Drone Forensics: Challenges and New Insights

Powerful information acquisition and processing capabilities, coupled with intelligent surveillance and reconnaissance features, have contributed to increased popularity of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), also known as drones. In addition to the numerous beneficial uses, UAVs have been misused to launch illegal and sometimes criminal activities that pose direct threats to individuals, organizations, public safety and national security. Despite its increased importance, "drone forensics" remains a relatively unexplored research topic. This paper presents important results of a forensic investigation analysis performed on a test Parrot AR drone 2.0. We present new insights into drone forensics in terms of accessing the digital containers of an intercepted drone and retrieving all the information that can help digital forensic investigators establish ownership, recover flight data and acquire content of media files.