Privacy Preserving Internet Browsers: Forensic Analysis of Browzar

TL;DR

This paper examines the forensic analysis of Browzar, a privacy-preserving internet browser, highlighting challenges and methods for extracting evidence in cybercrime investigations.

Contribution

It provides a detailed forensic analysis of Browzar, comparing its privacy features and forensic recoverability with other popular browsers.

Findings

Browzar's privacy features complicate forensic evidence recovery.

Forensic techniques can recover data from Browzar despite its privacy measures.

Comparison shows differences in data remnants among browsers.

Abstract

With the advance of technology, Criminal Justice agencies are being confronted with an increased need to investigate crimes perpetuated partially or entirely over the Internet. These types of crime are known as cybercrimes. In order to conceal illegal online activity, criminals often use private browsing features or browsers designed to provide total browsing privacy. The use of private browsing is a common challenge faced in for example child exploitation investigations, which usually originate on the Internet. Although private browsing features are not designed specifically for criminal activity, they have become a valuable tool for criminals looking to conceal their online activity. As such, Technological Crime units often focus their forensic analysis on thoroughly examining the web history on a computer. Private browsing features and browsers often require a more in-depth, post mortem analysis. This often requires the use of multiple tools, as well as different forensic approaches to uncover incriminating evidence. This evidence may be required in a court of law, where analysts are often challenged both on their findings and on the tools and approaches used to recover evidence. However, there are very few research on evaluating of private browsing in terms of privacy preserving as well as forensic acquisition and analysis of privacy preserving internet browsers. Therefore in this chapter, we firstly review the private mode of popular internet browsers. Next, we describe the forensic acquisition and analysis of Browzar, a privacy preserving internet browser and compare it with other popular internet browsers