Drones Forensics: A Case Study of Digital Forensic Investigations Conducted on Common Drone Models

Drones (a.k.a. Unmanned Aerial Vehicles – UAV) have become a societal norm in our daily lives. The ability of drones capture high-quality photos from an aerial view; store and transmit such data present a multi-facet problem. These actions possess privacy challenges to innocent users who can be spied on, or drone owner’s data which may be intercepted by a hacker. With all technological paradigms, utilities can be misused, and this is an increasing occurrence with drones. Drones are considered a new challenge that has been added to the field of digital forensics. Comparing to traditional digital forensics, there is less certainty in where data originated from, and where it is stored, so data persistence may be a problem. As a result, it is imperative to develop a novel methodological approach for the digital forensic analysis of a seized drone. This paper investigates six brands of drones commonly used in criminal activities and extracts forensically relevant data such as location information, captured images and videos, drones’ flight path, and data related to the ownership of the confiscated drone. The experimental results indicate that drone forensics would facilitate law enforcement in collecting significant information necessary for criminal investigations