Acquisition of digital evidence in android smartphones

From an expert\u27s perspective, an Android phone is a large data repository that can be stored either locally or remotely. Besides, its platform allows analysts to acquire device data, collecting information about its owner and facts that are under investigation. This way, by exploring and cross referencing that rich data source, one can get information related to unlawful acts and its perpetrator. There are widespread and well documented approaches to forensic examining mobile devices and computers. Nevertheless, they are not specific nor detailed enough to examine modern smartphones, since these devices have internal memories whose removal or mirroring procedures are considered invasive and complex, due to difficulties in having direct hardware access. Furthermore, specific features of each smartphone platform have to be considered prior to acquiring its data. In order to deal with those challenges, this paper proposes a method to perform data acquisition of Android smartphones, regardless of version and manufacturer. The proposed approach takes into account existing techniques of computer and cell phone forensic examination, adapting them to specific Android characteristics, its data storage structure, popular applications and the conditions under which the device was sent to the forensic examiner. The method was defined in a broad fashion, not naming specific tools or techniques. Then, it was deployed into the examination of six Android smartphones, addressing different scenarios that an analyst might face, and was validated to perform an entire evidence acquisition

Distributed data service for data management in internet of things middleware

The development of the Internet of Things (IoT) is closely related to a considerable increase in the number and variety of devices connected to the Internet. Sensors have become a regular component of our environment, as well as smart phones and other devices that continuously collect data about our lives even without our intervention. With such connected devices, a broad range of applications has been developed and deployed, including those dealing with massive volumes of data. In this paper, we introduce a Distributed Data Service (DDS) to collect and process data for IoT environments. One central goal of this DDS is to enable multiple and distinct IoT middleware systems to share common data services from a loosely-coupled provider. In this context, we propose a new specification of functionalities for a DDS and the conception of the corresponding techniques for collecting, filtering and storing data conveniently and efficiently in this environment. Another contribution is a data aggregation component that is proposed to support efficient real-time data querying. To validate its data collecting and querying functionalities and performance, the proposed DDS is evaluated in two case studies regarding a simulated smart home system, the first case devoted to evaluating data collection and aggregation when the DDS is interacting with the UIoT middleware, and the second aimed at comparing the DDS data collection with this same functionality implemented within the Kaa middleware

Bipolaron Dynamics in Graphene Nanoribbons

Graphene nanoribbons (GNRs) are two-dimensional structures with a rich variety of electronic properties that derive from their semiconducting band gaps. In these materials, charge transport can occur via a hopping process mediated by carriers formed by self-interacting states between the excess charge and local lattice deformations. Here, we use a two-dimensional tight-binding approach to reveal the formation of bipolarons in GNRs. Our results show that the formed bipolarons are dynamically stable even for high electric field strengths when it comes to GNRs. Remarkably, the bipolaron dynamics can occur in acoustic and optical regimes concerning its saturation velocity. The phase transition between these two regimes takes place for a critical field strength in which the bipolaron moves roughly with the speed of sound in the material.Funding Agencies|CNPq; CAPES; FAP-DF; CENAPAD-SP; Brazilian Ministry of Planning, Development and Management [005/2016, 11/2016]; DPGU - Brazilian Union Public Defender [066/2016]; FAP-DF grants [0193.001.511/2017, 0193.001343/2016, 0193.001766/2017]</p

Security Architecture and Protocol for Trust Verifications Regarding the Integrity of Files Stored in Cloud Services

Cloud computing is considered an interesting paradigm due to its scalability, availability and virtually unlimited storage capacity. However, it is challenging to organize a cloud storage service (CSS) that is safe from the client point-of-view and to implement this CSS in public clouds since it is not advisable to blindly consider this configuration as fully trustworthy. Ideally, owners of large amounts of data should trust their data to be in the cloud for a long period of time, without the burden of keeping copies of the original data, nor of accessing the whole content for verifications regarding data preservation. Due to these requirements, integrity, availability, privacy and trust are still challenging issues for the adoption of cloud storage services, especially when losing or leaking information can bring significant damage, be it legal or business-related. With such concerns in mind, this paper proposes an architecture for periodically monitoring both the information stored in the cloud and the service provider behavior. The architecture operates with a proposed protocol based on trust and encryption concepts to ensure cloud data integrity without compromising confidentiality and without overloading storage services. Extensive tests and simulations of the proposed architecture and protocol validate their functional behavior and performance

Influence of quasi-particle density over polaron mobility in armchair graphene nanoribbons

An important aspect concerning the performance of armchair graphene nanoribbons (AGNRs) as materials for conceiving electronic devices is related to the mobility of charge carriers in these systems. When several polarons are considered in the system, a quasi-particle wave function can be affected by that of its neighbor provided the two are close enough. As the overlap may affect the transport of the carrier, the question concerning how the density of polarons affect its mobility arises. In this work, we investigate such dependence for semiconducting AGNRs in the scope of nonadiabatic molecular dynamics. Our results unambiguously show an impact of the density on both the stability and average velocity of the quasi-particles. We have found a phase transition between regimes where increasing density stops inhibiting and starts promoting mobility; densities higher than 7 polarons per 45 angstrom present increasing mean velocity with increasing density. We have also established three different regions relating electric field and average velocity. For the lowest electric field regime, surpassing the aforementioned threshold results in overcoming the 0.3 angstrom fs(-1) limit, thus representing a transition between subsonic and supersonic regimes. For the highest of the electric fields, density effects alone are responsible for a stunning difference of 1.5 angstrom fs(-1) in the mean carrier velocity.Funding Agencies|CNPq; CAPES; FAP-DF; CENAPAD-SP; Brazilian Ministry of Planning, Development and Management [005/2016, 11/2016]; DPGU - Brazilian Union Public Defender [066/2016]; FAP-DF [0193.000.942/2015, 193.001.511/2017]</p

Role of Cytokines, Chemokines and IFN-&gamma;+ IL-17+ Double-Positive CD4+ T Cells in Patients with Multiple Sclerosis

Multiple sclerosis is mediated by self-reactive myelin T and B cells that lead to axonal and myelin damage. The immune response in multiple sclerosis involves the participation of CD4+ T cells that produce cytokines and chemokines. This participation is important to find markers for the diagnosis and progression of the disease. In our work, we evaluated the profile of cytokines and chemokines, as well as the production of double positive CD4+ T cells for the production of IFN&gamma; IL-17 in patients with multiple sclerosis, at different stages of the disease and undergoing different treatments. We found that relapsing&ndash;remitting patients had a significant increase in IL-12 production. About IL-5, its production showed significantly higher levels in secondarily progressive patients when compared to relapsing&ndash;remitting patients. IFN-&gamma; production by PBMCs from secondarily progressive patients showed significantly higher levels. This group also had a higher percentage of CD4+ IFN&gamma;+ IL-17+ T cells. The combination of changes in certain cytokines and chemokines together with the presence of IFN&gamma;+ IL-17+ double positive lymphocytes can be used to better understand the clinical forms of the disease and its progression