A Forensic Log File Extraction Tool for ICQ Instant Messaging Clients

<p class="JDFSLParagraph">Instant messenger programs such as ICQ are often used by hackers and criminals for illicit purposes and consequently the log files from such programs are of interest in a forensic investigation. This paper outlines research that has resulted in the developme...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Kim Morfitt, Craig Valli
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Association of Digital Forensics, Security and Law 2006-09-01
Series:Journal of Digital Forensics, Security and Law
Online Access:http://ojs.jdfsl.org/index.php/jdfsl/article/view/220
Description
Summary:<p class="JDFSLParagraph">Instant messenger programs such as ICQ are often used by hackers and criminals for illicit purposes and consequently the log files from such programs are of interest in a forensic investigation. This paper outlines research that has resulted in the development of a tool for the extraction of ICQ log file entries. Detailed reconstruction of data from log files was achieved with a number of different ICQ software. There are several limitations with the current design including timestamp information not adjusted for the time zone, data could be altered, and conversations must be manually reconstructed. Future research will aim to address these and other limitations as pointed out in this paper.</p>
ISSN:1558-7215
1558-7223