Mobile forensics is a process used to recover digital evidence or data from a mobile device and something our Kansas City and St. Louis private investigators use often. However, the process isn’t only used to access and read this data, but to do it in a way that will preserve the evidence.
The term “mobile devices” encompasses a wide array of gadgets including mobile phones and tablets. These devices contain innumerable amounts of information that can be gathered and decoded.
The amount of data that these machines amass on a daily basis is incredible, and being able to extract this information has been used extensively to aid in investigations. Utilizing these machines allow digital forensic investigators to glean a lot of information.
The types of information that resides on phone and tablets includes incoming, outgoing and missed call history, phonebook or contact lists, SMS text, application based, and multimedia messaging content, pictures, videos, and audio files, internet browsing history along with content, cookies and search history, documents, spreadsheets, presentation files and other user-created data, passwords, passcodes and swipe codes, historical geolocation data, cell phone tower related location data and Wi-Fi connection, and of course, deleted data from all of the above.
So what is the Mobile Forensics process?
Mobile forensics aims to recover digital evidence or data from a mobile device (phones or tablets) in such a way that the evidence is preserved in a forensically sound condition. To achieve this, mobile forensics must set out very distinct rules that will seize, isolate, transport and store any digital evidence that is found safely originating from mobile devices. Mobile forensics, specifically, has its own particularities that need to be considered. Following correct methods and guidelines is a vital precondition for the examination of mobile devices in order to yield good results.
Digital forensics operates on the principle that evidence should always be adequately preserved, processed, and admissible in a court of law. Some legal considerations go hand in hand with this principle.
The data needs to be retrieved from the mobile device in a very precise way. It is hard to be in control of data on mobile devices because the data is mobile as well. Regardless of the type of the device, identifying the location of the data can be further impeded due to the fragmentation of operating systems and item specifications. The open-source Android operating system alone comes in several different versions, and even Apple’s iOS may vary from version to version.
After identifying data sources, the next step is to collect the information properly. There are certain unique challenges concerning gathering information in the context of mobile technology. Many mobile devices have to undergo a process called acquisition of data. There are various protocols for collecting data from mobile devices since depending on the make and model of the device, many different ways of collecting data are needed. A good mobile data forensics team will be able to extract this data in such a way that the evidence is able to be used in the court of law.
For all your digital forensics needs, please feel free to contact us. We can go over your case and extract whatever you need from any mobile device.