Using Blockchain, RAID, & BitTorrent Technologies to Secure Digital Evidence from Ransomware

Abstract

Digital evidence is an important part of solving and prosecuting crimes. However, most the storage systems used are out-of-date and on unsecure networks. Attackers often exploit these system vulnerabilities through the use of ransomware. The recent COVID pandemic has seen a drastic rise in these types of attacks. If an attacker is able to ransom a system the digital evidence stored in it is locked and no longer available, which creates problems for police officers and prosecutors. To mitigate these attacks from destroying months or years of generated digital evidence, the use of blockchain, RAID network storage, and BitTorrent technologies are proposed. Blockchains are public or private ledgers made up of nodes. Each node contains a full copy of the ledger and secures it from tampering by a hash that points to the previous block in the chain. To keep the blockchain from getting too large and slowing down the system as more blocks are added to the chain, the use of RAID and BitTorrent technologies will be used to break up the digital evidence that has been generated.