Mobile Device Digital Forensics Lab Series

This project is part of a broader effort to enhance educational resources in the field of mobile device forensics. Developed under the support of the Department of Defense (DoD) CSA grant, this 14-lab series is designed to offer hands-on, scenario-based experiences for students studying digital forensics. Each lab focuses on a critical topic such as internet history recovery, cloud data extraction, encrypted device analysis, or third-party app investigations.

• Developers: The labs were created by faculty from CS Department @ Sam Houston State University. If you have any questions about the labs or encounter issues accessing the resources, feel free to reach out to the project team. We welcome feedback and are happy to support instructors and students using these materials.

  Dr. An an@shsu.edu	Dr. Shashidhar nks001@shsu.edu	Dr. Varol cxv007@shsu.edu	Dr. Zhou bxz003@shsu.edu	Dr. Lester lys001@shsu.edu (Assessment)

• Goal: The goal is to provide a comprehensive, modular set of learning resources that can be used across institutions participating in the NSA Center of Academic Excellence (CAE) in Cybersecurity program. This growing collection continues to evolve with ongoing development and feedback from instructors and students alike.

Labs

• For each lab, we include downloadable materials and, where necessary, a forensic image file or a linked video walkthrough.
• The exercises are accompanied by detailed instructor manuals and student handouts, and are designed to simulate real-world investigations using commercial and open-source forensic tools.
• While Clark.Center is used to host most learning objects and track learning outcomes, additional resources are made available through cloud file sharing services for larger files.

Lab #	Professor	Topic	For students	For instructors
1	Dr. Zhou	Mobile Device Evidence Extraction	Manual | Video | Image	Request for solutions
2	Dr. An	Device Identification Techniques	Manual | Video | Image	Request for solutions
3	Dr. Varol	Custom Apps, Piracy, DRM Violations	Manual | Video | Image	Request for solutions
4	Dr. Varol	Call History Tracing	Manual | Video | Image	Request for solutions
5	Dr. An	Text Communication: SMS, MMS	Manual | Video | Image	Request for solutions
6	Dr. Zhou	Acquiring Data from Cloud	Manual | Video | Image	Request for solutions
7	Dr. Shashidhar	Internet/Web Browser Activity	Manual | Video | Image	Request for solutions
9	Dr. Shashidhar	Virtualization and Anti-Forensics	Manual | Video | Image 1, 2	Request for solutions
9	Dr. An	Timeline Generation on Mobile Activities	Manual | Video | Image	Request for solutions
10	Dr. Zhou	Photos/Videos with Geolocation	Manual | Video | Image	Request for solutions
11	Dr. Varol	Social Media Forensics	Manual | Video | Image	Request for solutions
12	Dr. Shashidhar	Bypassing Security Mechanisms	Manual | Video | Image	Request for solutions
13	Dr. Varol	Custom Apps, Media, Copyright	Manual | Video | Image	Request for solutions
14	Dr. Shashidhar	Online Meeting Tools	Manual | Video | Image	Request for solutions