A Digital Forensics Investigation of a Smart Scale IoT Ecosystem

TL;DR

This paper presents an empirical case study demonstrating practical techniques for recovering residual data from a smart scale IoT ecosystem, highlighting forensic artifacts and informing future digital investigation methods.

Contribution

It provides the first detailed empirical demonstration of forensic data recovery techniques specifically for a smart scale IoT ecosystem.

Findings

Recovered multiple residual artifacts from the smart scale ecosystem

Documented forensic artifacts relevant for investigations

Established a foundation for future IoT forensic techniques

Abstract

The introduction of Internet of Things (IoT) ecosystems into personal homes and businesses prompts the idea that such ecosystems contain residual data, which can be used as digital evidence in court proceedings. However, the forensic examination of IoT ecosystems introduces a number of investigative problems for the digital forensics community. One of these problems is the limited availability of practical processes and techniques to guide the preservation and analysis of residual data from these ecosystems. Focusing on a detailed case study of the iHealth Smart Scale ecosystem, we present an empirical demonstration of practical techniques to recover residual data from different evidence sources within a smart scale ecosystem. We also document the artifacts that can be recovered from a smart scale ecosystem, which could inform a digital (forensic) investigation. The findings in this research provides a foundation for future studies regarding the development of processes and techniques suitable for extracting and examining residual data from IoT ecosystems.