Application-Specific Digital Forensics Investigative Model in Internet of Things (IoT)

TLDR: This paper argues that besides traditional digital forensics practices it is important to have application-specific forensics in place to ensure collection of evidence in context of specific IoT applications and introduces a model which deals with not just traditional forensics but is applicable in digital as well as application- specific forensics process.

Abstract: Besides its enormous benefits to the industry and community the Internet of Things (IoT) has introduced unique security challenges to its enablers and adopters. As the trend in cybersecurity threats continue to grow, it is likely to influence IoT deployments. Therefore it is eminent that besides strengthening the security of IoT systems we develop effective digital forensics techniques that when breaches occur we can track the sources of attacks and bring perpetrators to the due process with reliable digital evidence. The biggest challenge in this regard is the heterogeneous nature of devices in IoT systems and lack of unified standards. In this paper we investigate digital forensics from IoT perspectives. We argue that besides traditional digital forensics practices it is important to have application-specific forensics in place to ensure collection of evidence in context of specific IoT applications. We consider top three IoT applications and introduce a model which deals with not just traditional forensics but is applicable in digital as well as application-specific forensics process. We believe that the proposed model will enable collection, examination, analysis and reporting of forensically sound evidence in an IoT application-specific digital forensics investigation.