Zaiton Muda

Yee-Yang Teing, Ali Dehghantanha, Kim-Kwang Raymond Choo

The pervasive nature of cloud-enabled big data storage solutions introduces new challenges in the identification, collection, analysis, preservation and archiving of digital evidences. Investigation of such complex platforms to locate and recover traces of criminal activities is a time-consuming process. Hence, cyber forensics researchers are moving towards streamlining the investigation process by locating and documenting residual artefacts (evidences) of forensic value of users activities on cloud-enabled big data platforms in order to reduce the investigation time and resources involved in a real-world investigation. In this paper, we seek to determine the data remnants of forensic value from Syncany private cloud storage service, a popular storage engine for big data platforms. We demonstrate the types and the locations of the artefacts that can be forensically recovered. Findings from this research contribute to an in-depth understanding of cloud-enabled big data storage forensics, which can result in reduced time and resources spent in real-world investigations involving Syncany-based cloud platforms.

Teing Yee Yang, Ali Dehghantanha, Kim-Kwang Raymond Choo et al.

Instant messaging applications (apps) are one potential source of evidence in a criminal investigation or a civil litigation. To ensure the most effective collection of evidence, it is vital for forensic practitioners to possess an up-to-date knowledge about artefacts of forensic interest from various instant messaging apps. Hence, in this chapter, we study America Online Instant Messenger (version 7.14.5.8) with the aims of contributing to an in-depth understanding of the types of terrestrial artefacts that are likely to remain after the use of instant messaging services and app on Windows 8.1 devices. Potential artefacts identified during the research include data relating to the installation or uninstallation, log-in and log-off information, contact lists, conversations, and transferred files.

Teing Yee Yang, Ali Dehghantanha, Kim-Kwang Raymond Choo et al.

Instant messaging (IM) has changed the way people communicate with each other. However, the interactive and instant nature of these applications (apps) made them an attractive choice for malicious cyber activities such as phishing. The forensic examination of IM apps for modern Windows 8.1 (or later) has been largely unexplored, as the platform is relatively new. In this paper, we seek to determine the data remnants from the use of two popular Windows Store application software for instant messaging, namely Facebook and Skype on a Windows 8.1 client machine. This research contributes to an in-depth understanding of the types of terrestrial artefacts that are likely to remain after the use of instant messaging services and application software on a contemporary Windows operating system. Potential artefacts detected during the research include data relating to the installation or uninstallation of the instant messaging application software, log-in and log-off information, contact lists, conversations, and transferred files.