Your watch knows what you did last summer

Teresa Donnellan A smart watch sitting quietly on someone's wrist may seem unremarkable, but in a criminal investigation, that device could become a witness. 

Welcome to In the Abstract, a research podcast from George Mason University's College of Engineering and Computing. I'm Teresa Donnellan. 

Umit Karabiyik There are so many new technologies that are coming in IoT became part of everyday life for every single one of us. 

Teresa Donnellan George Mason University Cyber Security Engineering Associate Professor Umit Karabiyik helps law enforcement agencies across the country understand how data from everyday connected devices can provide critical evidence in criminal cases. 

Umit Karabiyik So try to understand this Internet of Things ecosystem and extract data from these technologies for the use of evidentiary purposes in courts— criminal, you know, litigations, criminal investigations. So they want to make sure, the law enforcement agencies and, in general, criminal justice professionals, they understand the technology, IoT technologies, and anything related to justice domain, with respect to IoT devices. Do they understand what the technology is? What are the security issues? What are the privacy issues? And more importantly, which is the majority part of it when they are found in criminal investigations, how to investigate these technologies, how to understand the data [that] reside on these devices generated by these devices and stored somewhere else sometimes. 

Teresa Donnellan Through a U.S. Department of Justice funded project, Karabiyik and researchers trained thousands of criminal justice professionals and provided technical assistance on cases involving everything from smartwatches and fitness trackers to smart home devices and medical technologies. 

Umit Karabiyik I work on Internet of Things technologies. Particularly, we focus on fitness trackers, smartwatches, smart appliances at homes, like meta glasses. You know, they record everything, watches, and Oura rings, you know, even we investigated some glucometers; we had one of our researchers, coincidentally, he was diabetic, he was using also glucometer. We investigated his data points and technology as well. Then what we do based on the research and products, we create trainings. And throughout the five years since twenty twenty one, we trained over seven thousand criminal justice professionals at more than thirty in-person trainings, and we did several online webinars so that we can answer questions.   That's the technical training component of this, and then there is technical assistance. 

Teresa Donnellan The project, funded by the Bureau of Justice Assistance, was first awarded in 2021. Originally planned as a short term effort, the grant was extended multiple times, allowing the team to continue responding to a growing challenge: Helping investigators keep pace with the expansion of connected technologies in everyday life. They have also become a resource for investigators facing technical questions in active cases. 

Umit Karabiyik We get phone calls from law enforcement agencies. They call us like, "Hey, I got this case." It could be a cold case, or it could be an ongoing case. "And I got stuck on this. What do I do?" So it's under the project, we actually provide technical assistance. We collaborate with the White Collar Crime Center. And you know, with this, you know, uh, partnership, they have connection to the tens of thousands of criminal justice professionals. So they reach out to them, and then they reach out to us as technical subject matter experts. And then I provide them, "Hey, you got to do this. You need to do that." or "You know, we don't have technology for this." Something like that. 

Teresa Donnellan One line of research focused on how devices within Apple's ecosystem communicate with one another. Karabiyik's team discovered that Apple devices can collect identifying information about nearby Apple products, even without direct interaction from users. The findings created new possibilities for investigators attempting to establish whether individuals or devices had been in proximity to one another. 

Umit Karabiyik We found that, especially [with] Apple ecosystem devices, they constantly share data with each other, even without the interaction of the users. They keep changing data with each other. So we give the example of this: like if there is any smart watch in a room, it knows all the other Apple devices in the room. What it means: It knows it basically collects the unique identifier about those devices. So then we give this scenario. We say, if there's an abduction of a child, and there's a suspect for this abduction, and you go to the suspect, say, well, have you seen this kid? Say, no, I've never seen this person. I've never, you know, in contact with this person. But the kid might have Apple Watch. And if we investigate that person's phone, we could find that that watch has been interacting with the phone. 

Teresa Donnellan After presenting the research, Karibiyik received inquiries from investigators working homicide and cold cases who wanted to know whether data from nearby Apple devices could help narrow the list of potential suspects. 

Umit Karabiyik Then when we brought this research findings four years ago,   I got a phone call from Ohio FBI field office,   said, "Oh, I got a cold case. This is exactly what happened. There is a dead body. And we, because of the CCTV cameras they had, that suspect was wearing an Apple Watch. And the the victim was the victim was actually having a iPhone." So the question was, would that iPhone have the killer's Apple Watch information? That was a cold case. Unfortunately, it was too old. At that time, this communication wasn't really happening. We couldn't solve that case. 

Teresa Donnellan As part of the project, Karibiyik and colleagues serve as a criminal IoT help desk of sorts. 

Umit Karabiyik Under this project, they reach out to NW3C, the White Collar Crime Center. We give them this hotline phone number, and then the, the NW3C contact reaches out to me depending on the question, because we have subcontracts from NW3C. They are experts in litigations and legal issues. Some of them are just reaching out saying like, "I have a, you know, IoT device. We investigated this. We found this evidence. Well, how are we going to put it into the legal context? How is this going to be admissible?" It's not really my case in that case, because I prove scientifically it's correct. So my co-pi from NW3C, he's the chief counsel of White Collar Crime Center. And he helps on that case when it's a technology problem. Like, "Hey, we found this device. How are we going to get data out of it?" I come into play. 

Teresa Donnellan In one case, Karibiyik served as an expert witness in a murder trial, where investigators examined data from a smartwatch worn by the defendant. 

Umit Karabiyik Because of this research, I actually worked on a case in Indiana. It was also a murder case. Um, a suspect was a wife. She was accused of killing her husband. Uh, and she was saying that he fell over the stairs and, um, and she was wearing an Apple Watch. She was wearing a Garmin watch, um, IoT device. And she said she was sleeping all night. And we were, you know, called to the case. Um, we were hired, and we looked at the technology, and we proved that she was indeed sleeping. There were no steps   taken, and her stress level was perfectly fine until she found him dead. Um, at 4:34 a.m. in the morning. So we presented this to the court. 

Teresa Donnellan The defendant was ultimately found not guilty. While much of the project focuses on digital forensics, Karabiyik's research also examines the privacy and security risks associated with connected devices. 

Umit Karabiyik From the forensics part, I believe they serve a lot to us, unless you are a bad person. I'm not a bad person. So I believe these IoT technologies are super helpful for for if I'm killed, I know this device is going to tell a lot of things to the, you know, law enforcement about me and my killer. But I'm very picky about what technologies I use, because I also know these technologies have a lot of privacy concerns and security concerns. 

Teresa Donnellan His team has built databases of vulnerabilities and studied how data collected by consumer technologies is stored, shared, and potentially exposed. 

Umit Karabiyik So we created a database of vulnerabilities of these technologies [of] what are the security and privacy pitfalls as an individual, um, as a user of these technologies, like I am very picky. I'm very selective of using Chinese technologies because as we do the research, we know these technologies, like, for instance, indoor security cameras, they share data with the third parties and they store data in, you know, clouds, even though they don't have, you know, subscriptions. So these technologies are sometimes freaking me out, if I don't know their behaviors. So this is why, you know, we try to some of my research is privacy and security of IoT devices so that we identify and we just let the rest of the world know this technology collects this type of data. And in fact, maybe they sell your data. So from that perspective, I'm very selective of using certain technologies personally. And I suggest my friends and, you know, family members also like what to use, what not to use. And usually good technologies are more expensive. Technologies are secure, not always, most of the time, but cheaper products are very questionable ones. 

Teresa Donnellan He avoids devices with microphones and cameras whenever possible, does not use voice assistants such as Alexa or Google Home, and is cautious about products that collect large amounts of personal data. At the same time, he sees enormous value in connected technologies when they are used responsibly. As connected devices continue to multiply, Karibiyik expects demand for digital forensic expertise to grow as well. The current project concludes later this year, but he is already pursuing new DOJ funding opportunities aimed at helping forensic examiners, law enforcement agencies, and criminal justice professionals navigate an increasingly connected world. 

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