A Systematic Review of Digital, Cloud and IoT Forensics

Abstract

Our world is proliferated with high-end devices that have multiple capabilities. These devices have an array of sensors embedded into them that collect an enormous amount of data. Because of rapid development in technology, these devices are capable of rendering state-of-the-art services that are based on the cloud. Assuredly, the proliferation of ultra-modern devices with high-end services, have modernized and eased our lives. But, some entities or adversaries of our society are exploiting the same technological innovation for their benefits. Such criminal activities have become even easier to be carried out with modern devices and other technologies. Fortunately, we can examine the confiscated digital devices such as android smartphones, laptops, smartwatches, etc., from a crime scene and gain insight into the criminal activities carried out by the adversaries. It is also possible for us to recover the data the adversaries have collected or transmitted. Since modern devices utilize the services provided by cloud computing, it naturally becomes essential for the analysis of the cloud in case of the investigation of a crime scene. IoT forensics is interdisciplinary, as the data to be investigated may be collected from sensors, smart devices, etc., connected to a crime scene and the cloud too. Digital Forensics is an easier task to be performed when compared to Cloud Forensics. The segregation and collection of evidence in a cloud forensic investigation is a mammoth task due to the distributed and multi-tenant nature of cloud computing. But there is no such problem associated with digital forensic investigation. In this chapter, we have reviewed the work on Digital, Cloud and IoT Forensics by the scientific community. We have compared their effort and the outcome of their work, and summarized the state-of-the-art in the field of Digital, Cloud and IoT Forensics. Our aim of this chapter is to create a thorough review that will help fellow researchers in thought association for getting a clearer picture of the current state of research on Digital, Cloud and IoT Forensics and find the research gaps.