Thursday, 25-Apr-2013 17:04:30 UTC

XAMN - Product Launch

We are pleased to announce the launch of XAMN v6.5

For some time now we have been testing beta versions of XAMN - the new analytical software tool from MSAB designed specifically for phone forensics.

XAMN creates a new market sector for analytical solutions with the unique ability to review forensic extractions to the same level of granular detail available in XRY, where you can see images and read SMS details, but on a whole new scale - up to 25 device files all at the same time.

It's a powerful new tool to complement XRY , which allows quicker understanding and assessment of information for our customers. It can facilitate the explanation and presentation of data in court and is user friendly enough to be understood by beginners with just one days training.

A tool purpose built for phone forensics which handles all of the challenges of time stamp normalization and viewing of image files with ease. XAMN is perfect for performing a search across a complete set of devices in one go and allows users to immediately visualize links, times and maps.

Why is it needed?

Well put simply there is simply too much data available these days, commonly referred to as BIG DATA - it seems that almost all of our customers now receive multiple mobile phones when investigating any case or operation. This combined with the increasing volume of data available in smartphones makes overwhelm a real problem.

In one of our Beta test sites we were able to help a team of several examiners speed up the analysis work significantly. They had been going through all the data recovered from the mobile phones on spreadsheets and it had taken them weeks to get to grips with the information. Within a couple of hours of using XAMN, they had identified two new suspects, which had not been apparent before.

With XAMN users will now be able to:

  • Understand the big picture
  • Visualize the links, times and locations of mobiles
  • Compare and contrast multiple XRY files
  • Convert other forensic files into XRY format
  • Run ‘Watch Lists’ against multiple files
  • Create ‘User Added Data’ to assist understanding
  • Assess the volume of information that will need analysis
  • Assist with resource planning for investigators
  • Present simple to understand graphics for briefings
  • Translate foreign language text offline

For more information please visit the product page here >>

Monday, 25-Feb-2013 21:02:57 UTC

XRY for Windows 8

The end of support for Windows XP is close

MSAB will introduce support for XRY on the Windows 8 platform later this year. Conversely we will be ceasing technical support for XRY on the Windows XP operating system before the end of 2013.

We are giving you advance notice, so you can have the maximum time to plan ahead and advise relevant IT departments of this impending change. 

Windows 7 support is not affected by this announcement and will continue as normal for both 32-bit and 64-bit support.

Microsoft has announced that it will cease all support for Windows XP in 2014 now they have launched Windows 8 and we anticipate increasing demand for XRY to run on this new platform from customers. As a result we will be introducing support for Windows 8 this year to meet this demand.

As we manufacture a validated forensic tool we are required to test XRY on all variations of all operating system platforms we support. The time and work load implications mean we cannot support legacy operating systems indefinitely, so as these Microsoft operating systems continue to diverge we have to move towards more modern versions.

There is a high probability XRY will continue to work on Windows XP for some time after we cease official support, as it has worked on XP since 2004, nevertheless official support will cease by the end of the year. 

For more details and information you can contact support@msab.com

Thursday, 13-Sep-2012 19:09:02 UTC

New Releases from MSAB

iOS 6 Support & Bypass Complex Passcodes

The development department at MSAB are working hard right now to finalize the details of our new 64Bit version so customers can benefit from using XRY on the latest computer hardware.

This is a major project requiring a re-write of many of the legacy drivers for cell phones, GPS devices and portable media players, which we currently support. XRY is a forensic tool and requires validation, so we subject all the new solutions to extensive testing, so there is a lot of verification going on right now which does take some time.

In the meantime we made a breakthrough with iOS support for older models allowing us to bypass a complex passcode on the iPhone 3G, iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4 GSM, iPhone 4 CDMA, iPod touch 3G, iPod touch 4 & iPad 1.
So if you have a XRY Physical or Complete license you will now be able to bypass the passcode to access data on these devices.

We didn’t want you to wait for this and with the launch of the new iPhone and iOS 6 this week; it seemed an ideal time to provide you with some additional features. So now you extract data from some phones with the latest Apple mobile operating system and you can also bypass a complex passcode to extract more data faster than ever before with XRY.

Where possible we recommend brute force on a simple passcode, because once the passcode is known we can unlock the device and recover more data that would have otherwise been encrypted, such as emails. However if no alternative exists and you don’t want to to take several weeks to brute force a complex passcode then this is an ideal solution.

For more details of how the new feature works download the
v6.3.2 release notice here >>

Fingers crossed XRY v6.4 will be released in the coming few weeks and all users will then be able to benefit from this new improved version of the leading phone forensic tool.

In the meantime keep your eye out for the launch of an entirely brand new product to be announced next week called XAMN.

Friday, 27-Apr-2012 14:04:28 UTC

Do you know how to do mobile forensics?

Our tests are so thorough, we even discover errors in the manufacturer’s operating system!

The answer as to how best to do mobile forensic, it turns out is quite simple;

1. Acquire an original of every single different device you wish to support

2. Dedicate developer resources to reverse engineer each one no matter how long it takes

3. Once complete have their peers double check their results for accuracy

4. Then get a support engineer to triple check all of the above just to be sure

5. Then offer the mobile device as supported in your forensic tool

We tried other ways of doing it and discovered that there really are no short cuts. Every single device is different in some way or another; be it hardware or software based. Thus there is no alternative to true cell phone forensic support than reverse engineering each device.

Our tests are so thorough that we even discover errors in the original manufacturer’s operating system software!

Any other attempt at projecting “hypothetical” support based on original manufacturing specifications or chipsets is doomed to failure without actual testing; despite the best efforts of our competitors to claim otherwise.

What that means in reality is that we can only offer support for one phone at a time, for every new device that comes on the market. That takes lots of time and a lot of resources; which is one of the reasons why good mobile forensic tools don’t come cheap.

Cell phone forensics is not the same as computer forensics. It’s not like waiting for a new version of Windows to come out every few years and then resting on your laurels. Our engineers are at work every day dealing with new devices with new operating systems. And there are lots of new devices coming out onto the market each week.

True mobile forensics takes a lot of time and a lot of resources to do well, only then can you be assured that if we say we support a device forensically; it means we really do.

Thursday, 15-Mar-2012 17:03:42 UTC

XRY Product Recommendations

Don't take our word for it, listen to our customers

Sometimes in the overwhelm of marketing messages it becomes hard to make sense of what products will best suit your needs.

We understand the problem and we know that when you are looking to choose a mobile forensics solution, good independent advice is always valued.

That's why we would like to bring your attention to our: 
LinkedIn pages for Micro Systemation >

At the time of writing this blog entry we just spotted that over 20 professionals in the digital forensics industry have very kindly volunteered to recommend XRY.

If you want independent input from colleagues in the same industry, then this is a great starting point when considering if XRY is suitable for your needs.

I would like to stress that these recommendations are entirely voluntary and nobody has been offered or received any inducement from MSAB to provide them. In fact the individual's professional reputations on LinkedIn are there for all to see if you want to discover more about them.

I should also point out that none of them are resellers or trainers connected to Micro Systemation; all of them are genuine paying customers who liked our product so much that they left us a recommendation. 

If you are doing a comparison with others in the industry ask yourself how many people on their recommendation lists are actually independent of the manufacturer?

MSAB XRY Product Recommendations >>

 

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