Blockchain-based forensic system for collection and preservation of network service evidences

Gabriel Maciá-Fernández; José Antonio Goméz Hernández; Margarita Robles Carrillo; Pedro García-Teodoro

Abstract:

Nowadays, many problems are increasingly appearing due to Internet service misuses. The Web service is essential for our society but, at the same time, it is being maliciously used to publish fake news, dishonor people by sharing false information, revealing private information, and others. The same happens with other network services like BitTorrent, used in some cases to leverage digital contents piracy, share industrial secrets and pedophilia content, or even deploy malware. Whenever any Internet user detects such behaviours it is fairly complicated to collect proofs to be used afterwards as evidence in a court. In this case, the user must usually contact a notary or legal witness that attests a certain fact, e.g., a website publishing private contents of somebody. As an additional drawback, this kind of content might be relatively dynamic and the amount of time present in the Internet service could be short. This implies that the notary will not observe the fact and, thus, she/he will not be able to attest that. In this scenario, there is a need for an easy-to-use tool in the Internet that allows ordinary people to take “snapshots” of certain facts and, at the same time, guarantee that these evidences are valid from a legal point of view. This ongoing research project aims to design and implement an acquisition and preservation system for digital forensic evidences found in network services. In particular, the prototype is focused on the Web and BitTorrent services. The preservation of evidences is done using a blockchain-based platform, so that the immutability of evidences is guaranteed. In addition, the system is designed to meet legal requirements in a heterogeneous legal framework (like European Union or the Council of Europe), in such a way that evidences can be used in a court.

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