The 2012 Analysis of Information Remaining on Computer Hard Disks Offered for Sale on the Second Hand Market in the UAE

The growth in the use of computers in all aspects of our lives has continued to increase to the point where desktop, laptop, netbook or tablet computers are now almost essential in the way that we communicate and work. As a result of this, and the fact that these devices have a limited lifespan, enormous numbers of computers are being disposed of at the end of their useful life by individuals or/and organisations. As the cost of computing has reduced, the level of ‘consumerisation’ has increased together with the requirement for mobility. This has led to an increasing use of these devices both in the work environment and for personal data, which has resulted in computers containing high levels of both personal and corporate data. Computers have a relatively short life and are replaced on a regular basis. If not properly cleansed of data when they are released into the public domain they may contain data that is sensitive to the organisation or the individual and which may be relatively up to date. This problem is further exacerbated by the increasing popularity and use of smart phones, which may also contain significant storage capacity. This research describes the first survey of data remaining on computer hard disks sold on the second hand market in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Similar studies have been carried over the last six years in the United Kingdom, Australia, USA, Germany and France. This research was undertaken to gain insight into the volumes of data found on disks purchased in the UAE compared to other regions of the world and to gain an understanding of the relative level of the problem of residual data in the UAE. The study was carried out by Khalifa University of Science, Technology and Research and was sponsored by Verizon Ltd, a security management and consultancy company.The core methodology of the research that was adopted for the study was the same as has been used for the other studies referred to above. The methodology included the acquisition of a number of second hand computer disks from a range of sources and then analysing them to determine whether any data could be recovered from the disk and if so, whether the data that it contained could be used to determine the previous owner or user. If information was found on the disks and the previous user or owner could be identified, the research examined whether it was of a sensitive nature or in a sufficient volume to represent a risk

The 2012 Analysis of Information Remaining on Computer Hard Disks Offered for Sale on the Second Hand Market in the UAE

The growth in the use of computers in all aspects of our lives has continued to increase to the point where desktop, laptop, netbook or tablet computers are now almost essential in the way that we communicate and work. As a result of this, and the fact that these devices have a limited lifespan, enormous numbers of computers are being disposed of at the end of their useful life by individuals or/and organisations. As the cost of computing has reduced, the level of ‘consumerisation’ has increased together with the requirement for mobility. This has led to an increasing use of these devices both in the work environment and for personal data, which has resulted in computers containing high levels of both personal and corporate data. Computers have a relatively short life and are replaced on a regular basis. If not properly cleansed of data when they are released into the public domain they may contain data that is sensitive to the organisation or the individual and which may be relatively up to date. This problem is further exacerbated by the increasing popularity and use of smart phones, which may also contain significant storage capacity. This research describes the first survey of data remaining on computer hard disks sold on the second hand market in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Similar studies have been carried over the last six years in the United Kingdom, Australia, USA, Germany and France. This research was undertaken to gain insight into the volumes of data found on disks purchased in the UAE compared to other regions of the world and to gain an understanding of the relative level of the problem of residual data in the UAE. The study was carried out by Khalifa University of Science, Technology and Research and was sponsored by Verizon Ltd, a security management and consultancy company.The core methodology of the research that was adopted for the study was the same as has been used for the other studies referred to above. The methodology included the acquisition of a number of second hand computer disks from a range of sources and then analysing them to determine whether any data could be recovered from the disk and if so, whether the data that it contained could be used to determine the previous owner or user. If information was found on the disks and the previous user or owner could be identified, the research examined whether it was of a sensitive nature or in a sufficient volume to represent a risk

An Ontology-Based Forensic Analysis Tool

The analysis of forensic investigation results has generally been identified as the most complex phase of a digital forensic investigation. This phase becomes more complicated and time consuming as the storage capacity of digital devices is increasing, while at the same time the prices of those devices are decreasing. Although there are some tools and techniques that assist the investigator in the analysis of digital evidence, they do not adequately address some of the serious challenges, particularly with the time and effort required to conduct such tasks. In this paper, we consider the use of semantic web technologies and in particular the ontologies, to assist the investigator in analyzing digital evidence. A novel ontology-based framework is proposed for forensic analysis tools, which we believe has the potential to influence the development of such tools. The framework utilizes a set of ontologies to model the environment under investigation. The evidence extracted from the environment is initially annotated using the Resource Description Framework (RDF). The evidence is then merged from various sources to identify new and implicit information with the help of inference engines and classification mechanisms. In addition, we present the ongoing development of a forensic analysis tool to analyze content retrieved from Android smart phones. For this purpose, several ontologies have been created to model some concepts of the smart phone environment. Keywords: digital forensic investigation, digital forensic analysis tool, semantic web, ontology, androi

The Use of Ontologies in Forensic Analysis of Smartphone Content

Digital forensics investigators face a constant challenge in keeping track with evolving technologies such as smartphones. Analyzing the contents of these devices to infer useful information is becoming more time consuming as the volume and complexity of data are increasing. Typically, such analysis is undertaken by a human, which makes it dependent on the experience of the investigator. To overcome such impediments, an automated technique can be utilized in order to aid the investigator to quickly and efficiently analyze the data. In this paper, we propose F-DOS; a set of ontologies that models the smartphone content for the purpose of forensic analysis. F-DOS can form a knowledge management component in a forensic analysis system. Its importance lies in its ability to encode the semantics of the smartphone content using concepts and their relationships that are modeled by F-DOS

Association between pediatric asthma and adult polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS): a cross-sectional analysis of the UAE healthy future Study (UAEHFS)

Asthma and polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS) are linked in several possible ways. To date, there has been no study evaluating whether pediatric asthma is an independent risk factor for adult PCOS. Our study aimed to examine the association between pediatric asthma (diagnosed at 0-19 years) and adult PCOS (diagnosed at ≥20 years). We further assessed whether the aforementioned association differed in two phenotypes of adult PCOS which were diagnosed at 20-25 years (young adult PCOS), and at \u3e25 years (older adult PCOS). We also evaluated whether the age of asthma diagnosis (0-10 vs 11-19 years) modified the association between pediatric asthma and adult PCOS. This is a retrospective cross-sectional analysis using the United Arab Emirates Healthy Future Study (UAEHFS) collected from February 2016 to April 2022 involving 1334 Emirati females aged 18-49 years. We fitted a Poisson regression model to estimate the risk ratio (RR) and its 95% confidence interval (95% CI) to assess the association between pediatric asthma and adult PCOS adjusting for age, urbanicity at birth, and parental smoking at birth. After adjusting for confounding factors and comparing to non-asthmatic counterparts, we found that females with pediatric asthma had a statistically significant association with adult PCOS diagnosed at ≥20 years (RR=1.56, 95% CI: 1.02-2.41), with a stronger magnitude of the association found in the older adult PCOS phenotype diagnosed at \u3e25 years (RR=2.06, 95% CI: 1.16-3.65). Further, we also found females reported thinner childhood body size had a two-fold to three-fold increased risk of adult PCOS diagnosed at ≥20 years in main analysis and stratified analyses by age of asthma and PCOS diagnoses (RR=2.06, 95% CI: 1.08-3.93 in main analysis; RR=2.74, 95% CI: 1.22-6.15 among those diagnosed with PCOS \u3e 25 years; and RR=3.50, 95% CI: 1.38-8.43 among those diagnosed with asthma at 11-19 years). Pediatric asthma was found to be an independent risk factor for adult PCOS. More targeted surveillance for those at risk of adult PCOS among pediatric asthmatics may prevent or delay PCOS in this at-risk group. Future studies with robust longitudinal designs aimed to elucidate the exact mechanism between pediatric asthma and PCOS are warranted

Forensic analysis of the android file system YAFFS2

The popularity of Android devices has resulted in a requirement for a process to extract and analyse data in a forensically sound manner. There is a wide range of devices which use the Android operating system, and hence a standard process for forensic extraction and analysis for all devices is not possible. Many devices use the Yet Another Flash File System (YAFFS), which introduces an additional layer of forensic requirements. Focussing on the internal storage of a Sony Ericsson Xperia x10i, a process to extract both logical and physical data from the internal NAND memory is possible after gaining super user access. Data was extracted in different formats by using a variety of software processes, such as SuperOneClick, dd, xRecovery, NANDdump, Yaffs2utils and Android Debug Bridge. Analysis of the extracts was then undertaken to determine the type of data available from the different extraction methods, which included Logical file extraction, Physical data with YAFFS spare information, and also without the YAFFS spare data. The analysis showed that the NANDdump has generated a bit-by-bit dump of the internal flash memory

FORENSIC ANALYSIS OF THE ANDROID FILE SYSTEM YAFFS2

The popularity of Android devices has resulted in a requirement for a process to extract and analyse data in a forensically sound manner. There is a wide range of devices which use the Android operating system, and hence a standard process for forensic extraction and analysis for all devices is not possible. Many devices use the Yet Another Flash File System (YAFFS), which introduces an additional layer of forensic requirements. Focussing on the internal storage of a Sony Ericsson Xperia x10i, a process to extract both logical and physical data from the internal NAND memory is possible after gaining super user access. Data was extracted in different formats by using a variety of software processes, such as SuperOneClick, dd, xRecovery, NANDdump, Yaffs2utils and Android Debug Bridge. Analysis of the extracts was then undertaken to determine the type of data available from the different extraction methods, which included Logical file extraction, Physical data with YAFFS spare information, and also without the YAFFS spare data. The analysis showed that the NANDdump has generated a bit-by-bit dump of the internal flash memory

Organizational factors and e-commerce adoption in SMEs of United Arab Emirates: Mediating role of perceived strategic value

E-commerce adoption is gaining importance throughout the world because it helps organizations to become more efficient to gain competitive advantage. However, the literature has revealed that e-commerce adoption among small and medium enterprises operating in United Arab Emirates is limited. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to identify the impact of organizational factors over the adoption of e-commerce. While conducting critical literature review a major gap in the body of knowledge was observed because of the missing link of perceived strategic value. Thus, while conducting the empirical analysis mediating role of perceived strategic value has been analyzed with the help of Smart PLS-3 using structural equation modeling technique. The findings revealed that organizational factors have a significant impact over e-commerce adoption intentions as well as over perceived strategic value. Furthermore, perceived strategic value also influences ecommerce adoption intentions. Likewise, the mediating role of perceived strategic value has also been confirmed empirically. Considering the limitations of the study future researchers are guided to conduct exploratory studies with the help of interviews to get more understanding and more information about the factors that may affect e-commerce adoption intentions

Polycystic ovarian syndrome among women diagnosed with infertility in the Gulf Cooperation Council countries: A protocol for systematic review and meta-analysis of prevalence studies

Background: Polycystic ovarian syndrome, a common endocrine disorder, is an important cause of infertility among women of reproductive age. Within the Gulf Cooperation Council countries, polycystic ovarian syndrome is found to affect women increasingly. No study has been carried out to critically summarize the evidence on the prevalence of polycystic ovarian syndrome among women suffering from infertility in these countries. Objective: This protocol aims to conduct a systematic review and meta-analysis of the studies reporting the prevalence of polycystic ovarian syndrome among women seeking infertility treatment in the six Gulf Cooperation Council countries (Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and United Arab Emirates). Design/Methods and analysis: The systematic review and meta-analysis will follow the following method. Data source: Five databases, including PubMed, Embase, CINAHL, Web of Science, and SCOPUS, will be searched for observational studies using a combination of relevant keywords and Medical Subject Headings from inception of databases. Data extraction: Two reviewers will screen titles and abstracts, followed by a full-text search based on the eligibility criteria. The main outcome is to measure the proportion of women who have polycystic ovarian syndrome among infertility-diagnosed patients. In addition, the risk of bias in the included studies will be assessed using the national institute of health quality assessment tool for observational studies. Data synthesis: The random-effects method of the analysis with the inverse variance will be used to calculate the pooled prevalence of polycystic ovarian syndrome–attributed infertility. Variation in prevalence estimates will be calculated using subgroup analysis based on study and patients’ characteristics and publication bias will be assessed via funnel plot inspection and Eggar’s test. Discussion: A critical assessment of evidence on the prevalence of polycystic ovarian syndrome in women attending fertility clinics is helpful in risk quantification, enabling better planning for managing infertility in women with polycystic ovarian syndrome. Registration: This protocol has been registered with PROSPERO, protocol registration number (CRD42022355087)