CSEC661 Individual Assignment #2. Mobile Forensics White Paper
CSEC661 Individual Assignment #2
Objective: Students will prepare a briefing appraising the mobile technology environment, as well as evaluating the approaches and challenges in mobile forensics. This would include challenges in technology, methodology, training, and expense, as well as potential ways to address these challenges.
Course Goals:
1. Develop and utilize a methodology for digital evidence collection, preservation, and analysis.
2. Develop incident response plan and procedures for a variety of digital forensic situations.
3. Evaluate environment for global/international influences and determine implications on forensic procedures.
5. Appraise appropriate digital forensic techniques for Network, Internet, and Cloud-based environments.
8. Incorporate validated forensic results into appropriate action plans, reporting, information sharing, and information archiving procedures.
Scenario:
You are called upon to create a white paper addressing the challenges in mobile forensics including the technology itself, forensic methodology, examiner training, and associated expenses related to developing and maintaining mobile forensic capability. The paper should be objective and not tool specific. A goal is to provide a picture as to what is involved in mobile forensics and the considerations that influence obtaining and maintaining mobile digital forensic capability.
Deliverables:
Your briefing should include a title page, table of contents, abstract, and 5 – 7 pages of content. Each of the following should be addressed: challenges in technology, methodology, training, and expense, as well as potential ways to address these challenges. Be sure to include proper document support.
Mobile Forensics White Paper
Name
Institutional Affiliation
Abstract
The late twentieth century ushered in an era of mobile devices, technological expansion, and increased access to mobile data. The innovation of mobile devices is one of the remarkable advancements that man has made in history. The innovation of cutting-edge technologies has impacted how consumers use and operate mobile devices. A remarkable observation has been in the field of communication and information where mobile phone manufacturers are enhancing high security and privatization of mobile devices. The main problem is that these technological developments are not moving at the same pace as the knowledge of crime detection and prevention officers.
In most cases, mobile devices are the primary sources of obtaining information about the crime. Technological advancements in securing privacy of mobile devices are making it impossible for those that examine the devices to obtain information about the nature and cause of crime. This paper takes an in-depth analysis into challenges in mobile forensics technology, methodology, training, expenses, and concludes by an overview of potential ways that mobile forensic examiners can use to address these challenges. The theme of the paper is on the unparalleled technology of mobile devices and the technology that is used to examine them.
Mobile Forensics White Paper
Introduction
Mobile forensics is the technology that is used to obtain electronic data from mobile phone devices for evidence purposes (Ayers, Brother, & Jansen, 2014). Mobile devices range from mobile phones, personal digital assistants (PDAs), tablets, digital cameras, smart watches, and smartphones. These devices are used for various purposes including sending and receiving short message services (SMS), geographical position location, financial transactions, voice calls, sending and receiving emails, and taking videos and photos. As a result, they possess a high knowledge of privacy that can be tapped and unearth the nature and causes of crime. The problem is, however, that the distribution of mobile forensics knowledge is scattered and limited, posing a challenge to mobile investigators.
Additionally, the unparalleled growth in security features of mobile devices poses a serious challenge to investigators. The greatest challenge that mobile forensic examiner will ever face is when the manufacturer of a mobile device upgrades the security feature immediately after the examiner has obtained the knowledge of examining the device. This makes mobile forensic training and examination a continuous process in the world, especially because crime rates are rising on a daily basis. Mobile Forensic examiners are facing a challenge in the changing nature of crimes coupled with the sophistication of crime and mobile devices associated with those crimes. A criminal can only stand prosecution in the court of law in the presence of enough evidence labeled against the suspect.
Mobile Forensics Challenges
The explosion of mobile devices has posed a severe threat to the use of mobile phone devices. The daily use of mobile devices such as communication, storage of textual and audio-visual information makes them a better target for forensic examiners. Forensic examiners are facing serious challenges in the evidential and contextual acquisition of information for legal purposes from mobile devices. The forensic examination of mobile devices takes two forms. The automatic forensic examination is the use of software in case the device’s software is compatible with the existing forensic knowledge in the market (Kessler, 2015). The manual forensic examination takes the form of manual extraction of evidence for forensic examination. To remain competitive in the market, manufacturers of mobile devices are making daily developments in security systems and storage capacity.
One of the leading challenges for the forensic examiner is to develop a single tool that can be used to examine various devices in the market. Today, there are hundreds of mobile devices manufactured by different companies with sophisticated and complex security features (Lessard& Kessler, 2010). Another leading challenge emanates from the fact that mobile networks do not share a common platform. Today, different manufacturers are introducing complex data storage strategies, some of them that are hard to obtain under the acceptable forensic environment (Lisboa, 2015). During the mobile forensic process, the examiner has to make sure that the device remains on throughout the process. The problem is that the signal remains active and this causes the battery to drain fast than expected. Additionally, any attempt to tamper with the ...