be aware of the issues in forensics and how to respond when security failures occur; collecting evidence is particularly difficult for Web-based applications

Predictive biometrics: A review and analysis of predicting personal characteristics from biometric data

Interest in the exploitation of soft biometrics information has continued to develop over the last decade or so. In comparison with traditional biometrics, which focuses principally on person identification, the idea of soft biometrics processing is to study the utilisation of more general information regarding a system user, which is not necessarily unique. There are increasing indications that this type of data will have great value in providing complementary information for user authentication. However, the authors have also seen a growing interest in broadening the predictive capabilities of biometric data, encompassing both easily definable characteristics such as subject age and, most recently, `higher level' characteristics such as emotional or mental states. This study will present a selective review of the predictive capabilities, in the widest sense, of biometric data processing, providing an analysis of the key issues still adequately to be addressed if this concept of predictive biometrics is to be fully exploited in the future