TY - CHAP
T1 - Blockchain-Based Distributed and Secure Digital Forensic Investigation Systems
AU - Conti, Mauro
AU - Kumar, Gulshan
AU - Lal, Chhagan
AU - Saha, Rahul
PY - 2024
Y1 - 2024
N2 - Lawful evidence management by law enforcement agencies during the Digital Forensics (DF) investigation is of supreme importance since it convicts suspects of crimes. Therefore, a secure and efficient evidence management system should have certain features such as tamper-resistant, traceability, auditability, privacy preservation, and fine-grained access control. Unfortunately, the state-of-the-art DF is facing new challenges due to the recent technological advancements in various areas, such as the Internet of Things (IoT), Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS), communication technologies, and cloud computing, which are heavily being used in our daily lives. These technologies are also the primary sources for evidence extraction in most crimes. Hence, forensic experts need novel tools and methodologies to keep pace with these new technologies. The inherent properties of blockchain, such as transparency, immutability, secure anonymity, and auditability, make it a suitable solution to address DF’s new challenges. To this end, we provide a compact survey on state-of-the-art blockchain-based DF investigation techniques along with their advantages and disadvantages. We will discuss all critical issues and challenges involved in forensic investigations and evidence management systems, focusing on security and privacy challenges. Moreover, blockchain-based solutions that target specific service areas such as IoT and cloud computing forensics will be discussed in detail due to their usage in many application domains. Finally, we will present the challenges that existing blockchain-based forensics solutions face, along with possible ways of addressing them.
AB - Lawful evidence management by law enforcement agencies during the Digital Forensics (DF) investigation is of supreme importance since it convicts suspects of crimes. Therefore, a secure and efficient evidence management system should have certain features such as tamper-resistant, traceability, auditability, privacy preservation, and fine-grained access control. Unfortunately, the state-of-the-art DF is facing new challenges due to the recent technological advancements in various areas, such as the Internet of Things (IoT), Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS), communication technologies, and cloud computing, which are heavily being used in our daily lives. These technologies are also the primary sources for evidence extraction in most crimes. Hence, forensic experts need novel tools and methodologies to keep pace with these new technologies. The inherent properties of blockchain, such as transparency, immutability, secure anonymity, and auditability, make it a suitable solution to address DF’s new challenges. To this end, we provide a compact survey on state-of-the-art blockchain-based DF investigation techniques along with their advantages and disadvantages. We will discuss all critical issues and challenges involved in forensic investigations and evidence management systems, focusing on security and privacy challenges. Moreover, blockchain-based solutions that target specific service areas such as IoT and cloud computing forensics will be discussed in detail due to their usage in many application domains. Finally, we will present the challenges that existing blockchain-based forensics solutions face, along with possible ways of addressing them.
KW - Blockchain
KW - Cloud computing
KW - Digital forensics
KW - Evidence management
KW - Internet of Things
KW - Security and privacy
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85188882268&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1007/978-3-031-32146-7_11
DO - 10.1007/978-3-031-32146-7_11
M3 - Chapter
AN - SCOPUS:85188882268
SN - 978-3-031-32145-0
T3 - Advances in Information Security
SP - 337
EP - 362
BT - Blockchains
PB - Springer
CY - Cham
ER -