“According to IDC, in the first quarter of 2017, Android dominated the industry with an 85% market share.” iOS leads the way in relation to security and presents the biggest forensic challenge. Android is the leading operating system for phones worldwide. Our analysis focuses on Android and iOS when looking at extractive technologies. Whilst forensics experts, hackers and those selling spyware may be able to access and extract data, we look at a number of the most well-known commercial companies who sell their products to law enforcement, such as Cellebrite, Oxygen Forensic Detective, and MSAB. Mobile Phone Extraction technologies, known also as mobile forensics, entails the physical connection of the mobile device that is to be analysed and a device that extracts, analyses and presents the data contained on the phone. General explanation of mobile phone extraction
Just as new security features are announced for phones, so too new methods to extract data are found. We welcome input from experts in the field. In this piece we examine mobile phone extraction, relying on publicly available information and Privacy International’s experience from conducting mobile phone extraction using a Cellebrite UFED Touch 2.