Internet of Things (IoT) forensics

The “Internet of Things” (IoT) is a relatively new development describing the network of physical objects that have the ability to sense or react to their environment. It is expected that the IoT will grow to massive proportions generating huge amounts of data about individuals and their environments. That data can potentially provide substantial contextual information to criminal investigations. However, there is great variability in the format and structure of the generated data, compounded by the potentially multiple locations (device, smart phone, network and cloud) in which the data for a specific event might be located. The complexity of forensic examination and analysis further compounded by the vast range of IoT manufacturers and their offerings who based their designs and supporting architecture based on their own company philosophy. Given that IoT forensics is a new field, analysis and examination techniques are very experimental at this stage.