Disklabs have just developed a faraday bag. The product was designed for mobile phones, the idea being that when a mobile phone was seized it would be thrown into a faraday bag which would isolate it from the networks thus ensuring evidential integrity.

The reason for this post is that I want to get an idea of peoples opinion on this product. Is it worth while? Is there any mileage in it? Do you think that maintaining times and dates is worth while? Has anyone had to argue the time and date route in court?

Your thoughts please.

Regards,

Simon

I wish I had thought of that first!

I think anything that prevents contamination of evidence is going to make life a lot easier in the long run - specially explaining it in court.

There may become a time where mobile phones are seized in more minor situations (traffic accidents or whatever) where timestamps could be vital, and these bags would be just the thing plod would need to preserve evidence at the scene.

I never thought to mention, but the bag we have worked on has a window, enabling the investigating officer to have a look at the evidence too.

For those who are interested, please pm me and I will send them the technical specs over.




Regards,

Simon

Can I ask, is this just for mobile phones? We have been using faraday bags for our mobile phones for about 18 months. Granted they don't have a window for viewing the evidence, but they are good enough for us to get them into a secure environment.

redralf wrote:

Can I ask, is this just for mobile phones? We have been using faraday bags for our mobile phones for about 18 months. Granted they don't have a window for viewing the evidence, but they are good enough for us to get them into a secure environment.

At the moment, we are just providing the mobile phone version, however, we are also looking to get them tested for Bluetooth, RFID and wireless, so we can provide them for laptops too.

It hasnt been mentioned yet, but these are re-useable! A pretty important piece of information methinks!

Simon

Is it worthwhile? imho yes, very.
Live capture/preservation is much more important now that crooks are more aware than ever of the capacity to sabotage evidence both directly and remotely. It's also been known for crooks to destroy mechanical interfaces to the device purposely as a precaution.

What other characteristics do the other bags have, (apart from Simons new release which i'm aware of).

Are they just for transport as one poster responded, or do they have connectivity flaps so the phone can be examined/ hooked up directly, without waiting to go to a shielded lab environment?

Whats the potential for accidental keypresses as the bags look clothlike in construction?

just a couple of thoughts.

Kern

kern wrote:

What other characteristics do the bags have, (apart from Simons new release which im aware of). Are they just for transport as one poster responded, or do they have connectivity flaps so the phone can be examined/ hooked up directly, without waiting to go to a shielded lab environment? Whats the potential for accidental keypresses as the bags look clothlike in construction? just a couple of thoughts. Kern

The intended use currently is to have the bags for network isolation only during capture. I would recommend that they are put in a box on top of this to ensure that they dont get accidentaly pressed. Furthermore, I would hang on a little bit until we have the full version made with the cable cover on it.
Its coming soon!

Regards,

Simon

Quote::

I would recommend that they are put in a box on top of this to ensure that they dont get accidentaly pressed.

If the policeman or first resonder is going to need a box with him, why not use a Faraday box?

Fab4 wrote:

Quote:: I would recommend that they are put in a box on top of this to ensure that they dont get accidentaly pressed. If the policeman or first resonder is going to need a box with him, why not use a Faraday box?

Because a faraday box costs thousands and my Phone-Shield bags cost under £100 a unit - re-usable!

Fab4 wrote:

Quote:: I would recommend that they are put in a box on top of this to ensure that they dont get accidentaly pressed. If the policeman or first resonder is going to need a box with him, why not use a Faraday box?

If the phone has phone lock on then it wont matter anyway? The same applies for the flip-phones.

Simon