Forensic benchmarking for android messenger applications

Abstract

Technology has reshaped the way we interact with the world and access information with the advent of smartphones. Accordingly, the needs we have and the solutions for our needs have also changed along with the evolving technology. One of the most affected matters from technology is communication. With the various options and capabilities, instant messaging applications have been started to use for communication purpose which is one of the biggest needs of human being. We can send text messages, video messages, voice recordings and share locations using these applications. Even further, we no longer need cell phone calls by GSM operators, and instead prefer these applications for instant calls, as well as sharing private information with these applications, not only for personal daily life, also for business need. On the other hand, these applications bring risks with many benefits. One of them is privacy. We do not want that these applications can store our personal data as its user. How do our best practices keep our data? Do they give the necessary attention for privacy? Another fact is that these applications can be used by criminals to communicate and execute a secret plan. If a criminal gets caught, what can be obtained as evidence from these messaging applications? This time we need to know what can be extracted from the mobile device. This research focuses on forensics analysis of the instant messaging applications on the Android platform. © 2019 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.