The rapid advancement in semiconductor technologies and increase in computer power has increased the functionality of mobile phones. It is used in business organizations to do work. The data stored on mobile phones is also used in civil and criminal case investigations. Mobile forensic tools are used in the mobile forensic investigation process to reduce the attacks and track the attackers. This article explains the details of mobile forensics, its categories, challenges, and how it differs from computer forensics
Table of Contents
1. What Is Mobile Forensic?
Mobile forensics is one of the branches of digital forensics used to recover digital evidence from cell phone devices. Mobile forensics involves the recovery, preservation, and analysis of data from mobile devices. This process is essential in legal investigations, especially in cases involving cybercrime, fraud, or other digital evidence.
2. Mobile Forensic Investigation Process
- Preparation: Understand the purpose of the investigation, such as criminal cases, corporate fraud, and missing persons. Then, define the goals, obtain legal authorization, such as warrants, to prevent evidence inadmissibility, and choose appropriate mobile forensic tools for data acquisition and analysis like Cellebrite, Magnet AXIOM, UFED, or others.
- Seizure: Forensic examiners face many challenges in seizing mobile phones at the crime spot. The cell phones are placed in the Faraday bag that isolates the phone from the network. The phone must be switched off because the intruder can erase the data from the mobile remotely if the phone and its internet are on.
- Acquisition: In the acquisition process, the original pieces of evidence from the mobile phone are recovered using different mobile acquisition tools. Multiple methods are used to collect and recover data from the mobile.
- Examination: The examiner faces many challenges in examining the recovered digital pieces of evidence because different mobile types will require different tools and techniques to recover the data and examine its integrity.
- Reporting: Then, a report is created explaining each piece of evidence, the tools used, and the reason for using the tools to collect the data and examine it. The report also contains the chain of custody forms and photographs.
- Review: Review the methodology for efficiency and accuracy. Incorporate lessons learned to improve future investigations.
3. Categories Of Mobile Forensics
Mobile forensics can be divided into the following categories:
- Logical Acquisition
- Extracts files accessible through the device’s operating system.
- Useful for obtaining user data like messages, call logs, and contacts.
- Physical Acquisition
- Captures all data on the device, including deleted files.
- Requires specialized hardware or software tools.
- Cloud Forensics
- Recover data stored in the cloud, like backups or synced files.
- Often involves accessing cloud accounts linked to the device.
- Chip-Off Forensics
- Involves physically removing the memory chip to extract data.
- Used when the device is severely damaged or inaccessible.
- JTAG (Joint Test Action Group) Forensics
- Uses device debugging ports to access raw data.
- Requires extensive expertise and specialized tools.
4. Difference Between Mobile Forensics And Computer Forensic
| Aspect | Mobile Forensics | Computer Forensics |
| Device Type | mobile devices such as smartphones, tablets, smartwatches, and sometimes GPS devices | traditional computing devices like desktops, laptops, and servers. |
| Memory Type | Volatile | Non-Volatile |
| Focus | Communication, network connection, location, personal data | Broad system analysis, network investigations like internet usage, network logs, and file sharing |
| Data Storage | It has limited internal storage but has external storage like SD cards. Data is stored in flash memory and cloud. | hard drives (HDDs) or solid-state drives (SSDs) with larger storage capacities. The file system is more structured than mobile devices. |
| Connectivity | cellular networks, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and NFC. | Ethernet or Wi-Fi |
| Type of Data Analyzed | Calls, SMS/MMS, contact lists, GPS, and location data, social media or messaging platform data, photos, videos, and Mobile operating system logs | Emails, documents, spreadsheets, web browsing history, cookies, system logs and registry files, Installed software and their logs, anddata from virtual machines or network shares |
| Tools and Techniques | Uses tools designed for hard drive analysis like EnCase, FTK, X-Ways, and others. Techniques include imaging entire drives, recovering deleted files, and analyzing file systems. | Emails, documents, spreadsheets, web browsing history, cookies, system logs and registry files, Installed software and their logs, and data from virtual machines or network shares |
| Operating System | Android, iOS, and Windows Phone | Windows, macOS, and Linux |
| Challenges | Encryption, OS updates, limited storage | Larger data volumes, complex file systems |
5. Challenges To Cell Phone Forensics
- The mobile data can be accessed and synchronized to multiple devices, and the memory is of volatile types that create challenges in preserving the evidence.
- There are various mobile phone models available in the market with different sizes, hardware, features, and OS. The product life cycle is also short, creating challenges for examiners to be updated with the latest mobile forensic techniques.
- Modern mobile phones have built-in security features to protect the privacy of the users. It uses encryption methods both on hardware and software layers that require examiners to break the encryption to collect the evidence.
- Anti-forensic tools like data forgery, data hiding techniques, secure wiping, and others make mobile forensics difficult.
- Lack of resources and tools is also one of the drawbacks of mobile forensics.
- The mobiles have a reset option that erases all the users’ data from the phone.
- The examiner should know all the criminal laws and regional laws before conducting mobile forensics because mobiles are connected to the network using a wireless network that can cross different country boundaries.
6. Examples Of Mobile Forensic Cases
Pegasus spyware: A notable recent case where mobile forensics played a pivotal role is the Pegasus spyware controversy in India. This case involved allegations of unauthorized surveillance of journalists, activists, and politicians using Pegasus spyware. Mobile forensics experts analyzed affected devices to identify the presence of spyware and reconstructed data trails to understand its deployment. The investigation highlighted challenges in tackling sophisticated cyber-espionage tools and underlined the importance of robust forensic methodologies
Gold Smuggling: Another example is the 2020 Kerala Gold Smuggling Case in India. Here, mobile forensic analysis was crucial in uncovering communications between the perpetrators. Investigators analyzed emails, phone logs, and chat records from seized mobile devices to unravel the smuggling network and identify the individuals involved.
These cases demonstrate the indispensable role of mobile forensics in modern investigations, from uncovering cybercrimes to solving high-profile criminal cases.
7. Conclusion
Mobile forensics plays a pivotal role in modern investigations, especially as our dependence on mobile devices increases. While it presents unique challenges, advancements in forensic tools continue to enhance its effectiveness. With the right approach, mobile forensics can provide powerful evidence to ensure justice. However, individuals need to be aware of such mobile cyber attacks and take measures to protect their devices. They need to keep their devices and applications up to date and remove all unknown applications leading to attacks. Small measures can make big differences.