The Art of Piecewise Hashing: A Step Toward Better Evidence Provability

Authors

  • Aswin Gopalakrishnan TIFAC-CORE in Cyber Security, Amrita School of Engineering, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, Coimbatore, India
  • Emanuele Vineti Vrije University, the Netherlands
  • Ashok Kumar Mohan TIFAC-CORE in Cyber Security, Amrita School of Engineering, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, Coimbatore, India
  • M. Sethumadhavan TIFAC-CORE in Cyber Security, Amrita School of Engineering, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, Coimbatore, India

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.13052/2245-1439.719

Keywords:

Hashing, Piecewise, Acquisition, Certificate, admissibility, Litigation, Artifact, Corruption, Validation, Authenticity, Memory-block

Abstract

The integrity of digital evidence is believed to be the paramount trait in the world of cyber forensics. Cybercrime investigators face myriad challenges in the process similar to accommodating the call for bulk digital evidence. In due course extraction of useful information while maintaining the integrity and absolute protection against data degradation is mandatory. In this manuscript, we propose a novel approach by applying cryptographic hashing technique to only selected significant portions of the digital evidence, so even if the overall hash does not match, investigators could still verify the integrity of those critical sections of the evidence.We put forward two notions in this manuscript; former is heterogeneous piecewise hashing which is a flexible version of the piecewise hashing strategy, and latter is a novel evidence certification strategy which formalizes evidence provability process completely.

 

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Author Biographies

Aswin Gopalakrishnan, TIFAC-CORE in Cyber Security, Amrita School of Engineering, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, Coimbatore, India

Aswin Gopalakrishnan received M.Sc. Computer System Security from Vrije University, the Netherlands, and M.Tech in Cyber Security from Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, India. He is currently functioning as a security analyst in Secura, a cyber security organization based out of the Netherlands. He aspires to practice, acquire and improve his skills as a security information analyst. His specialty lies in safeguarding computers and networks by establishing and enforcing system access controls, maintaining disaster preparedness, developing a framework for checks and levels of access while recommending improvements. He is also familiar with the full spectrum of project management skills backed by complete Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC) and IT service delivery expertise.

Emanuele Vineti, Vrije University, the Netherlands

Emanuele Vineti from 2012 was following his Bachelor degree in Computer Science at the University of Modena, Italy. In 2015 he moved to the Netherlands in the University of Groningen for a research project on a power grid optimization. Later that year he achieved his Bachelor degree with a distinction. In 2016, he began his M.Sc studies in Computer Science with the core track in computer system security. From January 2018 he is working on his Master Thesis research at the Vrije University of Amsterdam.

Ashok Kumar Mohan, TIFAC-CORE in Cyber Security, Amrita School of Engineering, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, Coimbatore, India

Ashok Kumar Mohan, M.Tech specialized in Cyber Security, is a Research Associate at TIFAC-CORE in Cyber Security, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, India. He is currently a PhD scholar doing his research in the area of Cyber Forensics funded by Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology (Government of India) under Visvesvaraya PhD scheme for Electronics and IT. He is currently pursuing his research over the cyber security core vicinity in Metadata Forensics, Wireless Security Auditing, Rumor Prediction in Social Media Networks and Slack Space Analysis of NTFS File Systems. He is also the Certified EC-Council Instructor (CEI) for ethical hacking and penetration testing certification courses at the research centre.

M. Sethumadhavan, TIFAC-CORE in Cyber Security, Amrita School of Engineering, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, Coimbatore, India

M. Sethumadhavan received his PhD from Calicut Regional Engineering College. Currently, he is a Professor of Mathematics and Computer Science, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, Coimbatore. His research interest include Cryptography and other solutions for Cyber Security

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Published

2018-01-05

How to Cite

1.
Gopalakrishnan A, Vineti E, Mohan AK, Sethumadhavan M. The Art of Piecewise Hashing: A Step Toward Better Evidence Provability. JCSANDM [Internet]. 2018 Jan. 5 [cited 2024 Apr. 23];7(1-2):109-30. Available from: https://journals.riverpublishers.com/index.php/JCSANDM/article/view/5283

Issue

2018: Vol 7 Iss 1-2

Section

Articles