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The Survey On Cross-Border Collection Of Digital Evidence By Representatives From Polish Prosecutors’ Offices And Judicial Authorities, Paweł Olber Dr

Journal of Digital Forensics, Security and Law

Dynamic development of IT technology poses new challenges related to the cross-border collection of electronic evidence from the cloud. Many times investigators need to secure data stored on foreign servers directly and then look for solutions on how to turn the data into a legitimate source of evidence. To study the situation and propose solutions, I conducted a survey among Polish representatives of public prosecutors' offices and courts. This paper presents information from digital evidence collection practices across multiple jurisdictions. I stated that representatives from the prosecution and the judiciary in Poland are aware of the issues associated with cross-border …

A Forensic Email Analysis Tool Using Dynamic Visualization, Johannes Stadlinger, Andreas Dewald

Journal of Digital Forensics, Security and Law

Communication between people counts to the most important information of today’s business. As a result, in case of forensic investigations in big companies, analysis of communication data in general and especially email, as the still most widely used business communication platform with an immense and still growing volume, is a typical task in digital forensics. One of the challenges is to identify the relevant communication partners and structures in the suspects surrounding as quickly as possible in order to react appropriately and identify further targets of evaluation. Due to the amount of emails in typical inboxes, reading through all the …

The Impact Of Md5 File Hash Collisions On Digital Forensic Imaging, Gary C. Kessler

Journal of Digital Forensics, Security and Law

The Message Digest 5 (MD5) hash is commonly used as for integrity verification in the forensic imaging process. The ability to force MD5 hash collisions has been a reality for more than a decade, although there is a general consensus that hash collisions are of minimal impact to the practice of computer forensics. This paper describes an experiment to determine the results of imaging two disks that are identical except for one file, the two versions of which have different content but otherwise occupy the same byte positions on the disk, are the same size, and have the same hash …

The 2016 Analysis Of Information Remaining On Computer Hard Disks Offered For Sale On The Second Hand Market In The Uae, Thomas Martin, Andy Jones, Mohammed Alzaabi

Journal of Digital Forensics, Security and Law

This research describes our survey of data remaining on computer hard disks sold on the second hand market in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). This is a repetition of the first survey conducted in 2012 (Jones, Martin, & Alzaabi, 2012). Similar studies have been carried over the last ten years in the United Kingdom, Australia, USA, Germany and France: (Jones, Mee, Meyler, & Gooch, 2005), (Jones, Valli, Sutherland, & Thomas, 2006), (Jones, Valli, Dardick, & Sutherland, 2008), (Jones, Valli, Dardick, & Sutherland, 2009). This research was undertaken to gain insight into the volumes of data found on second-hand disks purchased …

The Impact Of Sha-1 File Hash Collisions On Digital Forensic Imaging: A Follow-Up Experiment, Gary C. Kessler

Journal of Digital Forensics, Security and Law

A previous paper described an experiment showing that Message Digest 5 (MD5) hash collisions of files have no impact on integrity verification in the forensic imaging process. This paper describes a similar experiment applied when two files have a Secure Hash Algorithm (SHA-1) collision.

Digital Forensics In Law Enforcement: A Needs Based Analysis Of Indiana Agencies, Teri A. Cummins Flory

Journal of Digital Forensics, Security and Law

Cyber crime is a growing problem, with the impact to society increasing exponentially, but the ability of local law enforcement agencies to investigate and successfully prosecute criminals for these crimes is unclear. Many national needs assessments have previously been conducted, and all indicated that state and local law enforcement did not have the training, tools, or staff to effectively conduct digital investigations, but very few have been completed recently. This study provided a current and localized assessment of the ability of Indiana law enforcement agencies to effectively investigate crimes involving digital evidence, the availability of training for both law enforcement …

Understanding Computer Forensics Requirements In China Via The “Panda Burning Incense” Virus Case, Frank Law, K. P. Chow, Y. H. Mai

Journal of Digital Forensics, Security and Law

In March 2012, Mainland China has amended its Criminal Procedure Law, which includes the introduction of a new type of evidence, i.e., digital evidence, to the court of law. To better understand the development of computer forensics and digital evidence in Mainland China, this paper discusses the Chinese legal system in relation to digital investigation and how the current legal requirements affect the existing legal and technical usage of digital evidence at legal proceedings. Through studying the famous “Panda Burning Incense (Worm.WhBoy.cw)” virus case that happened in 2007, this paper aims to provide a better understanding of how to properly …

A Study Of Forensic Imaging In The Absence Of Write-Blockers, Gary C. Kessler, Gregory H. Carlton

Journal of Digital Forensics, Security and Law

Best practices in digital forensics demand the use of write-blockers when creating forensic images of digital media, and this has been a core tenet of computer forensics training for decades. The practice is so ingrained that the integrity of images created without a write-blocker are immediately suspect. This paper describes a research framework that compares forensic images acquired with and without utilizing write-blockers in order to understand the extent of the differences, if any, in the resultant forensic copies. We specifically address whether differences are superficial or evidentiary, and we discuss the impact of admitting evidence acquired without write blocking. …

The Advanced Data Acquisition Model (Adam): A Process Model For Digital Forensic Practice, Richard Adams, Val Hobbs, Graham Mann

Journal of Digital Forensics, Security and Law

As with other types of evidence, the courts make no presumption that digital evidence is reliable without some evidence of empirical testing in relation to the theories and techniques associated with its production. The issue of reliability means that courts pay close attention to the manner in which electronic evidence has been obtained and in particular the process in which the data is captured and stored. Previous process models have tended to focus on one particular area of digital forensic practice, such as law enforcement, and have not incorporated a formal description. We contend that this approach has prevented the …

Extraction Of Electronic Evidence From Voip: Identification & Analysis Of Digital Speech, David Irwin, Arek Dadej, Jill Slay

Journal of Digital Forensics, Security and Law

The Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) is increasing in popularity as a cost effective and efficient means of making telephone calls via the Internet. However, VoIP may also be an attractive method of communication to criminals as their true identity may be hidden and voice and video communications are encrypted as they are deployed across the Internet. This produces a new set of challenges for forensic analysts compared with traditional wire-tapping of the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) infrastructure, which is not applicable to VoIP. Therefore, other methods of recovering electronic evidence from VoIP are required. This research investigates the …

Extraction Of Electronic Evidence From Voip: Forensic Analysis Of A Virtual Hard Disk Vs Ram, David Irwin, Jill Slay, Arek Dadej, Malcolm Shore

Journal of Digital Forensics, Security and Law

The popularity of Voice over the Internet Protocol (VoIP) is increasing as the cost savings and ease of use is realised by a wide range of home and corporate users. However, the technology is also attractive to criminals. This is because VoIP is a global telephony service, in which it is difficult to verify the user’s identification. The security of placing such calls may also be appealing to criminals, as many implementations use strong encryption to secure both the voice payload as well as to control messages making monitoring such VoIP calls difficult since conventional methods such as wire-tapping is …

Computer Forensic Functions Testing: Media Preparation, Write Protection And Verification, Yinghua Guo, Jill Slay

Journal of Digital Forensics, Security and Law

The growth in the computer forensic field has created a demand for new software (or increased functionality to existing software) and a means to verify that this software is truly forensic i.e. capable of meeting the requirements of the trier of fact. In this work, we review our previous work---a function oriented testing framework for validation and verification of computer forensic tools. This framework consists of three parts: function mapping, requirements specification and reference set development. Through function mapping, we give a scientific and systemized description of the fundamentals of computer forensic discipline, i.e. what functions are needed in the …

The 2009 Analysis Of Information Remaining On Disks Offered For Sale On The Second Hand Market, Andy Jones, Craig Valli, Glenn S. Dardick, Iain Sutherland, G. Dabibi, Gareth Davies

Journal of Digital Forensics, Security and Law

The ever increasing use and reliance upon computers in both the public and private sector has led to enormous numbers of computers being disposed of at the end of their useful life within an organisation. As the cost of computers has dropped, their use in the home has also continued to increase. In most organisations, computers have a relatively short life and are replaced on a regular basis with the result that, if not properly cleansed of data, they are released into the public domain containing data that can be relatively up to date. This problem is exacerbated by the …

The 2007 Analysis Of Information Remaining On Disks Offered For Sale On The Second Hand Market, Andy Jones, Craig Valli, Glenn S. Dardick, Iain Sutherland

Journal of Digital Forensics, Security and Law

All organisations, whether in the public or private sector, increasingly use computers and other devices that contain computer hard disks for the storage and processing of information relating to their business, their employees or their customers. Individual home users also increasingly use computers and other devices containing computer hard disks for the storage and processing of information relating to their private, personal affairs. It continues to be clear that the majority of organisations and individual home users still remain ignorant or misinformed of the volume and type of information that is stored on the hard disks that these devices contain …

A Grounded Theory Approach To Identifying And Measuring Forensic Data Acquisition Tasks, Gregory H. Carlton

Journal of Digital Forensics, Security and Law

As a relatively new field of study, little empirical research has been conducted pertaining to computer forensics. This lack of empirical research contributes to problems for practitioners and academics alike.

For the community of practitioners, problems arise from the dilemma of applying scientific methods to legal matters based on anecdotal training methods, and the academic community is hampered by a lack of theory in this evolving field. A research study utilizing a multi-method approach to identify and measure tasks practitioners perform during forensic data acquisitions and lay a foundation for academic theory development was conducted in 2006 in conjunction with …

The 2006 Analysis Of Information Remaining On Disks Offered For Sale On The Second Hand Market, Andy Jones, Craig Valli, Iain Sutherland, Paula Thomas

Journal of Digital Forensics, Security and Law

All organisations, whether in the public or private sector, use computers for the storage and processing of information relating to their business or services, their employees and their customers. A large proportion of families and individuals in their homes now also use personal computers and, both intentionally and inadvertently, often store on those computers personal information. It is clear that most organisations and individuals continue to be unaware of the information that may be stored on the hard disks that the computers contain, and have not considered what may happen to the information after the disposal of the equipment.

In …

A Curriculum For Teaching Information Technology Investigative Techniques For Auditors, Grover S. Kearns

Journal of Digital Forensics, Security and Law

Recent prosecutions of highly publicized white-collar crimes combined with public outrage have resulted in heightened regulation of financial reporting and greater emphasis on systems of internal control. Because both white-collar and cybercrimes are usually perpetrated through computers, internal and external auditors’ knowledge of information technology (IT) is now more vital than ever. However, preserving digital evidence and investigative techniques, which can be essential to fraud examinations, are not skills frequently taught in accounting programs and instruction in the use of computer assisted auditing tools and techniques – applications that might uncover fraudulent activity – is limited. Only a few university-level …

Computer Forensics Field Triage Process Model, Marcus K. Rogers, James Goldman, Rick Mislan, Timothy Wedge, Steve Debrota

Journal of Digital Forensics, Security and Law

With the proliferation of digital based evidence, the need for the timely identification, analysis and interpretation of digital evidence is becoming more crucial. In many investigations critical information is required while at the scene or within a short period of time - measured in hours as opposed to days. The traditional cyber forensics approach of seizing a system(s)/media, transporting it to the lab, making a forensic image(s), and then searching the entire system for potential evidence, is no longer appropriate in some circumstances. In cases such as child abductions, pedophiles, missing or exploited persons, time is of the essence. In …