Ten years of critical review on database forensics research

The database is at the heart of any digital application. With the increased use of high-tech applications, the database is used to store important and sensitive information. Sensitive information storage leads to crimes related to computer activities. Digital forensics is an investigation process to discover any un-trusted or malicious movement, which can be presented as testimony in a court of law. Database forensics is a subfield of digital forensics which focuses on detailed analysis of a database including its contents, log files, metadata, and data files depending on the type of database used. Database forensics research is in its mid age and has not got awareness as compare to digital forensics research. The reason behind this is the internal complications of the database as well as the different dimensions to be considered for analysis. This review paper is focusing on the last ten years of research related to forensic analysis of relational and NoSQL databases along with the study of artifacts to be considered for database forensics. This review of the current state of database forensics research will serve as a resource to move forward as far as research and investigation are concerned.