Glasgow Caledonian University Interactive and Trustworthy Technologies Research Group are looking for PhD students. Projects are eligible for funded Glasgow Caledonian University PhD Scholarships. The scholarship covers Home/EU tuition fees and a stipend of £14,600 per annum for three years. Please note that non UK/EU students are required to pay additional tuition fees. Details of the projects can be found here and here (PDF).Included within the range of projects is a digital forensics based project: Examination and recovery of deleted data on iOS devices in the context of digital forensics examinations. (Project Reference: 04/02/11)
Project Summary: The demand for understanding of digital forensic methods continues to increase as criminals exploit rapid technological advances to achieve unintended opportunities in the commission of crime, and employ ingenious methods to invalidate evidence. However, devices can inadvertently serve as silent witnesses to user activity, by storing information about user interactions. Traditionally research has been biased towards Microsoft based systems, meaning that research of Apple hardware from a forensic perspective is limited. However, the popularity of iOS devices is causing challenges for law enforcement. Understanding basic device functionality (e.g., what and how data is stored) is vital, therefore this project aims to consider the forensic impact of deleting data on iOS devices, and establish novel techniques for recovery. This also has significance to system trustworthiness and privacy.
For further information on this project please contact the Interactive and Trustworthy Technologies Group: itt_group@gcu.ac.uk. To apply please fill out the application form and send it via email to the ITT group by 2nd April 2012.
