Title: Drone forensics: investigative guide for law enforcement agencies

Authors: Nilay R. Mistry; Hitesh P. Sanghvi

Addresses: Institute of Forensic Science, Gujarat Forensic Sciences University, Sector 9, Gandhinagar – 382007, Gujarat – India ' Directorate of Forensic Science, Sector 18, Gandhinagar – 382007, Gujarat – India

Abstract: Nowadays, sophisticated criminals are using drones in different ways like spying, bombarding, shooting, etc. Law enforcement agencies have to deal with the biggest challenges to cope up and to investigate such incidents from the drones found from the crime scene. Drones used in crimes can provide valuable sources of information by analysing storage media and logs on drones, including flying routes and their take-off source and landing destinations as well as multimedia like images and videos taken by drones, whom have controlled and remotely operated it, the controller ID and metadata. In this research, we are going to discuss how such incidents can be investigated through forensics procedures. In which, the investigator can perform drone acquisition, evidence collection, forensic investigation, and reporting. This will cover the general legal procedure to collect and analyse any drones from the crime scene and investigate inside the lab.

Keywords: drone; unmanned aerial vehicle; UAV; forensic; investigation; tracking; embedded system forensics; remotely piloted aerial systems; RPAS; technology.

DOI: 10.1504/IJESDF.2021.114950

International Journal of Electronic Security and Digital Forensics, 2021 Vol.13 No.3, pp.334 - 345

Received: 18 Feb 2020
Accepted: 24 May 2020
Published online: 12 May 2021 *

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