Security, Privacy, Forensics Analysis for Smartphones

Abstract

The number of mobile phone users has increased exponentially in the past decade. In India itself, it has crossed to over 1.2 billion mobile phone users, with at least 45% being the smartphone users, and this number is growing by the day. Almost 75% of internet traffic is generated by Smartphone users, traffic growth is irrespective of the demography of users. In this chapter, the focus is on two main categories of users (i.e., adolescents and senior citizens), who are not very tech-savvy. It discusses the threat they face even in normal usage of smartphones, and how digital forensics shall provide a secure environment without compromising much on ease of usage. Android apps are prone to attacks by hackers as basic information shared by a user on social media turns out to be very lucrative information for intruders. This chapter discusses some of the methods adopted by digital forensic experts to deal with such cybercrimes, the software/hardware tools present in a smartphone, and what preventive steps shall be taken by users to safeguard themselves against cybercrimes.