Digital Forensics for Legal Professionals

Chapter 37. Cell Phones

Information in this chapter:

• The fragile nature of cellular evidence

• Forensic acquisition methods for cellular phones

• Subscriber identity module (SIM) cards

• Cell phone backup files

• Advanced cell phone data analytics

• The future of cell phone forensics

The CIA World Factbook reported that in 2009 there were approximately 286,000,000 cell phone subscriptions in the United States alone. That is getting close to one cell phone for every man, woman, and child in the United States. Cell phones can store more data and perform more functions than ever before. Today’s smart phones can perform functionalities that were only possible with a computer a handful of years ago. Ultimately, this increase in complexity means that people ...