The smartphone evidence awareness framework for the users

Abstract

According to the 2013 report by the ITU, the total mobile cellular subscriptions are expected to reach close to the landmark figure of 7 billion by the end of 2014, more than half of which are found in the developing countries (eMarketer, 2014). This increase is believed to be cultivated by the technology growth from developing countries, such as Africa, China and India, to which the mobile subscription rate is deemed to account for 78% of the world¿s total (mobiThinking, 2014). This is a significant growth in the use of these devices. This paper presents the smartphone evidence awareness (SEAware) training framework for smartphone users. This framework focuses on enhancing smartphone evidence awareness skills of smartphone users with regard to collecting, preserving and handling the related data as evidence. The proposed SEAware framework is designed to make users aware of the integrity of evidence that can be collected by an average user, resulting in the evidence to it being compromised by way of incorrect collection, storage or handling requirements. Statistics South Africa (2012) reported that mobile devices are dominantly used by the youth (60% of the South African population comprised of youth between the age of 16 and 25 years); hence, they are targeted in this study. Moreover, a study conducted by the Deloitte Digital Mobility Team early in 2014 on the use of smartphone device Operating Systems (OSs) in South Africa found that the monthly market was different as the users buy in terms of the trends (Deloitte Digital, 2014). The Android OS (dominated by Samsung) was reported to have taken close to half of all smartphone sales and growth (Samsung, 2014). Modern phones are often equipped with a large variety of sensors, including cameras (with video recording capability), sound recorders, GPS receivers and accelerometers.