Cyber Forensics Team Launches Digital Forensics Database
The University of New Haven announced today it has created a digital forensic evidence
archive to revolutionize how investigators around the world analyze cyber forensic
evidence and share critical data.
July 11, 2017
The new Artifact Genome Project (AGP), will document how various apps and digital information used as forensic evidence
are structured and decoded. It will record where and what type of digital evidence
can be located and, if data is encrypted, how to unencrypt it.
Video: Artifact Genome Project
The initiative, modeled after the groundbreaking Human Genome Project, unites researchers and practitioners to centralize knowledge about digital forensic
artifacts. Now a law enforcement professional in Chicago can see how a researcher
in Miami decoded an app such as Tinder, which uses a location-based search-mobile app to connect users. Investigators can avoid having to themselves "crack the code" of
each device or version of an app.
The database will allow investigators worldwide to solve cases more quickly as they
will no longer have to figure out for themselves what others have already learned.
Using the AGP platform, they can research what has been done before or message other
investigators for help.
So many applications and so many technologies are being created and continuously updated,
that forensic investigators can’t keep up.
– Ibrahim Baggili, Ph.D., Elder Family Endowed Chair of the Cyber Forensics Research
Group
Ibrahim Baggili, Ph.D.
"Without the artifact archive, every investigator is trying to figure out every technology."
said Ibrahim Baggili, Elder Family Endowed Chair and founder of the university’s Cyber Forensics Research Group.
Now when investigators determine how to get information from a smartphone, for example,
they can upload the "artifact" -- information about where and how they found the
information --- to the Artifact Genome Project.
The AGP allows researchers to keep up with technology in drones, Fitbits, mobile phones,
laptops with different operating systems, and millions of applications in the Google
Play and Apple Stores, Baggili said.