Digital Forensics in Small Devices: RFID Tag Investigation

process (see Chalasani, Boppana, & Sounderpandian, 2005). As a result of the low
cost and improved capabilities of RFID tags, the tags are employed in many
applications. However, the employment of the tags does not only bring benefits
(such as ease of stock management, and the anti-counterfeiting of medicines) but
also give the significant challenges and threats (see Section 2.4 in Chapter 2) to
the businesses or organizations. As a consequence, the objective of this research is
to investigate the presence of digital evidence after the theft of a RFID tagged
stock item (SI) in a forensically sound manner.
Hence, the purpose of this chapter is to present an overview of the problem
or a gap in the current literature (Section 1.1), the motivation of the research
(Section 1.2), a brief presentation of main research findings (Section 1.3) and the
structure of thesis (Section 1.4).
1.1 THE PROBLEM OR GAP IN CURRENT LITERATURE
The potential for fraudulent intervention into a RFID system is established in the
literature (Chapter 2; Section 2.4). Some researchers (for example: Ngai, Moon,
Riggins, &Yi, 2008) provide a comprehensive 1995 – 2005 review relevant to
RFID research. Other researchers (Jones, Hoare, Dontharaju, Shenchih, Fazekas,
Cain, & Mickle, 2006a) describe the evolution of RFID tag design and process
time costs. In the manufacture of chips, the access to writing has become easier in
the interest of letting retailers code their own chips. The benefit has however
brought with it easier access for criminals to write and rewrite over chips and
hence change the values (including the null value) in a RFID system. One of the
concerns for the RFID based retail environment is that as tags are made more user
friendly, then the risk of attack grows. Hence, most of the previous literature
reported the security risk concerned with RFID systems. Consequently, it is
exposed that the requirement of forensic readiness is necessary as there is
potential for the fraudulent uses of RFID networks in commercial settings.
On the other hand, the digital forensic research into small devices is a
current growth area of knowledge (Harrill & Mislan, 2007). In the Digital
Forensic Research Workshop (DFRWS) road map for Digital Forensic research,
small devices are again prioritised as key areas for research and growth of
investigator knowledge (Palmer, 2001). Similarly, some researchers (Xiao, Yu,
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