When it comes to accessing digital data across devices, mobile phones are easily the most common devices that law enforcement, businesses, and military personnel will deal with. In the past, accessing critical files (e.g., law enforcement cases, business intelligence, etc.) involved physically unlocking and searching through devices. The problem, of course, is that accessing smartphones by physically entering the device can lead to data loss, file access issues, and an incomplete view of the device's digital archive.
Since tons of information contained in smartphones is buried in inaccessible portions of the operating system, relying on antiquated digital forensic strategies can lead to data loss.
So, how do you access these files intelligently without risking deletion or inaccurate reporting?
Finding a way to gather data across mobile devices — which frequently vary in hardware components — without risking data contamination is a mission-critical aspect of data
Forensic triage for smartphones (or mobile forensics) is the act of intelligently gathering data across mobile device providers to provide a top-down view of all of the crucial data contained in the device.
Of course, forensic triage can be applied to a wide variety of devices (e.g., computers, tablets, etc.) But, with over 70% of the entire world's population carrying mobile devices, law enforcement is more likely to run into a cellular device as opposed to a PC. This means that forensic triage is only valuable if it's capable of capturing data contained in these devices, as it's likely that this data is significant to criminal, business, or military investigations.
While the obvious reason that forensic triage is valuable is data gathering, there are some aspects of forensic triage that separate valuable solutions from difficult, overburdening solutions.
Each of these solutions is geared towards specific needs. Want to know which one is right for you? Compare our mobile forensic products.