Abstract
Digital forensics has been modeled into a number of stages, which include examination and analysis. Keyword search is a popular tactic used by investigators during evidence examination and analysis. However, the belief that the success of forensic analysis depends on the examiner’s knowledge and experience has a strong hold in the digital forensic domain. It does imply the adequate awareness of the capabilities and limitations of the tools used by the examiner. Keyword search enables the examiner to quickly locate the existence of data items related to a case. This reduces investigation duration and eases the investigation process. This paper discusses the concepts of keyword search and the various keyword search techniques available. It highlights the algorithms on which they are based. In addition to the overview of, and argument for thorough understanding and evaluation of this technique in forensic utilities, this article also provides evaluation procedures to serve as direction for future evaluation/validation studies to ensure examiners know just how much to trust their software, as far as keyword searching is concerned.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Johnson, T.: Forensic Computer Crime Investigation. Taylor & Francis, Florida (2006)
Sheetz, M.: Computer Forensics: An Essential Guide for Accountants, Lawyers and Managers. Wiley, Florida (2007)
Casey, E.: Handbook of Digital Forensics and Investigations. Elsevier Academic Press, London (2009)
Association of Chief Police Officers: The Good Practice Guide for Computer-Based Electronic Evidence 4th version. http://www.7safe.com/electronic_evidence/ACPO_guidelines_computer_evidence_v4_web.pdf. Accessed 12 Sep 2017
Jee, H., Lee, J., Hong, D.: High speed bitwise search for digital forensic system. In: World Academy of Science, Engineering and Technology, vol. 32 (2007)
Lee, J.: Proposal for efficient searching and presentation in digital forensics. In: Proceedings of 3rd International Conference on Availability, Reliability and Security, pp. 1–5 (2008)
Carrier, B.: NTFS Keyword Search Test #1. Digital Forensic Tool Testing. http://dftt.sourceforge.net. Accessed 25 Aug 2017
Casey, E.: Handbook of Digital Forensics and Investigations. Elsevier Academic Press, London (2010)
Beebe, N.: Digital forensic research: the good, the bad and the unaddressed. In: Peterson, G., Shenoi, S. (eds.) DigitalForensics 2009. IAICT, vol. 306, pp. 17–36. Springer, Heidelberg (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-04155-6_2
Pollitt, M., Shenoi, S. (eds.): Advances in Digital Forensics, vol. 194. Springer, Orlando (2005). https://doi.org/10.1007/0-387-31163-7
Guidance Software: EnCase Essentials: Forensic User Manual Version 8. http://www.guidancesoftware.com/products/ef_index.asp. Accessed 13 July 2017
Python Software Foundation: Keyword Searching and Indexing of Forensic Images. http://pyflag.sourceforge.net/Documentation/articles/indexing/index.html. Accessed 17 Aug 2017
Beckett, J., Slay, J.: Digital forensics: validation and verification in a dynamic work environment. In: Proceedings of the 40th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences, pp. 1–10 (2007)
Casey, E.: Handbook of Computer Crime Investigation: Forensic Tools and Technology. Elsevier Academic Press, San Diego (2002)
Carrier, B.: File System Forensic Analysis. Addison-Wesley, Upper Saddle River (2005)
Craiger, P., Pollitt, M., Swauger, J.: Law enforcement and digital evidence. In: Bidgoli, H. (ed.) Handbook of Information Security. Wiley, New York (2005)
CFTT: Forensic String Searching Tool Requirements Specification Version 1.0. http://www.cftt.nist.gov/ss-req-sc-draft-v1_0.pdf. Accessed 5 June 2017
Garfinkel, S.: Digital forensics research: the next 10 years. Digit. Investig. 7, S64–S73 (2010)
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2017 Springer International Publishing AG
About this paper
Cite this paper
Balogun, A.M., Zuva, T. (2017). Overview of Performance Evaluation of Keyword Search Utilities in Forensic/E-Discovery Software. In: Wang, G., Atiquzzaman, M., Yan, Z., Choo, KK. (eds) Security, Privacy, and Anonymity in Computation, Communication, and Storage. SpaCCS 2017. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 10658. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-72395-2_74
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-72395-2_74
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-72394-5
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-72395-2
eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)