Examination of Digital Forensics Software Tools Performance: Open or Not?

Abstract

The performance evaluation in terms of digital forensics tools and software can be characterized as challenging research area due to constant development of technology in the digital world and rise of various manners in which it can be utilized for illegal purposes. There are many developed tools and software for digital forensics, some of them available for a license, and some of them free of charge. However, given that some practitioners from this field argue for commercial while others for open-source software, the reliability of the digital evidence which is collected, analyzed, and presented by both is constantly questioned. Motivated by the dilemma which tool or software for extracting digital evidence to use, we have conducted the review of the existing studies which directed us towards the examination of the performance of two different types of digital forensics tools: Open-source (Linux Autopsy Sleuth Kit) and commercial (Magnet Axiom). The results of the research showed that the open-source digital forensics tool has better performance in comparison to the commercial one. In addition to this conclusion which can be useful for further investigations and research in both practical digital forensics and academic community, we also provide open issues to be addressed in the future.