An integrated open forensic environment for digital evidence investigation

Abstract

Nowadays, the capability of traditional digital forensic tools fails to meet the demand of ever increasing of criminal or civil cases. One of the challenges is that digital devices and applications are multifarious and changing quickly. Here, we propose a new mode for digital forensic tools utilization via integrating open-source single tools into a platform and setting up into Live DVD/USB. The platform, an Integrated Open Forensic Environment (named IOFE), takes full advantage of these tools and, at the same time, elevates its power and interoperability via standardized input/output data. The IOFE features conducting live and dead investigation and covers three consecutive major phases of digital forensics: acquisition, analysis, and presentation. Our experiments prove that IOFE can carry out manifold acquisition, interpretation, analysis, and presentation task of evidentiary data in an efficient and effective manner.