Information Security Commons^™

From The Editor-In-Chief, Ibrahim Baggili

Journal of Digital Forensics, Security and Law

Welcome to JDFSL’s fourth and final issue for 2014! First, I would like to thank our editorial board, reviewers, and the JDFSL team for bringing this issue to life. It has been a big year for JDFSL as the journal continues to progress. I would like to highlight our critical achievements for 2014 before touching on the papers that were accepted in this issue: 1. JDFSL has gone to a fully open access model without author payment through support from academic institutions. 2. JDFSL has formed and continues to form partnerships with various conferences that relate to cyber security and …

Book Review: Judiciary-Friendly Forensics Of Software Copyright Infringement (Vinod Polpaya Bhattathiripad), Pedro L. P. Sanchez

Journal of Digital Forensics, Security and Law

Judiciary-Friendly Forensics of Software Copyright Infringement is a book by Dr. Vinod Polpaya Bhattathiripad, published by IGI-Global as part of its Research Essentials series. The book discusses the forensics of software copyright infringement and highlights theoretical, functional, and procedural matters in the investigation of copyright infringement of software products, as well as the development of forensic technologies to detect and avoid software piracy. It is of interest to software forensic experts, lawyers in the field of copyright infringement, judges, software professionals, and students.

Table Of Contents

Journal of Digital Forensics, Security and Law

No abstract provided.

Personal Denial Of Service (Pdos) Attacks: A Discussion And Exploration Of A New Category Of Cyber Crime, Michael R. Bartolacci, Larry J. Leblanc, Ashley Podhradsky

Journal of Digital Forensics, Security and Law

The growth of the Internet has created a corresponding growth in Internet-based crimes and online misbehavior, particularly among younger computer-savvy people. Younger generations have grown up in a world where internet access, social networking, e-commerce and smartphones are commonplace. Given this fact, they have learned how to use, and how to abuse, technology. This leads us to define a new category of cybercrime called a Personal Denial of Service attack (PDOS). A PDOS is a cyber-crime in which an individual deliberately prevents the access of another individual or small group to online services such as email or banking. Due to …

File Detection On Network Traffic Using Approximate Matching, Frank Breitinger, Ibrahim Baggili

Journal of Digital Forensics, Security and Law

In recent years, Internet technologies changed enormously and allow faster Internet connections, higher data rates and mobile usage. Hence, it is possible to send huge amounts of data / files easily which is often used by insiders or attackers to steal intellectual property. As a consequence, data leakage prevention systems (DLPS) have been developed which analyze network traffic and alert in case of a data leak. Although the overall concepts of the detection techniques are known, the systems are mostly closed and commercial. Within this paper we present a new technique for network traffic analysis based on approximate matching (a.k.a …

Fast Rtp Detection And Codecs Classification In Internet Traffic, Petr Matousek, Ondrej Rysavy, Martin Kmet

Journal of Digital Forensics, Security and Law

This paper presents a fast multi-stage method for on-line detection of RTP streams and codec identification of transmitted voice or video traffic. The method includes an RTP detector that filters packets based on specific values from UDP and RTP headers. When an RTP stream is successfully detected, codec identification is applied using codec feature sets. The paper shows advantages and limitations of the method and its comparison with other approaches. The method was implemented as a part of network forensics framework NetFox developed in project SEC6NET. Results show that the method can be successfully used for Lawful Interception as well …

Relating Admissibility Standards For Digital Evidence To Attack Scenario Reconstruction, Changwei Liu, Anoop Singhal, Duminda Wijesekera

Journal of Digital Forensics, Security and Law

Attackers tend to use complex techniques such as combining multi-step, multi-stage attack with anti-forensic tools to make it difficult to find incriminating evidence and reconstruct attack scenarios that can stand up to the expected level of evidence admissibility in a court of law. As a solution, we propose to integrate the legal aspects of evidence correlation into a Prolog based reasoner to address the admissibility requirements by creating most probable attack scenarios that satisfy admissibility standards for substantiating evidence. Using a prototype implementation, we show how evidence extracted by using forensic tools can be integrated with legal reasoning to reconstruct …

Audit: Automated Disk Investigation Toolkit, Umit Karabiyik, Sudhir Aggarwal

Journal of Digital Forensics, Security and Law

Software tools designed for disk analysis play a critical role today in forensics investigations. However, these digital forensics tools are often difficult to use, usually task specific, and generally require professionally trained users with IT backgrounds. The relevant tools are also often open source requiring additional technical knowledge and proper configuration. This makes it difficult for investigators without some computer science background to easily conduct the needed disk analysis. In this paper, we present AUDIT, a novel automated disk investigation toolkit that supports investigations conducted by non-expert (in IT and disk technology) and expert investigators. Our proof of concept design …

Evidentiary Power And Propriety Of Digital Identifiers And The Impact On Privacy Rights In The United States, Michael Losavio, Deborah Keeling

Journal of Digital Forensics, Security and Law

Media and network systems capture and store data about electronic activity in new, sometimes unprecedented ways; computational systems make for new means of analysis and knowledge development. These new forms offer new, powerful tactical tools for investigations of electronic malfeasance under traditional legal regulation of state power, particular that of Fourth Amendment limitations on police searches and seizures under the U.S. Constitution. But autonomy, identity and authenticity concerns with electronic data raise issues of public policy, privacy and proper police oversight of civil society. We examine those issues and their implications for digital and computational forensics

Effects Of The Factory Reset On Mobile Devices, Riqui Schwamm, Neil C. Rowe

Journal of Digital Forensics, Security and Law

Mobile devices usually provide a “factory-reset” tool to erase user-specific data from the main secondary storage. 9 Apple iPhones, 10 Android devices, and 2 BlackBerry devices were tested in the first systematic evaluation of the effectiveness of factory resets. Tests used the Cellebrite UME-36 Pro with the UFED Physical Analyzer, the Bulk Extractor open-source tool, and our own programs for extracting metadata, classifying file paths, and comparing them between images. Two phones were subjected to more detailed analysis. Results showed that many kinds of data were removed by the resets, but much user-specific configuration data was left. Android devices did …

Testing Framework For Mobile Device Forensics Tools, Maxwell Anobah, Shahzad Saleem, Oliver Popov

Journal of Digital Forensics, Security and Law

The proliferation of mobile communication and computing devices, in particular smart mobile phones, is almost paralleled with the increasing number of mobile device forensics tools in the market. Each mobile forensics tool vendor, on one hand claims to have a tool that is best in terms of performance, while on the other hand each tool vendor seems to be using different standards for testing their tools and thereby defining what support means differently. To overcome this problem, a testing framework based on a series of tests ranging from basic forensics tasks such as file system reconstruction up to more complex …

Technical Soddi Defenses: The Trojan Horse Defense Revisited, Chad M. Steel

Journal of Digital Forensics, Security and Law

In 2004, the Trojan horse defense was at a crossroads, having been successfully employed in two child pornography cases in the United Kingdom, resulting in acquittals. Despite the early successes, the Trojan horse defense has failed to become a regularly employed strategy. The original Trojan horse defense has now become part of the more general technical SODDI (Some Other Dude Did It) defense, which includes the possibility of unknown actors using unsecured Wi-Fi connections or having physical access to a computer to perform criminal acts. In the past ten years, it has not been effective in the United States for …

Table Of Contents

Journal of Digital Forensics, Security and Law

No abstract provided.

A State-Of-The-Art Review Of Cloud Forensics, Sameera Almulla, Youssef Iraqi, Andrew Jones

Journal of Digital Forensics, Security and Law

Cloud computing and digital forensics are emerging fields of technology. Unlike traditional digital forensics where the target environment can be almost completely isolated, acquired and can be under the investigators control; in cloud environments, the distribution of computation and storage poses unique and complex challenges to the investigators. Recently, the term “cloud forensics” has an increasing presence in the field of digital forensics. In this state-of-the-art review, we included the most recent research efforts that used “cloud forensics” as a keyword and then classify the literature into three dimensions: (1) survey-based, (2) technology-based and (3) forensics-procedural-based. We discuss widely accepted …

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 …

Forensics Of Software Copyright Infringement Crimes: The Modern Posar Test Juxtaposed With The Dated Afc Test, Vinod P. Bhattathiripad

Journal of Digital Forensics, Security and Law

This paper presents a new development in the forensics of software copyright through a juxtaposed comparison between the proven AFC test and the recent POSAR test, the two forensic procedures for establishing software copyright infringement cases. First, the paper separately overviews the 3-stage, linear sequential AFC test and then the 5-phase, cyclic POSAR test (as AFC’s logical extension). The paper then compares the processes involved in each of the 5 phases of the POSAR test with the processes involved in the 3 stages in the AFC test, for the benefit of forensic practitioners and researchers. Finally, the paper discusses some …

Fighting Child Pornography: A Review Of Legal And Technological Developments, Jasmine V. Eggestein, Kenneth J. Knapp

Journal of Digital Forensics, Security and Law

In our digitally connected world, the law is arguably behind the technological developments of the Internet age. While this causes many issues for law enforcement, it is of particular concern in the area of child pornography in the United States. With the wide availability of technologies such as digital cameras, peer-to-peer file sharing, strong encryption, Internet anonymizers and cloud computing, the creation and distribution of child pornography has become more widespread. Simultaneously, fighting the growth of this crime has become more difficult. This paper explores the development of both the legal and technological environments surrounding digital child pornography. In doing …

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. …

Automated Evaluation Of Approximate Matching Algorithms On Real Data, Frank Breitinger, Vassil Roussev

Electrical & Computer Engineering and Computer Science Faculty Publications

Bytewise approximate matching is a relatively new area within digital forensics, but its importance is growing quickly as practitioners are looking for fast methods to screen and analyze the increasing amounts of data in forensic investigations. The essential idea is to complement the use of cryptographic hash functions to detect data objects with bytewise identical representation with the capability to find objects with bytewise similarrepresentations.

Unlike cryptographic hash functions, which have been studied and tested for a long time, approximate matching ones are still in their early development stages and evaluation methodology is still evolving. Broadly, prior approaches have …

Strategies To Counter Cyber Attacks: Cyber Threats And Critical Infrastructure Protection, Bilge Karabacak, Unal Tatar

All Faculty and Staff Scholarship

Today, cyber threats have the potential to harm critical infrastructures which may result in the interruption of life-sustaining services, catastrophic economic damages or severe degradation of national security. The diversity and complexity of cyber threats that exploit the vulnerabilities of critical infrastructures increase every day. . In order to lessen the potential harm of cyber threats, countermeasures have to be applied and the effectiveness of these countermeasures has to be monitored continuously. In this study, a brief definition and history of critical infrastructures are introduced. Cyber threats are examined in four fundamental categories. Vulnerabilities of critical infrastructures are categorized and …

Why Penetration Testing Is A Limited Use Choice For Sound Cyber Security Practice, Craig Valli, Andrew J. Woodward, Peter Hannay, Michael N. Johnstone

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Penetration testing of networks is a process that is overused when demonstrating or evaluating the cyber security posture of an organisation. Most penetration testing is not aligned with the actual intent of the testing, but rather is driven by a management directive of wanting to be seen to be addressing the issue of cyber security. The use of penetration testing is commonly a reaction to an adverse audit outcome or as a result of being penetrated in the first place. Penetration testing used in this fashion delivers little or no value to the organisation being tested for a number of …

Small To Medium Enterprise Cyber Security Awareness: An Initial Survey Of Western Australian Business, Craig Valli, Ian C. Martinus, Michael N. Johnstone

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Small to Medium Enterprises (SMEs) represent a large proportion of a nation’s business activity. There are studies and reports reporting the threat to business from cyber security issues resulting in computer hacking that achieve system penetration and information compromise. Very few are focussed on SMEs. Even fewer are focussed on directly surveying the actual SMEs themselves and attempts to improve SME outcomes with respect to cyber security. This paper represents research in progress that outlines an approach being undertaken in Western Australia with SMEs in the northwest metropolitan region of Perth, specifically within the large local government catchments of Joondalup …

Innovative Applications And Security Of Internet Of Things, Yingjiu Li, Yingjiu Li, Nai-Wei Lo

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

With the advances and falling cost of intelligent things like RFID/USN, sensor networks, NFC, ZigBee, smart phones, and other relevant technologies, the potential applications and implementations of Internet of things have been intensively studied by both the academia and the industry. One potential application is integrating social networks with IoT, which results in the social Internet of things (SIoT). This vision not only provides potential opportunities but also new challenges. Innovative application and security are two main issues toward this paradigm

A Robust Smart Card-Based Anonymous User Authentication Protocol For Wireless Communications, Fengton Wen, Willy Susilo, Guomin Yang

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Anonymous user authentication is an important but challenging task for wireless communications. In a recent paper, Das proposed a smart cardï based anonymous user authentication protocol for wireless communications. The scheme can protect user privacy and is believed to be secure against a range of network attacks even if the secret information stored in the smart card is compromised. In this paper, we reanalyze the security of Das' scheme, and show that the scheme is in fact insecure against impersonation attacks. We then propose a new smart cardï based anonymous user authentication protocol for wireless communications. Compared with the existing …

Educating The Next Generation Of Cyberforensic Professionals, Mark Pollitt, Philip Craiger

Publications

This paper provides a historical overview of the development of cyberforensics as a scientific discipline, along with a description of the current state of training, educational programs, certification and accreditation. The paper traces the origins of cyberforensics, the acceptance of cyberforensics as a forensic science and its recognition as a component of information security. It also discusses the development of professional certification and standardized bodies of knowledge that have had a substantial impact on the discipline. Finally, it discusses the accreditation of cyberforensic educational programs, its linkage with the bodies of knowledge and its effect on cyberforensic educational programs.