A cloud-based forensics tracking scheme for online social network clients

• The scheme is proposed based on the concepts of IP location and network forensics.
• The aim is to develop forensics tracking on online social networks.
• The mechanism can instantly trace the physical location of a targeted SRI.
• This research can analyze the probable target client identity associatively.

In recent years, with significant changes in the communication modes, most users are diverted to cloud-based applications, especially online social networks (OSNs), which applications are mostly hosted on the outside and available to criminals, enabling them to impede criminal investigations and intelligence gathering. In the virtual world, how the Law Enforcement Agency (LEA) identifies the “actual” identity of criminal suspects, and their geolocation in social networks, is a major challenge to current digital investigation. In view of this, this paper proposes a scheme, based on the concepts of IP location and network forensics, which aims to develop forensics tracking on OSNs. According to our empirical analysis, the proposed mechanism can instantly trace the “physical location” of a targeted service resource identifier (SRI), when the target client is using online social network applications (Facebook, Twitter, etc.), and can analyze the probable target client “identity” associatively. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first individualized location method and architecture developed and evaluated in OSNs.