Bluetooth is popular technology for short-range communications and is incorporated in mobile devices such as smartphones, tablet computers and laptops. Vulnerabilities associated with Bluetooth technology led to improved security measures surrounding Bluetooth connections. Besides the improvement in security features, Bluetooth technology is still plagued by vulnerability exploits. This paper explores the development of a physical Bluetooth C&C channel, moving beyond previous research that mostly relied on simulations. In order to develop a physical channel, certain requirements must be fulfilled and specific aspects regarding Bluetooth technology must be taken into consideration. To measure performance, the newly designed Bluetooth C&C channel is executed in a controlled environment using the Android operating system as a development platform. The results show that a physical Bluetooth C&C channel is indeed possible and the paper concludes by identifying potential strengths and weaknesses of the new channel.
The world is witnessing a rise in cyber-related incidents. As information technology improves and the reliance on technology increases, the frequency and severity of cyber incidents escalate. The impact is felt globally, and South Africa is not immune to the effects. The country’s fast-paced technological evolution continues to increase the attack surface within the cyber domain. The increased attack surface is confirmed by recent cyberattacks affecting well-known and established South African organisations. This article reviews findings from an evaluation of South Africa’s cyber threat landscape that analysed 74 cyber incidents identified as occurring between 2010 and 2020. The 74 incidents are categorised according to incident type, affected sector, perpetrator type, and motivation. It is found that the most common incident type is data exposure, the most-affected sector is the public sector, the most prevalent perpetrators are hackers, and the most common motivation is criminal. The article makes recommendations about how South Africa can reduce the risk factors in its cyber threat landscape.
The widespread use and rich functionality of smartphones have made them valuable sources of digital evidence. Malicious individuals are becoming aware of the importance of digital evidence found on smartphones and may be interested in deploying anti-forensic techniques to alter evidence and thwart investigations. It is, therefore, important to establish the authenticity of smartphone evidence. This chapter focuses on digital evidence found on smartphones that has been created by smartphone applications and the techniques that can be used to establish the authenticity of the evidence. In order to establish the authenticity of the evidence, a better understanding of the normal or expected behavior of smartphone applications is required. This chapter introduces a new reference architecture for smartphone applications that models the components and the expected behavior of applications. Seven theories of normality are derived from the reference architecture that enable digital forensic professionals to evaluate the authenticity of smartphone evidence. An experiment conducted to examine the validity of the theories of normality indicates that the theories can assist forensic professionals in identifying authentic smartphone evidence.
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