If you are still investigating pay telephones, then you are living in ancient history. As we enter the next decade of the twentieth century, a lot of people are using cell phones - including the criminals that we examine.
As cell telephones have gotten more advanced, it does not make a great deal of sense any longer to just name the devices "phones.". In fact, the title "mini computer" would be a more suitable title for these mighty little communication telephones. Smartphones like the blackberry and iphone are especially powerful sources of investigative evidence.
Ordinary belief among many - in particular smaller - police agencies is that investigating cell forensics is more scientific than they have the time or the personell to handle. But this is simply not the situation. Take a look out of the country: the UK, and other nearby Eurpean nations, are far more advanced that the United States when it comes to extracting forensic information out of cell telephones. This advancement was not that tricky; it really only took a willingness to recognize that cell phone forensics are valuable for investigations. We will discuss importance of cell forensics in this article. In another article, we discuss cell forensic acquisition hardware.
Though it may seem to be a trivial question if you have any experience with cell forensics, no double several police department cops might want a definition for cell handset forensics. Here is a good definition:
The removal and analysis of information from mobile phones seized by detectives.
To aquire these cell phones from suspects, they are normally captured during an arrest or when a search warrent is exercised. The way to lawfully acquire mobile phones for cases is not the point of this article - we have to suppose that you are somewhat familiar with the fundamentals of criminal justice. Consult your defense attorney to guarantee that you acquire the smartphones corectly. Take into account that the process from start to finish needs to be documented for court.
Cell forensic data includes:
- Emails ( in the case of smartphones)
- Address books
- Pictures (occationallly together with geo-information!)
-Text messages
-Call Detail Records (aka numbers called and numbers calling)
The value of mobile device forensics is rather obvious.
They can with no trouble generate the next lead of your investigation, but they also provide valuable perspective for your subjects. Who is called most often by your subject? Who is receiving his emails? What persons are a part of his core group of co-conspirators?
Simply getting data off of a phone, however, is not enough. You need a way to analyze the information. It is not uncommon for forensic analysts to rave about the number of files they are able to pull off a particilar phone. However, the only point of pulling data from a phone is to generate leads and the resulting evidence with ANALYSIS.
In another article later in this series, we will hit on some cell forensic analysis system that turns the data from the aquisition devices (like the Cellebrite, Secureview, or XRY) and actually transforms it into useful intelligence automatically.
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