Digital forensics: the missing piece of the Internet of Things promise

Abstract

As technology advances at a blinding pace, the promise of new gadgets to enhance every facet of our lives tempts every consumer and organisation. From the ease of automation, control and monitoring of the most mundane aspects of our lives to advanced lifesaving and monitoring capabilities, our world is changing daily. No reliable forensics application or digital forensics guidance exists to retrieve the data from IoT devices in the event of an attack, an active investigation or a litigation request. The digital forensics of Internet of things (IoT) technologies is the missing conversation in our headlong rush to the promise of connecting every device on the planet. Steve Watson of VTO Labs and Ali Dehghantanha of the University of Salford discuss the issues and the importance of further development in this field. And they elaborate on how forensics practitioners, device manufacturers and legal authorities could share their efforts and minimise this gap.