ENHANCED DIGITAL FORENSIC SECURITY FRAMEWORK USING MULTIKEY ENCRYPTION AND OTP-BASED AUTHENTICATION

Abstract

Secure storage model for digital forensics represents essential progress in the domain, addressing the major problems associated with protecting and maintaining digital evidence. This method employs recent encryption systems and optimal key generation methods to ensure the confidentiality and integrity of data throughout the investigative process. DFA-AOKGE a Digital Forensics Architecture with Authentication and Optimal Key Generation-based Encryption—for secure evidence storage in cloud/edge settings. Evidence objects are split into four shards, each encrypted with an independently derived key (multikey model) using AES-GCM for confidentiality and integrity. A Secure Block Verification Mechanism (SBVM) authenticates every shard and its lineage using a Merkle-root and per-block HMACs, enabling tamper-evident audit. A lightweight Optimal Key Generation pipeline strengthens seeds with memory-hard KDF (scrypt) and context-bound HKDF to derive per-shard keys deterministically while preventing cross-shard compromise. The architecture supports homomorphic-ready storage (optional: replace per-shard AES with multikey homomorphic encryption for privacy-preserving computation). Experiments (design-time analysis) show improved resistance to key compromise, replay/tamper attempts, and insider risk, while maintaining low operational overhead and clean forensic chain-of-custody.