Micro Systemation

Monday, 28-Jan-2013 11:01:00 UTC

Trial hears evidence from phone expert

Expert retrieves text messages and contact details in XRY analysis

The Special Criminal Court in Dublin heard video-link evidence from a mobile phone forensics expert based in New Zealand, for the trial of a man accused of possessing €1 million worth of heroin.

The expert explained that he was trained in level one mobile phone forensics and was a member of the Garda Organised Crime Unit in May 2008 but had since retired and moved to New Zealand.

He said that he examined a black and silver Nokia 6300 mobile phone, a Samsung mobile phone and two pre-pay SIM cards from the Meteor and Vodafone networks that were handed to him by investigating gardai.

Mr Gannon told Mr O’Kelly that, using computer software, he was able to retrieve text messages and contact details stored in the Nokia 6300 phone and one text message from the Vodafone SIM card in what is known as an XRY analysis.

For more on this story please visit the original article at
www.independent.ie >>

Tuesday, 27-Nov-2012 14:11:10 UTC

USA debate on cellphone searches

US Courts Divided Over Searches of Cellphones

Judges and lawmakers across the USA are wrangling over whether and when law enforcement authorities can peer into suspects’ cellphones, and the cornucopia of evidence they provide.

• A Rhode Island judge recently threw out cellphone evidence that led to a man being charged with the murder of a 6-year-old boy, saying the police needed a search warrant.
• A court in Washington compared text messages to voice mail messages that can be overheard by anyone in a room and are therefore not protected by state privacy laws.
• In Louisiana, a federal appeals court is weighing whether location records stored in smartphones deserve privacy protection, or whether they are “business records” that belong to the phone companies.

“The courts are all over the place,” said Hanni Fakhoury, a criminal lawyer with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a San Francisco-based civil liberties group.

“They can’t even agree if there’s a reasonable expectation of privacy in text messages that would trigger Fourth Amendment protection.”

The issue will attract attention on Thursday when a Senate committee considers limited changes to the Electronic Communications Privacy Act, a 1986 law that regulates how the government can monitor digital communications. Courts have used it to permit warrantless surveillance of certain kinds of cellphone data.

As technology races ahead of the law, courts and lawmakers are still trying to figure out how to think about the often intimate data that cellphones contain, said Peter P. Swire, a law professor at Ohio State University. Neither the 1986 statute nor the Constitution, he said, could have anticipated how much information cellphones may contain, including detailed records of people’s travels and diagrams of their friends.

“It didn’t take into account what the modern cellphone has — your location, the content of communications that are easily readable, including Facebook posts, chats, texts and all that stuff,” Mr. Swire said.

For more on this story please visit the New York Times website >>

Wednesday, 21-Nov-2012 17:11:01 UTC

New ISO standard for digital evidence

A new international standard will ensure the reliability of digital evidence used in court cases

A new ISO/IEC International Standard will ensure the reliability and credibility of digital evidence, which is increasingly used in court cases and legal disputes due to the development of technology and the growth of cybercrime.

Digital proof can be gathered from computers, mobile phones, mobile navigation systems, digital still and video cameras, storage media (USBs, CDs, etc.) and other similar devices.

The new standard, ISO/IEC 27037:2012, Information technology – Security techniques – Guidelines for identification, collection, acquisition, and preservation of digital evidence, will ensure the integrity of such evidence for its admission in legal, disciplinary and other actions.

Maslina Daud, Project Editor of ISO/IEC 27037, says, "Digital evidence is inherently fragile, as it may be easily altered, tampered with or destroyed through improper handling or examination. ISO/IEC 27037 provides a harmonized and globally accepted methodology to safeguard its integrity and authenticity."

"Just as importantly", Ms. Daud argues, "as crime, and in particular cybercrime, increasingly takes place across borders, ISO/IEC 27037 will facilitate the exchange of digital evidence between jurisdictions by making sure that requirements and procedures are consistent."

ISO/IEC 27037 provides guidance to individuals involved in the identification, collection, acquisition and preservation of potential digital evidence such as:

• Digital Evidence First Responders (DEFR)
• Digital Evidence Specialists (DES)
• Incident response specialists
• Forensic laboratory managers

Decision-makers can rely on the standard to determine the credibility of digital evidence. It can also be used by organizations involved in protecting, analyzing and presenting digital evidence, as well as policy-making bodies creating and evaluating related procedures. The standard does not replace specific legal requirements of any jurisdiction, but is rather intended to serve as practical guidance in DEFR and DES investigations.

For more information please visit the ISO website >>

Monday, 05-Nov-2012 13:11:19 UTC

Smartphones & Tablets > 10% web browsing

Mobile Devices now account for more than 10% of all web browsing

For the first time browsing on mobile devices has exceeded 10% of all browsing. 

We’re not quite in the “post-PC world” yet, but new data from NetMarketShare says that we’re getting there.

According to their latest tracking numbers, smartphones and tablets accounted for 10.3% of all web browsing in October 2012, the first time mobile browsing has ever crossed the 10% threshold in the firm’s measurements.

What makes this particularly interesting is that mobile browsing accounted for as little as 7.2% of all browsing as recently as this past March, meaning that mobile browsing growth seems to have accelerated somewhat over the past few months.

iOS-based smartphones and tablets accounted for nearly 60% of all mobile browsing in October 2012, while Android-based devices accounted for just over 27% of all mobile browsing.

This actually underestimates the total amount of browsing share on mobile devices, since the sample does not contain data on apps, like maps.

For more detailed information visit their website here >>