Visible to the public Digital Forensic Analysis of Instant Messaging Applications on Android Smartphones

TitleDigital Forensic Analysis of Instant Messaging Applications on Android Smartphones
Publication TypeConference Paper
Year of Publication2018
AuthorsZhang, H., Chen, L., Liu, Q.
Conference Name2018 International Conference on Computing, Networking and Communications (ICNC)
Date PublishedMarch 2018
PublisherIEEE
ISBN Number978-1-5386-3652-7
Keywordsandroid, Android (operating system), android encryption, Android operating systems, Android smartphones, Androids, Databases, digital forensic, digital forensic analysis, digital forensics, electronic messaging, Human Behavior, human factors, Humanoid robots, Instant messaging, instant messaging application, instant messaging applications, instant messaging chat modes, local artifacts, Metrics, mobile computing, mobile devices, mobile forensic investigations, mobile networks, mobile users, pubcrawl, resilience, Resiliency, Scalability, smart phones, smartphones, user chat message details
Abstract

In this paper, we discuss the digital forensic procedure and techniques for analyzing the local artifacts from four popular Instant Messaging applications in Android. As part of our findings, the user chat messages details and contacts were investigated for each application. By using two smartphones with different brands and the latest Android operating systems as experimental objects, we conducted digital investigations in a forensically sound manner. We summarize our findings regarding the different Instant Messaging chat modes and the corresponding encryption status of artifacts for each of the four applications. Our findings can be helpful to many mobile forensic investigations. Additionally, these findings may present values to Android system developers, Android mobile app developers, mobile security researchers as well as mobile users.

URLhttps://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/8390330
DOI10.1109/ICCNC.2018.8390330
Citation KeyzhangDigitalForensicAnalysis2018