Navigating the complex landscape of IoT forensics: challenges and emerging solutions

Abstract

With the increasing proliferation of the Internet of Things (IoT) devices, digital forensics professionals face numerous challenges whilst investigating cybercrimes. The vast number of IoT devices, the heterogeneity of their formats, and the diversity of the data they generate make the identification and collection of relevant evidence a daunting task. In this research paper, we explore the complex landscape of IoT forensics, highlighting the major challenges and emerging solutions. We start by listing the available digital forensics models and frameworks. We then delve into evidence management during different IoT forensic investigation stages such as Identification, Acquisition, Preservation and Protection, Analysis and Correlation, Attack and Deficit Attribution and lastly Presentation. Furthermore, we highlight the current challenges, open issues and major security and privacy concerns related to IoT forensics. Finally, we review the state-of-the-art in IoT forensics, exploring the possible solutions proposed in recent literature. Overall, this paper provides a comprehensive overview of the current IoT forensics ecosystem, the challenges, and proposes the latest possible solutions, which is critical for ensuring the security and integrity of IoT-enabled critical infrastructures and can serves as a valuable resource for researchers and practitioners in the field