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Archives for August 2013

August 29, 2013 by Private Investigator Greensboro

Private Investigators in Greensboro NC Discover Cheating Spouses

Private Investigators Greensboro North Carolina
Private Investigators in Greensboro NC conduct Cheating Spouse Investigations.
Greensboro Private Investigators discover evidence in Cheating Spouse cases, as well as, personal injury, Cyber Investigations, wire tapping cases, and many more areas of Investigations. Advanced Technology Investigations, LLC is a full service Private Investigator in Greensboro, NC., using high tech tools in their Investigation to help discover evidence to be used in the Court of law.

eDiscovery in legal cases have grown substantially over the past five years. Advanced Technology Investigations, LLC in Greensboro, NC., are keeping up with the latest tools in technology such as being able to conduct Digital Forensics on Cell Phones, Computers, iPads, iPods, tablets, notebooks, GPS devices, and much more. The area of digital Forensics is very specialized and requires a lot of training in the classroom and hands on in the field. The Digital Forensics examiners have to have a multitude of different tools and Forensic software in order to conduct examinations on different devices. Tools such as Forensic imagers, triage tools, write blocks, computer forensic softwares such as AccessData’s FTK toolkit, Magnet’s Internet Evidence Finder, recovery software, Helix for analyzing volatile data, just to name a few.

Cell Phone Forensics takes many tools as well, since there are currently over 8000 models of cell phones, there is no one tool get all. The Forensic examiners the Greensboro Private Investigators at the Advanced Technology Investigations, LLC lab use tools such as Cellibrite Physical Analyzer, AccessData’s Mobile Phone Examiner Plus, Paraben Device Seizure, SecureView, Oxygen Forensics, and Lantern. These tools require intense training and a skilled examiner that can troubleshoot and take on all the challenges a cell phone can bring with recovering data from it.

More and More Attorney’s are turning to Advanced Technology Investigations, LLC and their Private Investigators in Greensboro, NC., to to conduct eDiscovery in their cases. eDiscovery can deliver more evidence than just having typical surveillance and research on cases. Digital Forensics can bring a case alive that may have only very limited evidence. We live in a digital world with technology all around us, which can make our busy lives easier to manage and get task completed in our hands, but when technology is used for bad and deceiving reasons, the bad people need to hope their computer or cell phone doesn’t land in the hands of the Private Investigators in Greensboro, NC., at Advanced Technology Investigations, LLC. To learn more, and to set up a FREE Consultation with one of our highly trained Greensboro Private Investigators, call today at: 336-298-1556, and see how we can help you with your case.

Filed Under: NC Private Investigation Services Tagged With: cell phone forensics, Cheating spouse greensboro nc, data recovery, deleted data recovery, deleted text message recovery, digital forensics, discover evidence, Greensboro Private Investigators, Private Investigators Greensboro NC

August 27, 2013 by Private Investigator Greensboro

iPhone Forensics What to Expect

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW

by David Shelton, Advanced Technology Investigations, LLC

Client’s of Advanced Technology Investigations, LLC throughout North Carolina turn to us when there is a possibility of evidence in the form of electronic data with cell phones, computers and other digital devices that hold communication and media. We bring special skills in technology to our Clients to ensure they have all the evidence possible from a team of experienced experts with proven results, giving our Client’s the truth they deserve.

This article is for for experienced Cell Phone Forensic examiners, as well as examiners just getting started with (CPF). Below is what you will learn from this article.

• What you should know about digital forensics on cell phones
• What to expect from a Forensic examination on an Apple iPhone
• Step by Step, conducting the examination
• Plug in tools to assist in interpreting the data

WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW

• Digital Forensics with Cell Phones is challenging in that, there is no, one tool fits all.
• The Examiner has to have multiple tools, and have a good understanding of data that can be on a cell phone.
• The Examiner must learn a multitude of techniques to make different models of cell phones communicate with the specific workstation.
• Learning as much as possible with continuing training, and experience, will give the examiner the best chance to be successful in their attempts at this ever changing field.

INTRODUCTION

One of the more popular cell phones to attempt a forensic examination on is the Apple iPhone. The iPhone is a smart phone made by Apple. The Apple iPhone can hold tremendous amounts of data. If successful at an acquisition, all the tedious and hard work is quite satisfying to the forensic examiner, in that, the examiner has overcome challenges with each iPhone model and different iOS versions examined, and has most likely used multiple tools to acquire all the available data the iPhone can produce.

WHAT YOU CAN EXPECT FROM AN iPHONE FORENSIC EXAMINATION

Before we began the step by step process we must identify the different types of acquisitions available for the iPhone model and the iOS version running on the particular iPhone. The experienced examiner will know, or will research if the phone to be examined is able to be examined Logically (Data that can be seen), or with a Physical examination (Data that cannot be seen, such as deleted data). There are different tools for each method the examiner can use. The chosen tool will depend on the tools available to the examiner, the circumstances of the case, and the data the examiner is looking for. Several Forensic tools can acquire a physical image of iPhone models previous to the iPhone 4 and below, such as the iphones 3, 3G, and 4. At the time of this paper, there are no forensic tools that will acquire a physical acquisition of the iPhone 4s or the iPhone 5. The examiner will however, still be able to recover a limited amount of deleted text messages located in the logical database file, as well as data that can be carved from application files. Knowing as much information about the case will help the examiner to pick the most appropriate available tools for the case.

THE CHALLENGES

There are quite a few challenges with acquiring the data from an iPhone. Several tools are needed to examine the different types of files the examiner successfully acquires. Some of the forensic software’s have several different tools built into the software and automated for the examiner already. There are other software’s that you must conduct separate task with the phone in order to access all the data the iPhone can hold. The Apple iPhone was introduced into the market in 2007. Its proprietary operating system is the iOS. One of the most known challenges of the iPhone is the constant upgrades and patches made with each release of the iOS firmware. As cell phones evolve, the forensic software tools must do the same to attempt to keep up with the newest technology.

There are teams of developers and hackers that constantly work to crack the iOS encryption so the device can be forensically examined. If you start researching iPhone forensics you can find a multitude of books written specifically on topics of the iOS operating systems and how it works, and how to develop apps for it.

PRESERVING THE DATA

The very first and most important step in any Digital Forensic examination is to protect the data from changing so to preserve the source data from changing. There are arguable points as how to accomplish this task. Do you simply turn the phone off or do you protect the device with a Faraday cage to keep the device from communicating with the wireless network? Knowing that a cell phone is a mobile device, there are many possibilities on how the device suddenly became an item of interest to be examined. The first responder at the scene may not be trained in Cell Phone Forensics, and may not have the necessary tools to perform a triage on the spot. Even though a first responder may not be trained in preserving digital evidence, most first responders know that documentation is very important at any incident they may encounter, thus the words document…document…document, must get burned into the first responders brain. Taking a picture of the cell phone, its screen, and any visible ports before deciding to cut the phone off or to faraday protect the phone is a reasonable and smart decision to make.

If the situation is that the first responder has access to a faraday cage, it is important to note that some models of iPhones have a metal exterior showing around the edges of the phone, and if you place a faraday article against the metal of the phone, instead of blocking the cellular signal, the result could be that you actually cause an antenna effect of the phone shell and boost the signal to the iPhone. It’s always good to have some way of isolating the phone from the actual faraday protectant, just in case this situation arises. If faraday protection isn’t an option, placing the iPhone in airplane mode will disconnect the phone from the network as well. It is important for the first responder to document and let the examiner know what state the iPhone will be arriving, so the examiner can reduce the chances that the data can be wiped from the user’s account at a later time by the User. These items conducted properly will allow the examiner to report the proper preservation of the data. The first responder and the examiner will be responsible in establishing a chain of custody to follow the cell phone from the time the cell phone is in possession, until the conclusion of the case.

Once in the lab the iPhone can be examined using a multitude of tools. The examiner needs to be aware of how a physical acquisition is obtained by understanding the iPhone iOS firmware tools which will assist in acquiring a bit by bit image of the target iPhone memory. Some tools will automatically execute commands to the phone while the phone is placed in DFU mode, in order to execute a temporary root which will allow for a bit by bit copy of the phone memory, then restore the iPhone back to its normal state without altering any data on the phone, such as process ran on products like Cellebrite and AccessData’s MPE+. Depending on the tools available, the examiner may have no other choice except to use multiple tools in order to acquire a physical image, then use a other tools to analyze the image. At times when Apple releases a new iOS and before the forensic software manufactures release their update to support the new iOS, the examiner may have no other choice other than to perform a jailbreak on the target iPhone in order to obtain a physical acquisition of a newly released update of the target iPhone. An experienced examiner that has been trained with the iOS developer tools and has a clear understanding of how different tools work with different iOS versions, can be well prepared for any challenges the examiner may face during the forensic examination of the iPhone.

To learn how Forensics can help your case, call for a FREE Consultation at: 336-298-1556

Filed Under: NC Private Investigation Services

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