Enhancing Cybercrime Investigations in Ghana: A Mobile Broadband Framework for Unmasking Perpetrators through Digital Footprints and User Profile Synthesis
Abstract:
Uncovering the
origin of cybercrimes in Ghana continue to be a challenge for law enforcement
agencies. Existing solutions had primarily focused on unmasking crime source
within the Public Data Network (PDN) using methods such as geolocation of
public Internet Protocol (IP) address or the Domain Name Server (DNS) lookup
methods. Unfortunately, these approaches fall short at uncovering cybercrime
sources from the mobile broadband (MBB) domain. This paper proposed a framework
aimed at answering the question of processes around the MBB’s packet data
protocol (PDP) context procedure and its corresponding private IP attribution
to User Equipment (UE) that might mask the UE’s identity in a PDN. The study's
outcome includes digital footprints collection like IP addresses and
Transmission Control Protocol ports during PDP context and UE data sessions to
cloud server in the PDN. Exploratory data analysis reveals the uniqueness of
every session, i.e., making traceability feasible from a PDN to distinct
sources in the MBB domain. This paper proposes a comprehensive framework by recommending
the collection of datasets from the MBB domain infrastructure at three logical
interfaces with network probes. Additionally, the study suggests enhancing the
dataset with call detail records and leveraging Edgar Frank Codd's relational
data model to synthesise the fragmented datasets to a unique entity thereby ensuring
the unmasking of a cybercrime committed in a PDN effectively traceable to the
MBB domain entity. This innovative approach adds to the knowledge of cybercrime
investigations in Ghana's cybersecurity endeavours.
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