NIST Study on Collection of Cell Phone Data

In January, the Department of Homeland Security and the National Institute of Standards and Technology published a study, Test Results for Binary Image (Joint Test Action Group (JTAG), ChipOff) Decoding and Analysis Tool: Cellebrite Universal Forensic Extraction Device (UFED) Physical Analyzer v7.20.0.123 which tested the Cellebrite tool's ability to decode and analyze cell phone data. This study examined HTC, Samsung, LG, and Motorola Android devices.

The study showed that Cellebrite Physical Analyzer could not collect stand-alone files and GPS related data on the HTC One Mini.

Twitter social media was partially omitted in data collected from a LG K7.

Facebook was not fully collected from the HTC One XL.

Call logs; SMS messages; PIM Data (personal information synchronized over networks); application data; and internet data was collected without issue from all devices. Deleted contacts, deleted calendar appointments, and deleted call logs were recovered from HTC devices.

International Mobile Equipment Identity

International Mobile Equipment Identity is a unique number used to identify mobile phones - the device itself, not the subscriber who uses the phone. The number is usually listed on the battery, and can often be found by dialing *#06#. I tried this on my iPhone this evening and it worked.

Actually when *#06# is dialed four different numbers are shown. The EID; the IMEI; the IMEI2; and the MEID. Each number is shown with a bar code. The IMEI and MEID numbers are nearly identical (MEID simply drops the last digit of the IMEI) and both are used to track individual devices. The IMEI2 number is an indication that a device has two SIM cards. With a second SIM card the phone can operate on two different mobile networks.

Does jailbreaking alter digital evidence?

A study posted here, Ya-Ting Chang, Ke-Chun Teng, Yu-Cheng Tso, & Shiuh-Jeng Wang, Jailbroken iPhone Forensics for the Investigations and Controversy to Digital Evidence, Department of Information Management, Central Police University (2015) analyzes whether or not jailbreaking an iPhone alters digital evidence. The study was conducted comparing iTunes logical extraction and the MSAB XRY extraction tool, testing both methods before and after jailbreaking.

Jailbreaking generally makes the extraction of digital evidence easier. The authors conclude that the jailbreaking procedure will not alter digital evidence on an iPhone. iTunes still generates the same number of backup files before and after an iPhone is jailbroken. The jailbreaking process allows wifi and mobile phone data to be accessed which cannot be extracted if an iPhone is not jailbroken. iPhones automatically synchronize and download the most recent 50 emails from servers to which they synch. The emails can only be recovered if an iPhone is jailbroken.