Title: Data Obtainer: an application for digital acquisition

Authors: Pushpa Sharma; G. Geetha

Addresses: School of Computer Applications, Lovely Professional University, Phagwara, Punjab, India ' Division of Research and Development, Lovely Professional University, Phagwara, Punjab, India

Abstract: Digital acquisition plays an important role in crime investigation. Forensic investigators use this approach for acquiring evidence from suspect digital devices. Different kinds of digital devices like computer systems, digital cameras and mobile phones are analysed by forensic investigators for digital acquisition. The task of acquisition faces a number of challenges during crime investigation. These challenges require some techniques for making the acquisition process easy and fast. For this purpose, various tools and techniques have been provided by the research community. But all these tools are not sufficient for each and every problem that comes in the way of digital acquisition. Gaining access to a locked mobile phone is one of them. As we know, it is a tricky task that requires a specific technique or methodology. For this, the authors have developed an interactive mobile application called 'Data Obtainer'. The main objective of this paper is to specify the design and implementation of the 'Data Obtainer' application which deals with the problem of data acquisition especially in the context of Android devices such as mobile phones and tabs. The paper also reveals the significance of the Data Obtainer application. Moreover, this application also reduces the effort of the investigators during digital acquisition.

Keywords: criminal activity; cyber crime; digital acquisition; digital evidence; Data Obtainer; investigators; mobile forensics; digital forensics; crime investigation; mobile apps; locked mobile phones; cell phones; Android devices; tablets.

DOI: 10.1504/IJWMC.2016.079450

International Journal of Wireless and Mobile Computing, 2016 Vol.11 No.1, pp.1 - 9

Received: 13 Aug 2015
Accepted: 26 Apr 2016

Published online: 28 Sep 2016 *

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