Now showing 1 - 10 of 12
  • Publication
    Leveraging Decentralisation to Extend the Digital Evidence Acquisition Window: Case Study on BitTorrent Sync
    File synchronization services such as Dropbox, Google Drive, Microsoft OneDrive, Apple iCloud, etc., are becoming increasingly popular in today’s always-connected world. A popular alternative to the aforementioned services is BitTorrent Sync. This is a decentralized/cloudless file synchronization service and is gaining significant popularity among Internet users with privacy concerns over where their data is stored and who has the ability to access it. The focus of this paper is the remote recovery of digital evidence pertaining to files identified as being accessed or stored on a suspect’s computer or mobile device. A methodology for the identification, investigation, recovery and verification of such remote digital evidence is outlined. Finally, a proof-of-concept remote evidence recovery from BitTorrent Sync shared folder highlighting a number of potential scenarios for the recovery and verification of such evidence.
      134
  • Publication
    HTML5 Zero Configuration Covert Channels: Security Risks and Challenges
    In recent months there has been an increase in the popularity and public awareness of secure, cloudless file transfer systems. The aim of these services is to facilitate the secure transfer of files in a peer-to- peer (P2P) fashion over the Internet without the need for centralised authentication or storage. These services can take the form of client installed applications or entirely web browser based interfaces. Due to their P2P nature, there is generally no limit to the file sizes involved or to the volume of data transmitted – and where these limitations do exist they will be purely reliant on the capacities of the systems at either end of the transfer. By default, many of these services provide seamless, end-to-end encryption to their users. The cyber security and cyber forensic consequences of the potential criminal use of such services are significant. The ability to easily transfer encrypted data over the Internet opens up a range of opportunities for illegal use to cyber criminals requiring minimal technical know-how. This paper explores a number of these services and provides an analysis of the risks they pose to corporate and governmental security. A number of methods for the forensic investigation of such transfers are discussed.
      525
  • Publication
    Leveraging Decentralisation to Extend the Digital Evidence Acquisition Window: Case Study on BitTorrent Sync
    (Association of Digital Forensics, Security and Law, 2014) ; ; ;
    File synchronization services such as Dropbox, Google Drive, Microsoft OneDrive, Apple iCloud, etc., are becoming increasingly popular in today's always-connected world. A popular alternative to the aforementioned services is BitTorrent Sync. This is a decentralized/cloudless file synchronization service and is gaining significant popularity among Internet users with privacy concerns over where their data is stored and who has the ability to access it. The focus of this paper is the remote recovery of digital evidence pertaining to files identified as being accessed or stored on a suspect's computer or mobile device. A methodology for the identification, investigation, recovery and verification of such remote digital evidence is outlined. Finally, a proof-of-concept remote evidence recovery from BitTorrent Sync shared folder highlighting a number of potential scenarios for the recovery and verification of such evidence.
      157
  • Publication
    Overview of the Forensic Investigation of Cloud Services
    Cloud Computing is a commonly used, yet ambiguous term, which can be used to refer to a multitude of differing dynamically allocated services. From a law enforcement and forensic investigation perspective, cloud computing can be thought of as a double edged sword. While on one hand, the gathering of digital evidence from cloud sources can bring with it complicated technical and cross-jurisdictional legal challenges. On the other, the employment of cloud storage and processing capabilities can expedite the forensics process and focus the investigation onto pertinent data earlier in an investigation. This paper examines the state-of-the-art in cloud-focused, digital forensic practises for the collection and analysis of evidence and an overview of the potential use of cloud technologies to provide Digital Forensics as a Service.
    Scopus© Citations 28  914
  • Publication
    BitTorrent Sync: First Impressions and Digital Forensic Implications
    With professional and home Internet users becoming increasingly concerned with data protection and privacy, the privacy afforded by popular cloud file synchronisation services, such as Dropbox, OneDrive and Google Drive, is coming under scrutiny in the press. A number of these services have recently been reported as sharing information with governmental security agencies without warrants. BitTorrent Sync is seen as an alternative by many and has gathered over two million users by December 2013 (doubling since the previous month). The service is completely decentralised, offers much of the same synchronisation functionality of cloud powered services and utilises encryption for data transmission (and optionally for remote storage). The importance of understanding BitTorrent Sync and its resulting digital investigative implications for law enforcement and forensic investigators will be paramount to future investigations. This paper outlines the client application, its detected network traffic and identifies artefacts that may be of value as evidence for future digital investigations.
      403Scopus© Citations 5
  • Publication
    BitTorrent Sync: Network Investigation Methodology
    The volume of personal information and data most Internet users find themselves amassing is ever increasing and the fast pace of the modern world results in most requiring instant access to their files. Millions of these users turn to cloud based file synchronisation services, such as Dropbox, Microsoft Skydrive, Apple iCloud and Google Drive, to enable 'always-on' access to their most up-to-date data from any computer or mobile device with an Internet connection. The prevalence of recent articles covering various invasion of privacy issues and data protection breaches in the media has caused many to review their online security practices with their personal information. To provide an alternative to cloud based file backup and synchronisation, BitTorrent Inc. released an alternative cloudless file backup and synchronisation service, named BitTorrent Sync to alpha testers in April 2013. BitTorrent Sync's popularity rose dramatically throughout 2013, reaching over two million active users by the end of the year. This paper outlines a number of scenarios where the network investigation of the service may prove invaluable as part of a digital forensic investigation. An investigation methodology is proposed outlining the required steps involved in retrieving digital evidence from the network and the results from a proof of concept investigation are presented.
    Scopus© Citations 13  433
  • Publication
    Increasing Digital Investigator Availability Through Efficient Workflow Management And Automation
    The growth of digital storage capacities and diversity devices has had a significant time impact on digital forensic laboratories in law enforcement. Backlogs have become commonplace and increasingly more time is spent in the acquisition and preparation steps of an investigation as opposed to detailed evidence analysis and reporting. There is generally little room for increasing digital investigation capacity in law enforcement digital forensic units and the allocated budgets for these units are often decreasing. In the context of developing an efficient investigation process, one of the key challenges amounts to how to achieve more with less. This paper proposes a workflow management automation framework for handling common digital forensic tools. The objective is to streamline the digital investigation workflow - enabling more efficient use of limited hardware and software. The proposed automation framework reduces the time digital forensic experts waste conducting time consuming, though necessary, tasks. The evidence processing time is decreased through server-side automation resulting in 24/7 evidence preparation. The proposed framework increases efficiency of use of forensic software and hardware, reduces the infrastructure costs and license fees, and simplifies the preparation steps for the digital investigator. The proposed approach is evaluated in a real-world scenario to evaluate its robustness and highlight its benefits.
    Scopus© Citations 12  586
  • Publication
    Towards the Forensic Identification and Investigation of Cloud Hosted Servers through Non-invasive Wiretaps
    When conducting modern cybercrime investigations, evidence has often to be gathered from computer systems located at cloud-based data centres of hosting providers. In cases where the investigation cannot rely on the cooperation of the hosting provider, or where documentation is not available, investigators can often find the identification of which distinct server among many is of interest difficult and extremely time consuming. To address the problem of identifying these servers, in this paper a new approach to rapidly and reliably identify these cloud hosting computer systems is presented. In the outlined approach, a handheld device composed of an embedded computer combined with a method of undetectable interception of Ethernet based communications is presented. This device is tested and evaluated, and a discussion is provided on its usefulness in identifying of server of interest to an investigation.
    Scopus© Citations 7  349
  • Publication
    Leveraging Decentralization to Extend the Digital Evidence Acquisition Window: Case Study On Bittorent Sync
    (Association of Digital Forensics, Security and Law, 2014-09-20) ; ; ;
    File synchronization services such as Dropbox, Google Drive, Microsoft OneDrive, Apple iCloud, etc., are becoming increasingly popular in today’s always-connected world. A popular alternative to the aforementioned services is BitTorrent Sync. This is a decentralized/cloudless file synchronization service and is gaining significant popularity among Internet users with privacy concerns over where their data is stored and who has the ability to access it. The focus of this paper is the remote recovery of digital evidence pertaining to files identified as being accessed or stored on a suspect’s computer or mobile device. A methodology for the identification, investigation, recovery and verification of such remote digital evidence is outlined. Finally, a proof-of-concept remote evidence recovery from BitTorrent Sync shared folder highlighting a number of potential scenarios for the recovery and verification of such evidence
      220
  • Publication
    Network Investigation Methodology for BitTorrent Sync: A Peer-to-Peer Based File Synchronisation Service
    High availability is no longer just a business continuity concern. Users are increasingly dependant on devices that consume and produce data in ever increasing volumes. A popular solution is to have a central repository which each device accesses after centrally managed authentication. This model of use is facilitated by cloud based file synchronisation services such as Dropbox, OneDrive, Google Drive and Apple iCloud. Cloud architecture allows the provisioning of storage space with 'always-on' access. Recent concerns over unauthorised access to third party systems and large scale exposure of private data have made an alternative solution desirable. These events have caused users to assess their own security practices and the level of trust placed in third party storage services. One option is BitTorrent Sync, a cloudless synchronisation utility provides data availability and redundancy. This utility replicates files stored in shares to remote peers with access controlled by keys and permissions. While lacking the economies brought about by scale, complete control over data access has made this a popular solution. The ability to replicate data without oversight introduces risk of abuse by users as well as difficulties for forensic investigators. This paper suggests a methodology for investigation and analysis of the protocol to assist in the control of data flow across security perimeters.
      652Scopus© Citations 15