Devices with EXIF Information Analysis
Categories: Computer Forensics, Mobile Forensics, Digital Forensics, EXIF
Students: Yang Xudong (Leader), Lin Zi Ying and Loon Ngai Fong
Organization: Singapore Polytechnic
Synopsis: The purpose of the project is to make a system that can capture photo with mobile device and synchronize it with central server for analysis of EXIF metadata as well as generation of various report formats.Aim: The system ForenSistant comprises of a mobile application, a web service and a communication channel which are all designed and implemented in accordance with essential security considerations. It is expected to be useful in ensuring the chain of custody for forensic photography during police investigation, which could indirectly improve admissibility of the photo evidence.
Use of ForenSistant software suite will help establish heightened evidence security, proper access control, improved synergy with lab examination and greater convenience for the investigator. For further development, areas of focus include photo quality enhancement, cross platform stability and higher degree of encryption..
Final Year Project: The FYP intends to provide students an opportunity to integrate knowledge and technical skills they have acquired from the course and experience problem solving, communication and working as a team to work on an Infosec Security Project. In the project, the students are expected to perform problem analysis, investigation, solution design and implementation of security related project. The students usually spent one semester to complete the project.
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| Overview of the system (ForenSistant). |
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| A group photograph taken at their display booth during the ITSP Showcase Day. (From L to R) Lin Zi Ying, Loon Ngai Fong and Yang Xudong (Leader) |
“Aside from gaining profound exposure and learning journey in terms of forensic photography and cross-platform mobile application development, there are two other crucial areas in which I have taken this ITSP as an opportunity to really hone my skills. The first would be effective communication and project management as the team lead, whilst the other is adversity handling in order to deliver results. It is my belief that knowledge can be picked up promptly but soft skills come only through prolonged practice.” said Xudong, student leader of the project.
Another student, Ngai Fong said, "In this project, I have learnt several things such as simple information stored in EXIF tags (e.g. GPS, Date Created and Date modified) with aid from relevant APIs, can actually help the Investigators during the image analysis. And also the importance of implementing the proper security controls like using UAC and cryptography to maintain the Chain of Custody and the CIA of the image, during the transmission or storage at the server. Overall, it has been a fruitful experience as I have learned a lot not only from the team members, but also from the research we did."
