Steganography has long been used to counter forensic investigation. This use of steganography as an anti-forensics technique is becoming more widespread. This requires forensic examiners to have additional tools to more effectively detect steganography. In this paper we introduce a new software concept specifically designed to allow the digital forensics professional to clearly identify and attribute instances of LSB image steganography by using the original cover image in side-by-side comparison with a suspected steganographic payload image. This technique is embodied in a software implementation named CounterSteg. The CounterSteg software allows detailed analysis and comparison of both the original cover image and any modified image, using sophisticated bit- and color-channel visual depiction graphics. In certain cases, the steganographic software used for message transmission can be identified by the forensic analysis of LSB and other changes in the payload image. This paper demonstrates usage and typical forensic analysis with eight commonly available steganographic programs. Future work will attempt to automate the typical types of analysis and detection. This is important, as currently there is a steep rise in the use of image LSB steganographic techniques to hide the payload code used by malware and viruses, and for the purposes of data exfiltration. This results because of the fact that the hidden code and/or data can more easily bypass virus and malware signature detection in such a manner as being surreptitiously hidden in an otherwise innocuous image file.
Cassandra is a NoSQL database having a peer-to-peer, ring-type architecture. Cassandra offers fault-tolerance, data replication for higher availability as well as ensures no single point of failure. Given that Cassandra is a NoSQL database, it is evident that it lacks research that has gone into comparatively older and more widely and broadly used SQL databases. Cassandra's growing popularity in recent times gives rise to the need to address any security-related or recovery-related concerns associated with its usage. This review paper discusses Cassandra's existing deletion mechanism and presents some identified issues related to backup and recovery in the Cassandra database. Further, failure detection and handling of failures such as node failure or data center failure have been explored in the paper. In addition, several possible solutions to address backup and recovery, including recovery in case of disasters, have been reviewed.
The use of social media has spread through many aspects of society, allowing millions of individuals, corporate as well as government entities to leverage the opportunities it affords. These opportunities often end up being exploited by a small percentage of the user community who use it for objectionable or unlawful activities; for example, trolling, cyber bullying, grooming, luring. In some cases, these unlawful activities result in investigations where swift retrieval of critical evidence required in order to save a life.
The technology used in drones is similar or identical across drone types and components, with many common risks and opportunities. The purpose of this study is to enhance the risk assessment procedures for Drone as a Service (DaaS) capabilities. STRIDE is an acronym that includes the following security risks: Spoofing, Tampering, Repudiation, Information Disclosure, Denial of Service, and Elevation of Privileges. The paper presents a modified STRIDE threat model and prioritizes its desired properties (i.e., authenticity, integrity, non-reputability, confidentiality, availability, and authorization) to generate an appropriate DaaS threat model. To this end, the proposed DIREST threat model better meets the overall security assessment needs of DaaS. Moreover, this paper discusses the security risks of drones, identifies best practices for security assessment, and proposes a novel software update mechanism for drones during their operations. We explore the best practices related to drone penetration testing, including an effective methodology to maintain the continuity of drone operations, particularly drones used for emergency, safety, and rescue operations. Moreover, this research raises awareness of DaaS and drone operation in general as well as in the forensic science community due to its focus on the importance of securely operated drones for first responders. Furthermore, we address various aspects of security concerns, including data transmission, software restrictions, and embedded system-related events. In order to propose a security assessment for drones, we incorporate digital forensics and penetration testing techniques related to drone operations. Our results show that the proposed threat model enhances the security of flying devices and provides consistency in digital forensic procedures. This work introduces modifications to the STRIDE threat model based on the current literature, drone images provided by the NIST program, and a firmware static analysis of a zino hubsan brand drone.
According to the Verizon 2018 Data Breach Investigations Report, 321 POS terminals (user devices) were involved in data breaches in 2017. These data breaches involved standalone POS terminals as well as associated controller systems. This paper examines a standalone Point-of-Sale (POS) system commonly used in smaller retail stores and restaurants to extract unencrypted data and identify possible violations of the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) requirement to protect stored cardholder data. Persistent storage (flash memory chips) were removed from the devices and their contents were successfully acquired. Information about the device and the code running on it was successfully extracted, although no PCI DSS data storage violations were identified.
