Mobile Phone and GPS Forensics – Some Thoughts

First published February 2009

by Greg Smith
Mobile Telephone Evidence & Forensics
trewmte.blogspot.com

Mobile telephones are the predominate wireless telecommunications device throughout the world and most certainly in the UK they predominate other technologies, where ownership has reached well over saturation level when compared to the population number and mobile phone usage is embedded in UK culture. Global Positioning Systems (GPS) falls into the category of wireless communications that provides a ‘beacon’ service from which information can be derived, such as a reference clock and location coordinates. GPS is fast becoming an integrated service in mobile telephones and forms part of the forensics and evidence examination process.I have been in talks with Professor David Last, a specialist and expert in GPS forensics and evidence, for some while on the cross-connection between wireless modules that can be integration into mobile telephones and, in particular, GPS being such a module. The discussion has been directed towards interpretation of GPS data and the importance that once data has been extracted and harvested it is vital that interpretation of the GPS data needs to be accurate.

I have similar thoughts regarding mobile telephone evidence and I have raised them, in the past at my webblog, and recently published at my webblog discussion about Cell Site Analysis:

trewmte.blogspot.com/2008/11/csa-from-ockhams-occams-razor-to.html
trewmte.blogspot.com/2008/11/mobile-phones-and-fringe-coverage.html
trewmte.blogspot.com/2009/01/checking-masts-csa.html
trewmte.blogspot.com/2009/01/checking-masts-csa-2.html


Get The Latest DFIR News

Join the Forensic Focus newsletter for the best DFIR articles in your inbox every month.


Unsubscribe any time. We respect your privacy - read our privacy policy.

There are many other discussions, too, at my webblog about SIM and mobile telephone examination where help and assistance has been given (free of charge and free of advertising I might add) to aid comprehension about mobile telephone evidence. Similarly, GPS must be taken seriously as people can lose their liberty and a whole lot more where evidence like this can add a contributory factor to the case against them. This matter will become more prevalent in the future as GPS modules are increasely being included in mobile telephones.

Market research from ABI indicates that shipments of GPS-enabled mobile phones will hit a speed-bump in 2009, but will still manage to post year-to-year unit growth through the current economic downturn. While global handset shipments are expected to drop by 4—5% in 2009, prior to 2009 GPS-enabled phones will show a climb to 240 million units, an increase of 6.4% for 2008. Moroever, Smartphones are expected to increase at an average 19% from 2009 to 2014 and it is predicted nine of every ten smartphones will contain GPS ICs in 2014, compared with one in three for 2008.Given these latest GPS statistics that have been released it is timely that Professor Last, the immediate past president of the Royal Institute of Navigation (RIN), should have his GPS forensics and evidence article ‘Silent Witness’ published in Navigation News (an RIN publication). I like the way David has woven in the use of computer forensics, which like mobile telephones, provides a complementary service to GPS devices for the data recovery process. Copying data though is simply not enough and the ‘Silent Witness’ article is strong on the importance of accurate interpretation of GPS data. A principle I wholehearted agree and why I have been promoting the importance of Mobile Telephone Forensics and Evidence Degrees.

David has kindly provided a copy of his ‘Silent Witness’ article that can be downloaded from Mobile Telephone Evidence at the link below:

www.filebucket.net/files/10614_ggvgt/pub356_scanned.pdf
Professor David Last ‘Silent Witness’
Navigation News January/February 2009
Pages 10-13

Thanks also to the RIN (www.rin.org.uk)

Leave a Comment

Latest Videos

In this episode of the Forensic Focus podcast, Si and Desi explore how artificial intelligence is being leveraged to uncover crucial evidence in investigations involving child sexual abuse material (CSAM) and examine the importance of exercising caution when implementing these tools. 

They also discuss a recent murder case in which cyber experts played a vital role in securing a conviction, and explore the unique challenges associated with using digital evidence as an alibi.

Show Notes:

A Practitioner Survey Exploring the Value of Forensic Tools, AI, Filtering, & Safer Presentation for Investigating Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM) - https://dfrws.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/2019_USA_paper-a_practitioner_survey_exploring_the_value_of_forensic_tools_ai_filtering_safer_presentation_for_investigating_child_sexual_abuse_material_csam.pdf

Man charged with NI murder ‘faked live stream to provide alibi’ (The Guardian) - https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2023/feb/02/man-charged-with-ni-faked-live-stream-to-provide-alibi

A YouTuber accused of murder faked a 6-hour livestream to produce an alibi (Sportskeeda) - https://www.sportskeeda.com/esports/news-a-youtuber-accused-murder-faked-6-hour-livestream-produce-alibi

European Interdisciplinary Cybersecurity Conference (EICC) 2023 - https://www.forensicfocus.com/event/european-interdisciplinary-cybersecurity-conference-eicc-2023/#more-493234

YouTuber reportedly faked GTA livestream to have an alibi while he committed murder (Dexerto) - https://www.dexerto.com/entertainment/youtuber-reportedly-faked-gta-livestream-to-have-an-alibi-while-he-committed-murder-2052974/

Forensic Europe Expo - https://www.forensicfocus.com/event/forensic-europe-expo/#more-493225

In this episode of the Forensic Focus podcast, Si and Desi explore how artificial intelligence is being leveraged to uncover crucial evidence in investigations involving child sexual abuse material (CSAM) and examine the importance of exercising caution when implementing these tools.

They also discuss a recent murder case in which cyber experts played a vital role in securing a conviction, and explore the unique challenges associated with using digital evidence as an alibi.

Show Notes:

A Practitioner Survey Exploring the Value of Forensic Tools, AI, Filtering, & Safer Presentation for Investigating Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM) - https://dfrws.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/2019_USA_paper-a_practitioner_survey_exploring_the_value_of_forensic_tools_ai_filtering_safer_presentation_for_investigating_child_sexual_abuse_material_csam.pdf

Man charged with NI murder ‘faked live stream to provide alibi’ (The Guardian) - https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2023/feb/02/man-charged-with-ni-faked-live-stream-to-provide-alibi

A YouTuber accused of murder faked a 6-hour livestream to produce an alibi (Sportskeeda) - https://www.sportskeeda.com/esports/news-a-youtuber-accused-murder-faked-6-hour-livestream-produce-alibi

European Interdisciplinary Cybersecurity Conference (EICC) 2023 - https://www.forensicfocus.com/event/european-interdisciplinary-cybersecurity-conference-eicc-2023/#more-493234

YouTuber reportedly faked GTA livestream to have an alibi while he committed murder (Dexerto) - https://www.dexerto.com/entertainment/youtuber-reportedly-faked-gta-livestream-to-have-an-alibi-while-he-committed-murder-2052974/

Forensic Europe Expo - https://www.forensicfocus.com/event/forensic-europe-expo/#more-493225

YouTube Video UCQajlJPesqmyWJDN52AZI4Q_7QiFTiuY7Vw

AI In CSAM Investigations And The Role Of Digital Evidence In Criminal Cases

Forensic Focus 22nd March 2023 11:44 am

Throughout the past few years, the way employees communicate with each other has changed forever.<br /><br />69% of employees note that the number of business applications they use at work has increased during the pandemic.<br /><br />Desk phones, LAN lines and even VOIP have become technologies of the past workplace environment as employees turn to cloud applications on their computers and phones to collaborate with each other in today’s workplace environment.<br /><br />Whether it’s conversations in Teams, file uploads in Slack chats, or confidential documents stored in Office 365, the amount of data stored and where it is stored, is growing quicker than IT and systems administrators can keep up with.<br /><br />Corporate investigators and eDiscovery professionals need to seamlessly collect relevant data from cloud sources and accelerate the time to investigative and discovery review.<br /><br />With the latest in Cellebrite’s remote collection suite of capabilities, investigators and legal professionals can benefit from secure collection with targeted capabilities for the most used workplace applications.<br /><br />Join Monica Harris, Product Business Manager, as she showcases how investigators can:<br /><br />- Manage multiple cloud collections through a web interface<br />- Cull data prior to collection to save time and money by gaining these valuable insights of the data available<br />- Collect data from the fastest growing cloud collaboration applications like Office365, Google Workspace, Slack and Box<br />- Login to a single source for workplace app collection without logging into every app and pulling data from multiple sources for every employee<br />- Utilize a single unified collection workflow for computer, mobile and workplace cloud applications without the need to purchase multiple tools for different types of collections – a solution unique to Cellebrite’s enterprise solution capabilities

Throughout the past few years, the way employees communicate with each other has changed forever.

69% of employees note that the number of business applications they use at work has increased during the pandemic.

Desk phones, LAN lines and even VOIP have become technologies of the past workplace environment as employees turn to cloud applications on their computers and phones to collaborate with each other in today’s workplace environment.

Whether it’s conversations in Teams, file uploads in Slack chats, or confidential documents stored in Office 365, the amount of data stored and where it is stored, is growing quicker than IT and systems administrators can keep up with.

Corporate investigators and eDiscovery professionals need to seamlessly collect relevant data from cloud sources and accelerate the time to investigative and discovery review.

With the latest in Cellebrite’s remote collection suite of capabilities, investigators and legal professionals can benefit from secure collection with targeted capabilities for the most used workplace applications.

Join Monica Harris, Product Business Manager, as she showcases how investigators can:

- Manage multiple cloud collections through a web interface
- Cull data prior to collection to save time and money by gaining these valuable insights of the data available
- Collect data from the fastest growing cloud collaboration applications like Office365, Google Workspace, Slack and Box
- Login to a single source for workplace app collection without logging into every app and pulling data from multiple sources for every employee
- Utilize a single unified collection workflow for computer, mobile and workplace cloud applications without the need to purchase multiple tools for different types of collections – a solution unique to Cellebrite’s enterprise solution capabilities

YouTube Video UCQajlJPesqmyWJDN52AZI4Q_g6nTjfEMnsA

Tips And Tricks Data Collection For Cloud Workplace Applications

Forensic Focus 20th March 2023 11:00 am

This error message is only visible to WordPress admins

Important: No API Key Entered.

Many features are not available without adding an API Key. Please go to the YouTube Feed settings page to add an API key after following these instructions.

Latest Articles

Share to...