Analysis of Second Hand Google Mini Search Appliance

Abstract

Information and the technological advancements for which mankind develops with regards to its storage has increased tremendously over the past few decades. As the total amount of data stored rapidly increases in conjunction with the amount of widely available computer-driven devices being used, solutions are being developed to better harness this data (LaTulippe, 2011).  One of these solutions is commonly known as a search appliance. Search appliances have been used in e-discovery for several years. The Google Mini Search Appliance (Mini) has not only been used for e-discovery, but for indexing and searching internal documents. To accomplish these tasks, search appliances not only cache html versions of the documents, they contain metadata about the indexed documents, as well as metadata about search activity. This research analyzes the Mini to determine what forensically interesting artifacts exist on the device.