A Wiped Smartphone Still Leaves Valuable Data for Law Enforcement

Last Updated on Wednesday, 21 December 2011 08:42 Written by kelly.solid Wednesday, 21 December 2011 08:40

A recent study performed by Access Data showed that over 60% of all discarded phones still contain valuable information even if “wiped clean”. This information includes SMS, phone calls, geo-location data of pictures, etc. (even if deleted from the phone). One great tool for cultivating this deleted info is the Cellebrite Ultimate (includes Physical Pro).

Warrantless Search of Cell Phones in California Stays Alive

Last Updated on Tuesday, 20 December 2011 07:48 Written by kelly.solid Tuesday, 13 December 2011 07:43

Gov. Jerry Brown vetoed legislation that would require a court order for law enforcement search of cell phones in California.  This is a victory for law enforcement and a defeat for the ACLU.

Mobile forensics or cell forensics information acquired from cell phones are increasing as more and more as agencies incorporate tools like the Cellebrite UFED, XRY, SecureView and THREADS into their investigative process. As the need for this type of investigative analysis has increased, so has the debate about warrantless searches has escalated.

“Most police across the country are given wide latitude to search persons incident to an arrest based on the premise of officer safety. Now the nation’s states are beginning to grapple with the warrantless searches of mobile phones done at the time of an arrest.” Let’s hope for law enforcement’s case that Gov. Brown’s veto sets a precedent of where this thing is heading.

Contraband Cell Phones in Prison – Problem or an Opportunity?

Last Updated on Tuesday, 17 May 2011 06:57 Written by kelly.solid Tuesday, 17 May 2011 06:57

 Contraband cell phones in correctional institutions are at an all time high.  A recent article in Business Week states  ”although there are no nationwide statistics, in California alone more than 10,000 contraband phones were confiscated from inmates in 2010, up from 1,400 in 2007. In Mississippi, authorities grabbed more than 4,000 handsets from prisoners last year, up 43 percent from 2009.”  The article goes on to state,  ”Illegal cell phones are probably the largest public-safety risk prisons are facing nationally,” says Terri McDonald, chief deputy secretary of California’s Corrections and Rehabilitation Dept.  The risks arise from the inmates using the phones to run outside criminal activity from prison, intimidate witnesses, coordinate escapes and order retaliation against other prisoners.

This problem has caused the correctional industry to look hard at cell jamming and finder techniques to limit the infiltration of the cell phone contraband.  Realizing that this is really a huge problem, it can be an opportunity as well.  An opportunity – you say – how does that make any sense? 

Trying to think outside of the box, lets look at some of the advantages of a cell phone in an inmate’s hand.  A contraband cell phone gives law enforcement something that they are not afforded (as readily) through the inmate use of a “secret” cell phone.  An inmate with a cell phone is  now “free” to make calls and speak freely.  They are more apt to contact individuals that would not normally contact to facilitate activities that they would not dare do on the recorded prison calls.  When a phone is then confiscated, and the cell forensics data is retrieved through the use of a Cellebrite UFED or SecureView device, we now have a full and open profile of the inmate.  We can not a only see who he talked to and text-messaged, we can bounce that against other inmates to look for collaborations on the outside and common contacts. 

Analysis of this type can be readily done using techniques in Excel – looking for correlations or other software products on the market such as THREADS - that specifically analyzes inmate phone CDRs (call detail records) and cell forensics to provide calls and callers of interest.