Project description
New tools for mobile phone forensics
The mobile phone has near universal reach. Not surprisingly, mobile devices are commonly used for illegal activity. As such, a mobile device is implicated in just about every crime committed – from identity theft and data extraction to human trafficking, child abuse and homicide. Data encryption mechanisms add to the challenges of dealing with this phenomenon. The EU-funded EXFILES project will develop new tools for law enforcement agencies to extract data and related evidence from mobile devices. Led by a consortium of law enforcement agencies, universities and cybersecurity companies, the project will focus on software, hardware and combined methods. It will also consider the ethical and legal aspects of research and exploitation. The findings will be particularly useful for the next generation of forensic experts.
Objective
"Technological advances and development of sophisticated functions in mobile devices led to new usages and dependencies. Mobile phones are often a key factor in criminal cases, intrusions, intellectual property theft, security threats, and more. The data stored in these devices may contain critical evidence associated with the above-mentioned crimes.
The latest generation of devices incorporate new security features and encryption schemes to ""protect"" the device and its associated user data. The other side of the coin is that the rapid processing of critical evidence by various information retrieval techniques is slowed down, if not made impossible. The mobile device forensics field is a challenging area for forensic analysts, particularly given the increasing number of data encryption mechanisms.
The EXFILES project aims to provide law enforcement agencies (LEAs) with new tools to extract data and associated evidence from these devices in strict legal contexts. A unique consortium of five LEAs, universities and cyber security companies from the EU have joined forces to address these challenges. Together, they defined three areas of work on technical data extraction techniques, namely software exploitation, hardware methods and combined methods. In addition, tools and methods inspired by other areas of information security (e.g. security assessments based on common criteria) will lead to new judicial methods of accessing data for lawful investigations. Another unique dimension of EXFILES is the clear focus on the ethical and legal aspects of research and exploitation as well as dissemination and training activities for the next generation of forensic experts.
The main objective of EXFILES project is to improve Law Enforcement Agencies techniques and methods, to extract digital evidence from modern encrypted smartphones used by criminals based on holistic approach (both software and hardware).
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Fields of science
- natural sciencescomputer and information sciencessoftware
- social scienceslawlaw enforcement
- engineering and technologyelectrical engineering, electronic engineering, information engineeringinformation engineeringtelecommunicationsmobile phones
- social scienceslawcriminology
- natural sciencescomputer and information sciencescomputer security
Keywords
Programme(s)
- H2020-EU.3.7. - Secure societies - Protecting freedom and security of Europe and its citizens Main Programme
- H2020-EU.3.7.1. - Fight crime, illegal trafficking and terrorism, including understanding and tackling terrorist ideas and beliefs
- H2020-EU.3.7.8. - Support the Union's external security policies including through conflict prevention and peace-building
Funding Scheme
RIA - Research and Innovation actionCoordinator
9500 Villach
Austria
The organization defined itself as SME (small and medium-sized enterprise) at the time the Grant Agreement was signed.