Forensic Examinations of Alexa for Smart Home Privacy and Cybercrime Investigation

Abstract

Integrating Internet of Things (loT) devices into smart homes has necessitated the development of novel strategies to address the difficulties and complexities of cyber-attacks and privacy concerns in the current digital threat landscape. One unaddressed challenge is the lack of clarity of information collected and stored by these loT devices in smart homes. The data storage process and privacy compliance of smart home appliances, such as security cameras, thermostats, and smart speakers, are examined in this study. More specifically, this study focuses on sensitive data storage and potential breach exposure, including user commands, timestamps, and network traffic logs of these devices. To achieve this, forensic tools were deployed to collect and examine data from gadgets like Google Nest and Amazon Alexa/Echo following an experimental setup. These technologies were used in a hypothetical investigation that intentionally breached a restricted smart home network and replicated criminal activities. The gathered data was examined to determine the proof of the breach and ensure the chain of events. The findings provided a thorough forensic investigation into the potential digital artifacts within the device and exposed prevalent vulnerabilities of loT ecosystems regarding usage privacy. This study advances the fields of digital forensics and smart home security by offering useful insights and suggestions for improving the security of loT devices.