Service Set Identifier Geolocation for Forensic Purposes: Opportunities and Challenges

We discuss the use of selected passive wireless device fingerprinting and prior location inference techniques from a forensic perspective. With specific focus on 802.11 signals, we examine how fingerprints based on the Preferred Network List (PNL) enumerations can be utilized to obtain the locational dimension. This dimension may act as a bridge between the digital fingerprint and the physical world. Using a data set of 147,944 network names contextualized to a particular geographical area, we discuss the associated opportunities, challenges and limitations.