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File fragment classification using grayscale image conversion and deep learning in digital forensics

  • Qian Chen
  • , Qing Liao
  • , Zoe L. Jiang*
  • , Junbin Fang
  • , Siuming Yiu
  • , Guikai Xi
  • , Rong Li
  • , Zhengzhong Yi
  • , Xuan Wang
  • , Lucas C.K. Hui
  • , Dong Liu
  • , En Zhang
  • *Corresponding author for this work
  • School of Computer Science and Technology, Harbin Institute of Technology
  • Guangdong Provincial Engineering Technology Research Center on Visible Light Communication
  • Jinan University
  • The University of Hong Kong
  • Hong Kong Applied Science and Technology Research Institute
  • Henan Normal University

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contributionpeer-review

Abstract

File fragment classification is an important step in digital forensics. The most popular method is based on traditional machine learning by extracting features like N-gram, Shannon entropy or Hamming weights. However, these features are far from enough to classify file fragments. In this paper, we propose a novel scheme based on fragment-to-grayscale image conversion and deep learning to extract more hidden features and therefore improve the accuracy of classification. Benefit from the multi-layered feature maps, our deep convolution neural network (CNN) model can extract nearly ten thousands of features through the non-linear connections between neurons. Our proposed CNN model was trained and tested on the public dataset GovDocs. The experiments results show that we can achieve 70.9% accuracy in classification, which is higher than those of existing works.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationProceedings - 2018 IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy Workshops, SPW 2018
PublisherInstitute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc.
Pages140-147
Number of pages8
ISBN (Print)9780769563497
DOIs
StatePublished - 2 Aug 2018
Externally publishedYes
Event2018 IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy Workshops, SPW 2018 - San Francisco, United States
Duration: 24 May 2018 → …

Publication series

NameProceedings - 2018 IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy Workshops, SPW 2018

Conference

Conference2018 IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy Workshops, SPW 2018
Country/TerritoryUnited States
CitySan Francisco
Period24/05/18 → …

Keywords

  • Deep learning
  • Digital forensics
  • File fragments classification
  • Grayscale image

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