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.