Next-generation forensic investigation framework for smart refrigerators: acquiring and analysing digital traces in IoT embedded devices

The internet of things (IoT) embedded device is one of the most revolutionary innovations of the 21st century. Integrating external networks in smart home IoT devices increases the risk of cybercrimes, highlighting the importance of forensic investigations of digital devices. This study presents an in-depth analysis of smart refrigerators by proposing a forensic investigation framework (FIvF-SR) incorporating a digital forensic algorithm (DFA-SR) for acquiring and analysing digital traces from smart refrigerators. This includes file system analysis of refrigerators that helps to find the digital artefacts about user activity, web-browsing data, geological information, cloud artefacts, system information, and the role of connected devices in digital investigation. DFA-SR algorithm is proposed for selective evidence collection to improve throughput and speed of investigation. Further, this study indicates the industrial significance of the proposed approach and explains how digital traces help to solve criminal cases. The present work involves a use case study of the smart refrigerator and potential digital evidence in IoT-embedded devices.