Cell Forensics Analysis Software

Last Updated on Tuesday, 17 May 2011 06:18 Written by daniel.solid Saturday, 22 January 2011 04:10

In two previous articles on cell forensics, we first laid out a brief case for why cell forensics are important, and then we listed our favorite mobile forensic extraction tools. But once you get the call records, text messages, address books, images, etc of the phone, how can you most efficiently produce leads for your case with the data?

The Task: Analyzing Cell Forensics

Sadly, most investigators are just viewing the data on a manual, phone-by-phone basis. This painstaking, manual process is certainly more worthwhile than not analyzing cell phones at all – but it requires the investigator to move back and forth between other data related to the case in order to identify correlations.

In our experience, most investigators dealing with cell forensics end up with multiple phones at once. This is particularly true for narcotics and gang related investigations. When you start dealing with multiple, likely affiliated phones the need for correlating the data becomes increasingly more important. However, because there is so much data to work with, the detective assigned to the case is only able to scratch the service with a manual approach due to time constraints.

Here in the USA, we are behind other countries – like the UK fore example – who have been on the mobile forensics analysis scene for a long time; but the reality is that even for the pros, the process from acquisition to extraction to analysis to correlation to lead generation is very manual. When we considered the fact that systems like the Cellebrite UFED, Secureview, and XRY already export to a standardized format, we recognized serious need for an analytical software tool that imports from these existing systems to for correlation. What do investigators need to be able to do? Here is a partial list.

The Requirements: Software Capabilities for Cell Forensic Analysis

1. Automatically import from most common cell forensic extraction hardware
2. Case management database with names, numbers, events, and whatever else is related to the case
3. Automatically match subject names & aliases, phone numbers, emails, calls, and other data to existing data already in the case management system – with manual override as needed
4. Produce graphical linkage reports based on individuals and groups of individuals connected by calls, text messages, email, calendar events, and especially phone books
5. Upon identifying numbers or names of interest, the ability to attach additional subpoenaed records to the names, images, and aliases found on the mobile phones
6. Cell tower import and mapping for subpoenaed records with lat / long data
7. The ability to maintain and export source files in an organized manner for use in court

You may be able to generate some link charts in I2 Analyst’s Notebook, but it is certainly a VERY manual process. The goal here is to make everything happen at the push of a button; that way, even if you are not a technical forensic analyst, you can still get the job done quickly. This is especially crucial for investigators; they need something that generates leads in the office so they can follow up in the field. Software systems exist for extracting the data and running a few rudimentary reports; but nothing comes close to meeting the 7 expectations listed above.

The Only Solution: THREADS™ Crime Analysis Software

The core capability of THREADS™ is criminal communication analysis, especially when it comes to call detail records. Its analysis is backed by a robust case management system that allows the analysis to link back into the records themselves, and to correlate with existing data in the case. In it’s 1.4 release which is coming out this January, THREADS™ is adding cell forensic import from the Cellebrite UFED, the Secureview, the Blackberry IPD, and soon the XRY.

Analysis inside THREADS™ investigation software yields focused leads for investigations involving cell forensics because it correlates the calls, address books, subject names (and nicknames), and more with other data relevant to the case. Existing case data can be brought into the system, and on import, everything gets matched up. There is no redundancy in the data; the more you bring in, the more rich your analysis becomes. As the system points you to new leads, you can proceed to subpoena their call detail records (CDRs) and bring those in as well. And yet, the reports inside THREADS™ are easily filtered to exclude irrelevant or distracting links.

Some Reports that THREADS™ Generates from Cell Forensics:

Subjects can be correlated to see who knows who – this chart was automatically generated inside THREADS™ based on two cell phones; one from a Cellebrite UFED, and another from a Susteen / Datapilot Secureview:

When is a subject hot and heavy on the phone? Run a timeline report to correlate events and see if communications are causal, operational, or reactionary:

Subjects (suspects) can be automatically correlated based on their communications, activities, enterprises, and virtually any sort of connection that an investigator would encounter:

Here in the near future, we will post some case studies here of real-life scenarios where cell forensics are being correlated with case data inside of THREADS™ to generate valuable leads for law enforcement. Feel free to contact us at Direct Hit Systems to Request a Demo of THREADS™.

What Kind of Forensic Investigation Can Bust the Morgan Harrington Case?

Last Updated on Saturday, 30 January 2010 06:26 Written by kelly.solid Saturday, 30 January 2010 06:26

The missing person’s case that captured the nation’s attention came to an abrupt end thisweek with the confirmation that Morgan Harrington’s body had been found on a farm near Charlotteville, Virginia.  How was Morgan killed and more importantly, who killed her?

The how part of the murder should be know fairly soon with an autopsy.  Hopefully, the Virginia State Police can garner enough DNA evidence to determine some physical evidence of who might have been involved.  It has been over 3 months since that fateful night, 17 october 2009, but DNA forensic experts know that you can determine a lot with very little. One such article I read indicated that, to the examiner’s advantage was the fact that Morgan’s body was perserved in snow for much of the time.  Heat causes faster decompostion, so hopefully the cold winter will play to the investigator’s favor.

Another area that the investigator’s should look into is finding the perps through cell phone analysis.  Cell phone analysis?  What is this guy on, you might ask?  Hear me out.  Per the police timeline/map,Morgan was last seen about 9:20PM walking away from the stadium (Metallica concert).  Obviously someone picked her up sometime after that and took her body approximately 10 miles away onto a farm where her body was found this week.  What if, the perp(s), any of the them, used or received a cell phone call around the time of Morgan’s disapperance at or near the stadium?  Then what if, that same perp or perps, made or recieved a phone call at or near the farm later that evening when Morgan’s body was dropped off?  We would have a way to identify through correlation analysis matching phone numbers from the appropriate cell towers.  Do a cell tower dump the night of 17 October around 9PM near that bridge and another cell tower dump where the body was found.  It is worth a try and possibly a case buster.