mobile phone forensics

garyosamantha

Can someone point me in the right direction!!!!

I can undelete information off any phone or laptop, sms, call history, browser, hard drive, etc. I can hack most wireless connections, crack software's etc.

I have read a quite a few papers about mobile phone forensics, and its something i would like to start looking into. I have no college degree. How would i start to go about this

It doesnt have to be in this country, any advice much appreciated:D:D

Kinetic^

You need to look at who your market is.


If it's the forensic side of things then solicitors, barristers or gardai would probably be the best to approach first.

Sean^DCT4

garyosamantha wrote: »

Can someone point me in the right direction!!!!

I can undelete information off any phone or laptop, sms, call history, browser, hard drive, etc. I can hack most wireless connections, crack software's etc.

I have read a quite a few papers about mobile phone forensics, and its something i would like to start looking into. I have no college degree. How would i start to go about this

It doesnt have to be in this country, any advice much appreciated:D:D

pffft... script kiddie :pac:

ironclaw

To be the top of the field, you'd really want to do a course in law, in particular criminal law. Proper evidence procedures, case law etc etc. Most forensics are done in house by trained Gardai. They rarely outsource as far as I'm aware.

There are a good few books on the subject on Amazon but they mainly deal with US laws. Its a very tight market however so realistically you'd want to become a forensic's business doing everything from hard drives to mobile phones. As a business in Ireland I doubt it would be worthwhile given the costs and legal overheads.

In addition most mobiles are fairly secure these days. The iPhone for example has a wipe built in that I believe is verified by the US Dept. Of Defense, takes about 40 minutes for the phone to do it.

garyosamantha

@ sean^dct4 haha ('',)

thanks

garyosamantha

@ ironclaw, thanks for the info. waiting to hear back from a solicitor, thanks again

garyosamantha

Kinetic^ wrote: »

You need to look at who your market is.


If it's the forensic side of things then solicitors, barristers or gardai would probably be the best to approach first.

i was looking into a market of 'infidelity'' between couples, to start with, i know it sounds crazy.

thanks anyway

ironclaw

garyosamantha wrote: »

i was looking into a market of 'infidelity'' between couples, to start with, i know it sounds crazy.

thanks anyway

Without conscent from both parties I'd imagine thats highly illegal as an invasion of privacy. But yes as a market you could have one.

garyosamantha

ironclaw wrote: »

Without conscent from both parties I'd imagine thats highly illegal as an invasion of privacy. But yes as a market you could have one.

it would be only with consent from both parties, it would have to be, i just got thinking that mobile phones contain so much data on an individual. its very easy for a partner to delete numbers and texts from their call history on their phone thinking once its deleted its gone...but its not!! so i think their might be a need for this service. thanks again for the reply

peterwhit

just get a Cellebrite:

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2011/04/michigan-state-police-we-only-grab-your-cellphone-data-with-a-warrant.ars

garyosamantha

peterwhit wrote: »

just get a Cellebrite:

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2011/04/michigan-state-police-we-only-grab-your-cellphone-data-with-a-warrant.ars

thanks for the info, just off the phone to them, going to cost about 5k definatly worth it though

ironclaw

garyosamantha wrote: »

thanks for the info, just off the phone to them, going to cost about 5k definatly worth it though

I'd pump the brakes for a second here. There is a very very small market in Ireland. Taking the example of the infidelity:

1) You need both people to agree and have a watertight legal clause (Which will cost a fortune for an expert to write)

2) No cheating partner in their right mind would agree to have their phone examined. Because if infidelity was found, it would destroy the relationship and secondly if neither partner will openly show their phone to each other, it will destroy the relationship from lack of trust.

Further on from this:

You'll need to invest heavily in data protection and be certified as such.

You'll probably never ever get work with An Garda Siochanna unless you are a recognised expert in the field and at most it would be consultation.

You'll need to invest in courses and certification in technology forensics. This again takes time and money. Most of these courses are in the UK and the USA as well, so its added cost. There is a course in UCD, I'll see can I find a link, but its a masters so you'll need a computer based degree under your belt at the very least.

As a business, I don't think you have a market. You'd certainly be a long time recouping the cost of 5k let alone any other legal costs to get set up in the first place.

Its a great idea and I wish you the very, very best with it. I looked at doing it and when the costs hit close to 30k+, I gave up.

As regards the Cellbrite, I'm almost sure the place on Abbey St is the dealer for Ireland.

garyosamantha

Thanks for the reply Ironclaw,

I was thinking along the same line as recovering data from a hard drive, a mobile phone internal memory would be the same I thought, just more difficult to extract and read the raw data.

I'm wondering why I would need a legal clause, as I am extracting the deleted data for the owner of the handset, the same way I would do it for a computer hard drive. I'm basically looking for the raw backup file from the handset, all phones can create a backup of data from the handset and synch it to the computer eg nokia and the .nbu file. The difference in what I am doing is extracting the backup including all deleted data.

Why would I need a certificate in data protection if I have proof of ownership of the handset, without the proof of ownership it would be highly illegal I understand.

I understand it would be impossible to get training from An Garda Siochanna but I would be looking for training to use the hardware/ software from the company, Cellbrite, cell phone analyser etc. At the moment I can extract the raw data from a handset but my problem is reading the information as it is in different code or Unicode. As for the laws in this country regarding the matter, in my head I was thinking that all I would need would be a licence to operate as a business but after reading your post I'm thinking maybe not.

Infidelity would be one of my marketing strategy's, along with recovering lost picture's, video's, phone numbers, also keeping an eye on your children's activities on their phone. I see very few people doing this kind of thing in Ireland which got me thinking about the competition side of things, it also got me thinking as to why so few people are doing this kind of thing, from seeing your post i'm beginning to see why.

What actually gave me the idea of the whole thing was a website in Europe somewhere offering this kind of service, you post your phone and sim to this company and within 4 weeks you receive everything back including a document with the data from the phone on it, I think they were charging over 400 euro for the service.

Thanks a million for your reply,

Gary

ironclaw

No problem Gary. Glad to see someone else interested in the whole field!

I was thinking along the same line as recovering data from a hard drive, a mobile phone internal memory would be the same I thought, just more difficult to extract and read the raw data.

Your right there. It can be much more difficult. With hard drives you can either clone them forensically or you have to read the platters directly. The second option needs a clean room and 100k equipment to do. No where does it in Ireland, its all outsourced to the UK. Its normally done when the drive has been zero'd or broken.

As regards reading the phone, the same could be true. You might have to go as low level as the memory chip but if the data was that important it probably wouldn't be on a phone. Reading off using Cellbrite is easy enough. However, you have to remember the whole chain of evidence. If you get a hard drive, you cannot boot the computer. You have to employ write blockers and forensically clone. You'd have to have your procedure certified by the relevant authorities if you wanted work in legal cases (Unlikely given the Garda in house specialities) The most work I'd say you'd get with An Garda would be consultation but you'd need to be a renowned expert in the field.

I'm wondering why I would need a legal clause, as I am extracting the deleted data for the owner of the handset, the same way I would do it for a computer hard drive. I'm basically looking for the raw backup file from the handset, all phones can create a backup of data from the handset and synch it to the computer eg nokia and the .nbu file. The difference in what I am doing is extracting the backup including all deleted data.

You would still want a bullet proof disclaimer regarding data protection and the possibility of data loss. A Joe Soap looking to get his numbers back is a whole different kettle of fish to Joe Cheat who's having his phone examined for the benefit of his wife

Why would I need a certificate in data protection if I have proof of ownership of the handset, without the proof of ownership it would be highly illegal I understand.

Every extraction you do will create a copy that in the wrong hands could damage an individual. As such you need watertight policy's on how you handle data, when its destroyed and how its stored. In the case of legal evidence, this would include fire proof safes and upwards. You would need to be Data Protection certified.

I understand it would be impossible to get training from An Garda Siochanna but I would be looking for training to use the hardware/ software from the company, Cellbrite, cell phone analyser etc. At the moment I can extract the raw data from a handset but my problem is reading the information as it is in different code or Unicode. As for the laws in this country regarding the matter, in my head I was thinking that all I would need would be a licence to operate as a business but after reading your post I'm thinking maybe not.

The Gardai won't train or employ you, unless your already a Garda. You could certainly get training on how to use Cellbrite, but remember, anyone can use a box given the manual. Its the training behind it that counts. Many forensic experts are experts again in a given field. One guy I met was an absolute expert on Firewalls and that was it. But he was an expert, not just a guy who did a course and read a manual. The more qualified you are the better. There are plenty of courses and I would urge you to do as many as possible.

If your in to computers these guys are worth a shot (if your very serious about this): http://www.offensive-security.com/ I have't done it as I can't afford it but if I ever had the money, I would.

Infidelity would be one of my marketing strategy's, along with recovering lost picture's, video's, phone numbers, also keeping an eye on your children's activities on their phone. I see very few people doing this kind of thing in Ireland which got me thinking about the competition side of things, it also got me thinking as to why so few people are doing this kind of thing, from seeing your post i'm beginning to see why.

Yeap, its a good market provided you have customers. Again you'd need to have policy's to ensure the phone belonged to the individual. Imagine a celebrities phone was stolen and you extracted it unwittingly for a paper? You'd be in hot water for handling stolen goods in addition to the negative publicity.