Question

Question 2

Vehicles are fast becoming another important source of digital evidence in a criminal investigation. Traditionally, when a vehicle is involved in a crime scene (e.g. drink driving) or a terrorist attack, the investigators focus on the acquisition of DNA, fingerprints and other identifying materials that are usually non-digital in nature. However, modern-day cars, particularly smart or driverless cars, store a wealth of digital information. Vehicle forensics, therefore, is a valuable source of digital forensics data.

Assume that you are part of a digital forensics investigation team that is working to gather and analyze evidence from a smart car. For this question, you are encouraged to use online resources to understand what makes a car “smart”. If you find actual case studies of smart car forensics, you are encouraged to use them. Please cite all your sources in APA format.

2a. Explain what makes a car “smart”. Be comprehensive in your explanation and list all assumptions. (40 points)

2b. How might the information from question 2a be used to gather digital forensics data regarding the vehicle and/or its owners and occupants? (40 points)

Answer 1

2a. A smart car basically means a car which provides something much more than just driving. There are numerous gadgets that can be embedded inside a car making it smart. With internet connectivity, automation, IoT and AI, car driving experience can be taken to a next level.

A smart car provides features such as GPR navigation providing real time car tracking, reverse sensing systems for backwards turns and parking, night vision to enhance visibility assistance in night times, internet/email access, voice control for destination setup, call pickup, etc, smart card activation, anti-lock breaks, air-bag systems, automatic gear shifts and much more. Dash cameras for recording incidents through dashboard or windshield in case of accidents. Bluetooth, AUX adapters for playing media, audio files.

Stepping ahead into the future of more optimised or smarter car definition, features such as automatic parking, sensors for avoding collisions while driving or parking, automatic maintenance notifications, etc would be possible with the help of IoT technology embedded in them. Various factors are monitored by installed sensors such as pressure, temperature, sensitivity, proximity, etc which feeds real time data to embedded computer for processing and hence determining the state of different car components.

2b

Above technologies embedded inside a car can greatly help in the investigation of forensics department. As smart car most of the time is connected to internet, the GPS data, travel history, connected devices history is all getting saved up in the cloud. So in case of any criminal investigation, it has become quite easy to trace car activities. Also, the entry of unauthorized person inside a car can be detected with the nearby connected devices, or google smart lock feature which tracks the authorised user's other smart devices such as smartwatch, smartphone.

Call history and SMS history of victim's car can also be accesses with just the smart car as everything is connected and information is shared across. Frequent location, and driving patterns can also be found easily.

Voice profiles vehicle status at the time of incident can all be accessed. If dash cam is installed, the criminals or related parties can come into the frame and can be identified or caught.  

In case of security attacks, smart car manufacturers have already installed mechanisms and steps on detection of anomalies. Security protocols such as SSH are used for car security so no unauthorized party can access it and hacking of car components is avoided.

Thus regular logs of car activities, constant look for open WiFIs, logging of GPS coordinates can be a big help in case of forensic investigation.