Urge for Novel and Secure Software Framework for Extraction and Decoding of Mobile Artifacts

Mobile Forensics is now days, increasingly becoming more challenging as it is the field of science that is continuously evolving with respect to the rapidly developing technologies and techniques for the extraction of the mobile data and its decoding. Majority of the crimes are getting committed digitally and especially the criminals are preferring mobile handsets than a laptop or desktop machines, leaving the footprints behind which could be evidence against them. The mobile handsets along with their software applications are getting more advanced and sophisticated mainly due to advances in Cloud computing where clouds are used to store data, Anti-forensics where efforts are made to defeat forensic procedures and Encryption which is used to secure the data during transit. But when compared with the pace of development in mobile hardware and software, the forensic tools and techniques are growing very slowly. Hence the contemporary forensic tools and methodologies are becoming increasingly obsolete and hence urges for the advanced forensic tools, methods which could comply with the need of today’s mobile forensics. Hence, this work presents a detailed survey of the contemporary challenges faced by the forensic experts with the current forensic tools and its methodologies and also the need, scope and opportunities associated with the novel and secure software framework that can address the majority of issues occurring while extraction and decoding of mobile artifacts.

Antitamper Image Watermarking Based on Cellular Network Topology for IoT-Themed Mobile Forensics

The Internet of Things (IoT) connects physical and digital worlds with mobile devices, accompanied by a surge in cybersecurity issues. With the rapid adoption of mobile devices, mobile forensics emerges as a new interdisciplinary field that concerns many forms of sabotage and cybercrime in the context of mobile computing. One of the most common cyberattacks is tampering. Digital watermarking is a tamper-evident technique used to protect data integrity. In this paper, we present an antitamper image watermarking scheme designed for mobile communications with low computational cost. A reference matrix based on cellular network topology is introduced to guide the watermark embedding and extraction processes. This reference matrix serves as a lookup table to reduce computational complexity, thereby enabling efficient implementation on mobile devices. Our scheme is aimed at offering high accuracy in detecting and localizing tampered regions. We also achieve a high watermarking capacity while leaving the visual quality of the carrier images nearly unharmed. Experimental results validate the effectiveness of our scheme against various types of simulated forgery including cropping and copy/paste attacks.

Digital Forensic Analysis Of Michat Application On Android As Digital Proof In Handling Online Prostitution Cases

Smartphone technology and the Internet are very popular lately, especially with various features, one of which is instant messaging. But behind it all, instant messaging like MiChat is very vulnerable to becoming a crime, one of which is Online Prostitution. To follow up on Online Prostitution activities, it is necessary to carry out mobile forensics to find evidence which is then given to be given to the authorities. This study uses the MiChat application as an online prostitution media, and uses the National Institute of Justice (NIJ) method which has five basic stages is, preparation, collection, examination, analysis, and reporting. This research uses MOBILedit Forensic Express, and SysTools SQLite Viewer.

Impediments in Mobile Forensics

In this digital era, the usage of mobile phones in daily life has become inextricable due to the facilities and the level of sophistication it offers. Proportionately, the crimes and offenses involving the mobile devices are growing in rapid speed. Whenever a crime occurs in a spot, the forensic team will arrive there to identify and locate the evidence of the criminals. If the crime involves digital equipment like computers and laptop, then digital forensic team will investigate and analyze the devices for digital evidence collection. These days, mobile phones have the capability to offer any kind of information and services digitally on top of the palm of the user. Anything is available on the hands with a single touch on the screen of the mobile devices. It also offers to the adversaries many digital services which are harmful to the societies. The fast-paced advancement in the digital front paves the way for many digital crimes. Hence, a new field, mobile forensics, emerges out to trace the evidence, but it faces many challenges due to the dynamic nature of the digital technologies.