Digital Forensics

6Mobile and Embedded Forensics

Jens-Petter Sandvik

National Criminal Investigation Service (Kripos), Oslo, Norway and Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), Gjøvik, Norway

Over the past few decades, we have witnessed a revolution when it comes to computing power and the sheer number of computers around us. Intel cofounder Gordon E. Moore observed in 1965 that the number of transistors in an integrated circuit had doubled every year, and made the prediction that this would continue for at least ten years.¹ Later, in 1975, this forecast was modified to doubling every second year, and Intel executive David House rephrased it to say that with Moore's numbers, computing power would double every 18 months. Moore's law, as it became known, has withstood the test of time,² and today we can find computer systems everywhere from the biggest supercomputers to the smallest medical implants.

Directly or indirectly, and knowingly or unknowingly, we often interact with electronic devices around us. Just think about all the electronic traces we leave behind in one day. We open doors with an electronic access card, and our phone records illuminance changes and counts the steps we take. We're in countless surveillance videos. The GPS in a car records where we are driving and tells us where to go, and some watches keep track of the atmospheric pressure. If one has diabetes, they may use insulin pens with a memory function that displays when previous insulin doses have been injected. ...