The consumer drone market is rapidly expanding with new drone models
featuring unique variations of hardware and software. The rapid development of
drone technology and variability in drone systems can make it difficult for
digital forensic investigators and tools to keep pace and effectively extract
and analyse digital evidence from drones. Furthermore, the growing popularity
of drones and their increased use in illegal and harmful activities, such as
smuggling, espionage, and even terrorism, has led to an increase in the number
of drone forensic cases for authorities to manage. To assist forensic
investigators, a static digital forensic case study was conducted on two drone
devices recently released by Da-Jiang Innovations (DJI): the Mini 3 Pro drone,
and its remote controller, the DJI RC. The study discovered the presence of
several digital artefacts on both devices, including recorded media, flight
logs, and other information that could help investigators trace the drone's
usage and identify its operator. Additionally, this paper explored several
methods for extracting and visualising the drone's flight history, and
highlights some of the potential methods used to limit, obscure, or remove key
types of digital evidence.Comment: 20 Pages, 23 figure