Information Security Commons^™

Cross Domain Iw Threats To Sof Maritime Missions: Implications For U.S. Sof, Gary C. Kessler, Diane M. Zorri

Publications

As cyber vulnerabilities proliferate with the expansion of connected devices, wherein security is often forsaken for ease of use, Special Operations Forces (SOF) cannot escape the obvious, massive risk that they are assuming by incorporating emerging technologies into their toolkits. This is especially true in the maritime sector where SOF operates nearshore in littoral zones. As SOF—in support to the U.S. Navy— increasingly operate in these contested maritime environments, they will gradually encounter more hostile actors looking to exploit digital vulnerabilities. As such, this monograph comes at a perfect time as the world becomes more interconnected but also more vulnerable.

Viability Of Consumer Grade Hardware For Learning Computer Forensics Principles, Lazaro A. Herrera

Journal of Digital Forensics, Security and Law

We propose utilizing budget consumer hardware and software to teach computer forensics principles and for non-case work, research and developing new techniques. Consumer grade hardware and free / open source software is more easily accessible in most developing markets and can be used as a first purchase for education, technique development and even when developing new techniques. These techniques should allow for small forensics laboratories or classroom settings to have the tooling and framework for trying existing forensics techniques or creating new forensics techniques on consumer grade hardware. We'll be testing how viable each individual piece of hardware is as …

Cyber Supply Chain Risk Management: Implications For The Sof Future Operating Environment, J. Philip Craiger, Laurie Lindamood-Craiger, Diane M. Zorri

Publications

The emerging Cyber Supply Chain Risk Management (C-SCRM) concept assists at all levels of the supply chain in managing and mitigating risks, and the authors define C-SCRM as the process of identifying, assessing, and mitigating the risks associated with the distributed and interconnected nature of information and operational technology products and service supply chains. As Special Operations Forces increasingly rely on sophisticated hardware and software products, this quick, well-researched monograph provides a detailed accounting of C-SCRM associated laws, regulations, instructions, tools, and strategies meant to mitigate vulnerabilities and risks—and how we might best manage the evolving and ever-changing array of …

A Constructive Direst Security Threat Modeling For Drone As A Service, Fahad E. Salamh, Umit Karabiyik, Marcus Rogers

Journal of Digital Forensics, Security and Law

The technology used in drones is similar or identical across drone types and components, with many common risks and opportunities. The purpose of this study is to enhance the risk assessment procedures for Drone as a Service (DaaS) capabilities. STRIDE is an acronym that includes the following security risks: Spoofing, Tampering, Repudiation, Information Disclosure, Denial of Service, and Elevation of Privileges. The paper presents a modified STRIDE threat model and prioritize its desired properties (i.e., authenticity, integrity, non-reputability, confidentiality, availability, and authorization) to generate an appropriate DaaS threat model. To this end, the proposed DIREST threat model better meets the …

Identification Of Lsb Image Steganography Using Cover Image Comparisons, Michael Pelosi, Chuck Easttom

Journal of Digital Forensics, Security and Law

Steganography has long been used to counter forensic investigation. This use of steganography as an anti-forensics technique is becoming more widespread. This requires forensic examiners to have additional tools to more effectively detect steganography. In this paper we introduce a new software concept specifically designed to allow the digital forensics professional to clearly identify and attribute instances of LSB image steganography by using the original cover image in side-by-side comparison with a suspected steganographic payload image. This technique is embodied in a software implementation named CounterSteg. The CounterSteg software allows detailed analysis and comparison of both the original cover …

Backup And Recovery Mechanisms Of Cassandra Database: A Review, Karina Bohora, Amol Bothe, Damini Sheth, Rupali Chopade, V. K. Pachghare

Journal of Digital Forensics, Security and Law

Cassandra is a NoSQL database having a peer-to-peer, ring-type architecture. Cassandra offers fault-tolerance, data replication for higher availability as well as ensures no single point of failure. Given that Cassandra is a NoSQL database, it is evident that it lacks the amount of research that has gone into comparatively older and more widely and broadly used SQL databases. Cassandra’s growing popularity in recent times gives rise to the need of addressing any security-related or recovery-related concerns associated with its usage. This review paper discusses the existing deletion mechanism in Cassandra and presents some identified issues related to backup and recovery …

Social Media User Relationship Framework (Smurf), Anne David, Sarah Morris, Gareth Appleby-Thomas

Journal of Digital Forensics, Security and Law

The use of social media has spread through many aspects of society, allowing millions of individuals, corporate as well as government entities to leverage the opportunities it affords. These opportunities often end up being exploited by a small percentage of the user community who use it for objectionable or unlawful activities; for example, trolling, cyber bullying, grooming, luring. In some cases, these unlawful activities result in investigations where swift retrieval of critical evidence required in order to save a life.

This paper presents a proof of concept (PoC) framework for social media user attribution. The framework aims to provide digital …

Cyber Insurance Effects On Cyber Hygiene: Does The Homeostatic Effect Apply?, Wendi M. Kappers, Aaron Glassman, Michael S. Wills

Publications

A theoretical framework and research strategy is proposed to gain insight into perceptions and decisions as to how SMBs make decisions regarding cybersecurity hygiene measures, which could lead to betterinformed decisions regarding insurance as part of an ISA program, as well as have a bearing on policy structures and pricing for such insurance. This is because the definition of “cybersecurity hygiene habits”(CHH) as a task appears to vary within the industry and makes the practice hard to measure and evaluate. Research suggests that there may be a poorly understood connection between CHHs undertaken by organizations and their perceptions and/or adoption …

A Forensic First Look At A Pos Device: Searching For Pci Dss Data Storage Violations, Stephen Larson, James Jones, Jim Swauger

Journal of Digital Forensics, Security and Law

According to the Verizon 2018 Data Breach Investigations Report, 321 POS terminals (user devices) were involved in about 14% of the 2,216 data breaches in 2017 (Verizon, 2018). These data breaches involved standalone POS terminals as well as associated controller systems. This paper examines a standalone Point-of-Sale (POS) system which is ubiquitous in smaller retail stores and restaurants. An attempt to extract unencrypted data and identify possible violations of the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) requirement to protect stored cardholder data were be made. Persistent storage (flash memory chips) were removed from the devices and their contents …

Towards Increasing Trust In Expert Evidence Derived From Malware Forensic Tools, Ian M. Kennedy, Blaine Price, Arosha Bandara

Journal of Digital Forensics, Security and Law

Following a series of high profile miscarriages of justice in the UK linked to questionable expert evidence, the post of the Forensic Science Regulator was created in 2008. The main objective of this role is to improve the standard of practitioner competences and forensic procedures. One of the key strategies deployed to achieve this is the push to incorporate a greater level of scientific conduct in the various fields of forensic practice. Currently there is no statutory requirement for practitioners to become accredited to continue working with the Criminal Justice System of England and Wales. However, the Forensic Science Regulator …

Cryptography, Passwords, Privacy, And The Fifth Amendment, Gary C. Kessler, Ann M. Phillips

Journal of Digital Forensics, Security and Law

Military-grade cryptography has been widely available at no cost for personal and commercial use since the early 1990s. Since the introduction of Pretty Good Privacy (PGP), more and more people encrypt files and devices, and we are now at the point where our smartphones are encrypted by default. While this ostensibly provides users with a high degree of privacy, compelling a user to provide a password has been interpreted by some courts as a violation of our Fifth Amendment protections, becoming an often insurmountable hurdle to law enforcement lawfully executing a search warrant. This paper will explore some of the …

A Two-Stage Model For Social Network Investigations In Digital Forensics, Anne David, Sarah Morris, Gareth Appleby-Thomas

Journal of Digital Forensics, Security and Law

This paper proposes a two-stage model for identifying and contextualizing features from artefacts created as a result of social networking activity. This technique can be useful in digital investigations and is based on understanding and the deconstruction of the processes that take place prior to, during and after user activity; this includes corroborating artefacts. Digital Investigations are becoming more complex due to factors such as, the volume of data to be examined; different data formats; a wide range of sources for digital evidence; the volatility of data and the limitations of some of the standard digital forensic tools. This paper …

What’S In The Cloud? - An Examination Of The Impact Of Cloud Storage Usage On The Browser Cache., Graeme Horsman

Journal of Digital Forensics, Security and Law

Cloud storage is now a well established and popular service adopted by many individuals, often at limited or no cost. It provides users with the ability to store content on a cloud service provider’s infrastructure offering the benefit of redundancy, reliability, security, flexibility of access and the potential assumed liability of the provider for data loss within the contexts of a licensing agreement. Consequently, this form of remote storage provides a regulatory challenge as content which once resided upon a seized digital exhibit, available for scrutiny during a digital forensic investigatory, may no longer be present where attempting to acquire …

An Evaluation Of Data Erasing Tools, Andrew Jones, Isaac Afrifa

Journal of Digital Forensics, Security and Law

The permanent removal of data from media is a major area of concern mainly because of the misconception that once a file is deleted or storage media is formatted, it cannot be recovered. There has been the development of both commercial and freeware data erasing tools, which all claim complete file or disk erasure. This report analyzes the efficiency of a number of these tools in performing erasures on an electromechanical drive. It focuses on a selection of popular and modern erasing tools; taking into consideration their usability, claimed erasing standards and whether they perform complete data erasure with the …

From Degree To Chief Information Security Officer (Ciso): A Framework For Consideration, Wendi M. Kappers, Martha Nanette Harrell,

Publications

Educational entities are establishing program degree content designed to ensure cybersecurity and information security assurance skills are adequate and efficient for preparing students to be successful in this very important field. Many Master’s level programs include courses that address these skills in an attempt to provide a well-rounded program of study. However, undergraduates who are in the practitioner’s world have other alternatives to gain these skills. These individuals can gain various certifications, such as the Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP) or the Certified Information Security Manager (CISM). Due to a perceived gap between academics and field knowledge, it appears …

Teaching Data Carving Using The Real World Problem Of Text Message Extraction From Unstructured Mobile Device Data Dumps, Gary D. Cantrell, Joan Runs Through

Journal of Digital Forensics, Security and Law

Data carving is a technique used in data recovery to isolate and extract files based on file content without any file system guidance. It is an important part of data recovery and digital forensics, but it is also useful in teaching computer science students about file structure and binary encoding of information especially within a digital forensics program. This work demonstrates how the authors teach data carving using a real world problem they encounter in digital forensics evidence processing involving the extracting of text messages from unstructured small device binary extractions. The authors have used this problem for instruction in …

Cyber-Security Risks Of Fedwire, Mark J. Bilger

Journal of Digital Forensics, Security and Law

This paper will review the risks associated with the Federal Reserve's Fedwire network as a key resource necessary for the efficient function of the American financial system. It will examine the business model of the Fedwire system of real-time interbank transfers, the network characteristics of Fedwire, and the possibility of a successful attack on Fedwire and its potential impact on the U.S. financial system.

Front Matter

Journal of Digital Forensics, Security and Law

No abstract provided.

Front Matter

Journal of Digital Forensics, Security and Law

No abstract provided.

Fast Forensic Triage Using Centralised Thumbnail Caches On Windows Operating Systems, Sean Mckeown, Gordon Russell, Petra Leimich

Journal of Digital Forensics, Security and Law

A common investigative task is to identify known contraband images on a device, which typically involves calculating cryptographic hashes for all the files on a disk and checking these against a database of known contraband. However, modern drives are now so large that it can take several hours just to read this data from the disk, and can contribute to the large investigative backlogs suffered by many law enforcement bodies. Digital forensic triage techniques may thus be used to prioritise evidence and effect faster investigation turnarounds. This paper proposes a new forensic triage method for investigating disk evidence relating to …

Memoryranger Prevents Highjacking File_Object Structures In Windows Kernel, Igor Korkin

Journal of Digital Forensics, Security and Law

Windows OS kernel memory is one of the main targets of cyber-attacks. By launching such attacks, hackers are succeeding in process privilege escalation and tampering users’ data by accessing kernel-mode memory. This paper considers a new example of such an attack, which results in access to the files opened in an exclusive mode. Windows built-in security features prevent such a legal access, but attackers can circumvent them by patching dynamically allocated objects. The research shows that the newest Windows 10 x64 is vulnerable to this attack. The paper provides an example of using MemoryRanger, a hypervisor- based solution to prevent …

Improved Decay Tolerant Inference Of Previously Uninstalled Computer Applications, Oluwaseun Adegbehingbe, James Jones

Journal of Digital Forensics, Security and Law

When an application is uninstalled from a computer system, the application’s deleted file contents are overwritten over time, depending on factors such as operating system, available unallocated disk space, user activity, etc. As this content decays, the ability to infer the application’s prior presence, based on the remaining digital artifacts, becomes more difficult. Prior research inferring previously installed applications by matching sectors from a hard disk of interest to a previously constructed catalog of labeled sector hashes showed promising results. This prior work used a white list approach to identify relevant artifacts, resulting in no irrelevant artifacts but incurring the …

Blocks' Network: Redesign Architecture Based On Blockchain Technology, Moataz Hanif

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

The Internet is a global network that uses communication protocols. It is considered the most important system reached by humanity, which no one can abandon. However, this technology has become a weapon that threatens the privacy of users, especially in the client-server model, where data is stored and managed privately. Additionally, users have no power over their data that store in a private server, which means users’ data may interrupt by government or might be sold via service provider for-profit purposes. Furthermore, blockchain is a technology that we can rely on to solve issues related to client-server model if appropriately …

Design Of Personnel Big Data Management System Based On Blockchain, Houbing Song, Jian Chen, Zhihan Lv

Publications

With the continuous development of information technology, enterprises, universities and governments are constantly stepping up the construction of electronic personnel information management system. The information of hundreds of thousands or even millions of people’s information are collected and stored into the system. So much information provides the cornerstone for the development of big data, if such data is tampered with or leaked, it will cause irreparable serious damage. However, in recent years, electronic archives have exposed a series of problems such as information leakage, information tampering, and information loss, which has made the reform of personnel information management more and …

Examining The Correlates Of Failed Drdos Attacks, Thomas Hyslip, Thomas Holt

Journal of Digital Forensics, Security and Law

Over the last decade, there has been a rise in cybercrime services offered on a feefor- service basis, enabling individuals to direct attacks against various targets. One of the recent services offered involves stresser or booter operators, who offer distributed reflected denial of service (DRDoS) attacks on an hourly or subscription basis. These attacks involve the use of malicious traffic reflected off of webservers to increase the volume of traffic, which is directed toward websites and servers rendering them unusable. Researchers have examined DRDoS attacks using realtime data, though few have considered the experience of their customers and the factors …

Front Matter

Journal of Digital Forensics, Security and Law

No abstract provided.

Enhancing Forensic-Tool Security With Rust: Development Of A String Extraction Utility, Jens Getreu, Olaf Maennel

Journal of Digital Forensics, Security and Law

The paper evaluates the suitability of the Rust ecosystem for forensic tool development. As a case study, a forensic tool named Stringsext is developed. Starting from analyzing the specefic requirements of forensic software in general and those of the present case study, all stages of the software development life-cycle are executed and evaluated. Stringsext is a re-implementation and enhancement of the GNU-strings tool, a widely used program in forensic investigations. Stringsext recognizes Cyrillic, CJKV East Asian characters and other scripts in all supported multi-byte-encodings while GNU-strings fails in finding these in UTF-16 and other encodings. During the case study it …

Df 2.0: An Automated, Privacy Preserving, And Efficient Digital Forensic Framework That Leverages Machine Learning For Evidence Prediction And Privacy Evaluation, Robin Verma, Jayaprakash Govindaraj Dr, Saheb Chhabra, Gaurav Gupta

Journal of Digital Forensics, Security and Law

The current state of digital forensic investigation is continuously challenged by the rapid technological changes, the increase in the use of digital devices (both the heterogeneity and the count), and the sheer volume of data that these devices could contain. Although data privacy protection is not a performance measure, however, preventing privacy violations during the digital forensic investigation, is also a big challenge. With a perception that the completeness of investigation and the data privacy preservation are incompatible with each other, the researchers have provided solutions to address the above-stated challenges that either focus on the effectiveness of the investigation …

Forensic Cell Site Analysis: Mobile Network Operator Evidence Integrity Maintenance Research, John B. Minor

Journal of Digital Forensics, Security and Law

Mobile Network Operator (MNO) and Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO) evidence have become an important evidentiary focus in the courtroom. This type of evidence is routinely produced as business records under U.S. Federal Rules of Evidence for use in the emerging discipline of Forensic Cell Site Analysis. The research was undertaken to determine if evidence produced by operators should be classified as digital evidence and, if so, what evidence handling methodologies are appropriate to ensure evidence integrity. This research project resulted in the creation of a method of determining if business records produced by MNO/MVNO organizations are digital evidence and …

Forensic Analysis Of Spy Applications In Android Devices, Shinelle Hutchinson, Umit Karabiyik

Annual ADFSL Conference on Digital Forensics, Security and Law

Smartphones with Google's Android operating system are becoming more and more popular each year, and with this increased user base, comes increased opportunities to collect more of these users' private data. There have been several instances of malware being made available via the Google Play Store, which is one of the predominant means for users to download applications. One effective way of collecting users' private data is by using Android Spyware. In this paper, we conduct a forensic analysis of a malicious Android spyware application and present our findings. We also highlight what information the application accesses and what it …