I know what you did last summer: Your smart home internet of things and your iPhone forensically ratting you out

Gokila Dorai, Shiva Houshmand, Ibrahim Baggili

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contribution

27 Scopus citations

Abstract

The adoption of smart home Internet of Things (IoT) devices continues to grow. What if your devices can snitch on you and let us know where you are at any given point in time? In this work we examined the forensic artifacts produced by Nest devices, and in specific, we examined the logical backup structure of an iPhone used to control a Nest thermostat, Nest Indoor Camera and a Nest Outdoor Camera. We also integrated the Google Home Mini as another method of controlling the studied Smart Home devices. Our work is the primary account for the examination of Nest artifacts produced by an iPhone, and is also the first open source research to produce a usable forensics tool we name the Forensic Evidence Acquisition and Analysis System (FEAAS). FEAAS consolidates evidentiary data into a readable report that can infer user events (like entering or leaving a home) and what triggered an event (whether it was the Google Assistant through a voice command, or the use of an iPhone application). Our results are important for the advancement of digital forensics, as there are cases starting to emerge in which smart home IoT devices have already been used as culpatory evidence.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Title of host publicationARES 2018 - 13th International Conference on Availability, Reliability and Security
PublisherAssociation for Computing Machinery
ISBN (Electronic)9781450364485
DOIs
StatePublished - Aug 27 2018
Externally publishedYes
Event13th International Conference on Availability, Reliability and Security, ARES 2018 - Hamburg, Germany
Duration: Aug 27 2018Aug 30 2018

Publication series

NameACM International Conference Proceeding Series

Conference

Conference13th International Conference on Availability, Reliability and Security, ARES 2018
Country/TerritoryGermany
CityHamburg
Period8/27/188/30/18

Keywords

  • Analysis
  • Digital evidence extraction
  • Internet of things forensics
  • IoT ecosystem forensics
  • Mobile device forensics
  • Mobile forensics
  • Nest device forensics

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Software
  • Human-Computer Interaction
  • Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition
  • Computer Networks and Communications

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'I know what you did last summer: Your smart home internet of things and your iPhone forensically ratting you out'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this