Digital Forensics of Mobile Phones

Digital phone forensics allows you to recover deleted files on your phone. Namely, people often delete some data accidentally or intentionally. This can happen as a result of a phone reset, due to physical or software damage to the phone, by installing apps and programs that contain malware and viruses, accidentally deleting the wrong files, etc.

Nowadays, at a time when mobile phones represent miniature computers in which their owners can store plenty of important and useful files, the loss of data can be devastating and stressful. As you know, they no longer feature only a phonebook — you can also find plenty of photos, videos, and memos that can be of great importance. Family photos and videos, business notes, emails, useful apps, messages — all this can be irretrievably lost unless a digital forensic analysis is performed.

If you choose to go down this road, you need to make sure that you perform digital mobile forensics in an authorized facility — otherwise, you could lose all the valuable data irretrievably and maybe even damage the phone beyond repair. In addition, unverified “data recovery” programs that can be downloaded free of charge can pose a serious risk, too.

Digital forensic analysis can be used as a spy tool for monitoring your children, employees, or marital/emotional partners, as well as in many other undercover operations.

How Does Mobile Phone Digital Forensics Work?

Mobile phone digital forensics is performed via a special tool and software. The equipment is rather expensive and sophisticated, and using it requires special training. Still, not all forensic analysis tools are of the same capacity and capability — the same goes for the staff performing the forensics: you need qualified experts to be able to recover the maximum of deleted files.

If digital forensics is performed in an unverified facility by an untrained person, it could lead to unwanted results. In some cases, an unverified forensic analyst may manage to recover a minimum of files that are of no importance to the owner — still, you will be required to pay the full price for forensic services.

That is why you should only hire experts trained in mobile forensics. It’s best to opt for the facility that performs forensics via the devices manufactured by Cellebrite, an Israeli company. That way, you will know they have top-of-the-line forensic equipment used by the greatest detective agencies in the world, such as the FBI.

Mobile phone forensics is usually performed in the forensics facility — it’s rarely done on-site. In order to recover data, the phone is connected to a forensic device. After some time, it reloads and retrieves the deleted data.

The amount of recovered data depends on the phone itself, its memory, the ways in which a phone captures files, the duration of its use, whether it’s been factory reset before, and whether data extraction has been attempted via other programs, software solutions, or apps.

The Role of Mobile Phones in Our Lives

Can you imagine your life without a phone? Not really.

This would be the answer of almost 5 billion people owning a phone worldwide. Nearly half of them have a so-called smartphone.

A survey has shown that 7 out of 10 people could not stand being without their phones. We use these devices 3 hours a day on average — and you probably know someone who spends even more time on their phone (or perhaps you are one of them). Around 60% of people have admitted to feeling safer when their phone is near them, and the majority use it as soon as they wake up.

A smartphone makes our lives and jobs easier on a daily basis. It allows us to communicate with people all over the world for free. It’s our primary source of information, our window to the world, and our means of meeting new people, hanging out, having fun, and communicating with others.

You can find entire offices, company information, and contacts on these devices. They enable us to take our work with us and do it anywhere — even if we are in another country. Most of us have bank apps, valuable passwords, and confidential business data stored on them.

One of the main advantages of smartphones is that they allow us to access the necessary information at all times. If we are looking for a hotel or a restaurant, or if we want to buy something, we just need to look it up on Google — the results will be there immediately. At the same time, we will be able to access maps that can show us the quickest way to the specified location.

Smartphone galleries preserve the memories of a baby’s first teeth, birthdays, unforgettable moments, trips, and celebrations.

Just by taking a glance at someone’s phone info, you can learn a lot about them — from their personal details to their lifestyle, behavior, age, emotional status, etc.

Still, one thing is certain — phones break down.

What to Do When Your Phone Breaks Down

You’ve probably noticed that as our phones’ performances and technological abilities have improved, they have become thinner and more susceptible to damage. The era of indestructible Nokias and Motorolas is long gone, and the most recent phones tend to be short-lived.

People find it difficult to stay away from their phones. We carry them in our hands and pockets and leave them in unsuitable places. That is why they often slip from our hands, plunge into the water, or crash against a hard surface.

Furthermore, it is necessary to get the latest updates on a regular basis. Of course, this requires a certain degree of skill — one wrong click, and you may lose all the phone data. Apart from physical damage, faulty software or app update is the leading cause of data loss. In addition, children are often responsible for accidental file deletions.

When you install new software versions or apps, there is always a risk of accidentally downloading viruses or malware that can collect your personal information and corrupt your software. This way, you may irretrievably lose most (if not all) contents in your phone’s memory.

There has probably been a time when your phone broke down. All the contacts, messages, photos, videos, important data, and passwords remained trapped in it for good — or at least that’s what you may have thought at first.

When faced with such a situation, most people react with helplessness, anger, and panic. But that’s probably what happens when you don’t know there’s a solution called mobile phone digital forensics.

Data Recovery: Recovering Your Data From a Damaged Mobile Phone

Thanks to mobile phone digital forensics, you can retrieve all (or most) of the data deleted from your phone. It is possible to recover data from both Android and iPhone devices.

The data from a damaged phone can be retrieved even if you don’t know the security password. Everything stored on the phone from the moment it was first turned on can be recovered via mobile phone forensics.

Recovered data is not restored to the phone. Instead, it is extracted and copied onto a new memory. The data is then given to the client in an electronic form — as a PDF file on a CD or a flash memory. The recovered data can then be stored directly on another phone.

Our expert tip is to bring the damaged phone you want to recover data from as soon as possible — that way, it will be more likely to retrieve all the info and data. You should do this in a registered shop — although, it is possible to do it on-site, too, if needed. In both cases, discretion is guaranteed.

If you can’t come to our office, you can contact us and send us the phone via a delivery service. We will perform the data recovery in 24–48 hours, after which we will send the device back to you.

How Does the Process of Recovering Lost Data Look?

The mobile phone is connected to the Cellebrite digital forensics device. Then, the forensic analyst sets up all the parameters, follows the steps, and extracts the data from the phone. Obviously, that’s a simplified version.

Of course, the recovery and retrieval process is much more complex.

Identifying the phone precisely is the first step.

Research is conducted on the manufacturer, serial number, and type of phone. It is necessary to consult the manufacturer’s list of characteristics, which could indicate where specific types of data can be found.

The next step is to identify and extract phone data. A locked screen can be unlocked with a valid PIN, password, sample, or biometrics. The biggest issue with forensics is data mobility, since all these files may be stored in different places (clouds, for example, which are very popular among young users).

Once the data is located, gathered, and copied, it is delivered in a specified electronic format to the client. Lately, many users have asked us to transfer the data from a damaged phone to a functioning one.

Digital Forensics: What Can Be Saved From a Damaged Phone?

Is it possible to recover all the information, or can you just retrieve a part of the data from your phone? It depends on several factors — the device type, the extent of the damage, if the phone is locked, whether it has been factory reset, etc.

Some of the basic data that can be retrieved from a damaged or malfunctioning phone include:

• – Sent and received SMS messages (with a timestamp)
• – Sent and received MMS messages (with a timestamp)
• – Incoming and outgoing call logs (with a timestamp)
• – Phonebook
• – Photo, audio, and video files
• – Chat logs from social media apps (Viber, WhatsApp, Facebook, Messenger, Skype, etc.)
• – Phone location at a particular time
• – Calendar/notes/planner entries

By using mobile phone digital forensics, you can also retrieve deleted phone activity, regardless of whether it is password protected.

Our clients often want to know if it is possible to recover phone data partially — for instance, you may want to retrieve some Viber messages from a specific period of time only.

The answer is no, as digital forensics recovers all the information and data stored on the phone memory, sorted chronologically according to the date and time.

Recovering Android and iPhone Data

The program used for phone data recovery supports all the popular operating systems, including iOS, Android, Blackberry, Windows Phone, Windows Mobile, Bada, Symbian, Meego, and Mediatek, as well as the OS installed in Chinese and CDMA phones.

With our rich experience and all the necessary tools and technology, we are able to:

• – Recover data from Android phones (Samsung, Huawei, Nokia, Motorola, Alcatel, Sony, Tesla, Xiaomi, Honor, etc.)
• – Recover data from iOS models (iPhone)

How to Recover Viber and WhatsApp Messages

Viber and WhatsApp are the most popular apps for free calls and messages. Many smartphone users have them, and large numbers of textual and visual exchanges are carried out there on a daily basis.

Viber and WhatsApp chats are used both for business and personal reasons. One of the greatest advantages of these platforms is the security and discretion they offer. Both apps are known for making the contents of the messages available only to chat participants. Plus, the logs are not stored directly on the phone; instead, they can be found on iCloud and Google Drive.

These chats contain plenty of important and useful information, photos, and videos. Users frequently delete their Viber and WhatsApp messages (both intentionally and accidentally) and then want to recover them. In addition, we may lose our chat logs when the phone is damaged or when it malfunctions.

Is it possible to recover deleted Viber and WhatsApp messages and pictures?

Thanks to mobile phone digital forensics, you can recover all the messages that have been deleted from WhatsApp and Viber, both accidentally and on purpose.

With data recovery, all the information and activity logs can be restored from the moment the phone was first turned on. Similarly, you can get back all the content exchanged on Viber and WhatsApp as well.

Can Digital Forensics Recover Photos and Videos Deleted From a Phone?

Lately, smartphones have served as a practical and successful alternative to cameras and recording devices. The latest models feature excellent cameras, so the photos and videos they produce are of top quality, as well.

The most important and cherished memories, events, travel destinations, and celebrations can be captured much more easily with a phone. Besides, all the photos and videos stored on them are at our fingertips, so we can post them online, watch them, or play them to someone else whenever we want.

In addition, phone users often take photos and record videos for business purposes.

Surveys have shown that most people regret the loss of their photos in the event of a phone failure — much more than they regret the loss of the device itself.

Sometimes, we may accidentally delete some or all the files in our gallery. When a phone is damaged or broken, or when it simply stops working, does that mean we have to say goodbye to all the fond memories and photos we’ve been keeping?

Of course not — thanks to digital forensics, it is possible to retrieve all the data from the phone since the first time it was turned on.

That means that we can recover almost all the photos from a damaged phone and every image exchanged in messages and Viber, WhatsApp, Instagram, and Facebook chats.

Recovering accidentally and intentionally deleted videos from a damaged phone is quite challenging for mobile phone forensics. Retrieving these files is much more difficult and uncertain — although not impossible.

The number of recovered photos and videos depends on many factors, including the type and model of a phone, the extent of damage, previous factory resets, how the files have been deleted, etc.

When Is It Impossible or Unlikely to Recover the Data From a Mobile Phone?

If you have accidentally or intentionally deleted files, if your phone is beyond repair, or if you have performed a factory reset, you may need to recover or retrieve your data.

Data recovery and retrieval are performed for two main reasons:

• – Software issues: accidentally or intentionally deleted data — images, videos, contacts, messages — and faulty factory resets
• – Mechanic phone damage: the phone is broken down due to a drop, fall, or immersion in water

Recovering data from a malfunctioning phone is complicated and complex, especially when a phone has been damaged mechanically after getting wet or falling down. The amount and type of data that can be recovered and retrieved depends on the phone model, the extent of damage, whether it has been factory reset before, etc.

There are some situations when data recovery is unlikely. For instance, when a phone has been factory reset incorrectly, the likelihood of retrieving data is minimal, and it all depends on the device type and model.

In addition, if the phone does not function at all and cannot be started, data recovery can be quite challenging. We advise you to bring us the phone you are trying to recover data from as soon as possible, as time plays a crucial role in successful data recovery.

Recovering data from password-protected iPhone devices is also quite difficult, even for the latest mobile phone digital forensics tools. The chances of recovering and extracting data from these phones are slim to none.

Mobile Phone Digital Forensics Price

The price of mobile phone data recovery is influenced by many factors. How much the recovery and retrieval of phone data will cost depends on the device model, memory, condition (whether it’s working or not), etc.

After detailed diagnostics are performed, we can give you the precise price of recovering accidentally or intentionally deleted data.

Deleting Mobile Phone Data Permanently

You’ve decided to get a new phone. Regardless of what you plan on doing with the old device — whether you want to give it away, sell it, or keep it at home — we advise you to delete all the data from it permanently.

Most people think they’ve wiped their phone clean just by choosing the “Delete” option. As you have seen for yourself, mobile phone forensics allows you to retrieve all the data from old and malfunctioning devices. If you just delete the data from your phone, it will only be hidden from the operating system — still, it will remain stored in the phone memory.

But why is it important to destroy phone data permanently?

Because we usually keep very private and important information on our mobile phones, such as personal details, passwords, bank accounts and apps, business information, intimate chats, photos, etc. You certainly don’t want these to end up in the wrong hands and be misused at some point when you least expect it.

Mobile phone data wipes will protect your privacy and help prevent data theft.

After you have wiped your phone clean, you can still use it without obstacles. By performing a security data wipe, you will prevent any subsequent use of the phone data.

Our agency offers data wipe services. This way, all the files, private details, system configurations, and other information will be deleted from your Android or iOS phone without the possibility of being retrieved or copied.

Transferring Data From One Phone to Another

You’ve bought a phone and now you need to transfer some or all data from your old device onto the new one. This can be a frustrating and complicated process if you are not an expert at using new technologies.

Data transfer from one phone onto another is quite a challenging feat, especially when you are dealing with different operating systems. For instance, when you need to transfer your data from an Android to an iPhone, you can easily click on the wrong setting and end up losing some important information or damaging your new phone.

That’s why transferring data from an old to a new device is best left to the experts.

A special device and software tool can transfer your data across all models and brands. Devices detect each other immediately and an encrypted connection between them is established. That way, you can be sure your data won’t be leaked online.

Data transfers from one phone to another include:

• – Full data transfer and migration from one phone to another
• – Quick data transfer via an encrypted (safe) connection
• – System backup that will allow you to retrieve the data

Why You Should Entrust Us With Mobile Phone Data Recovery and Retrieval

Our agency provides mobile phone digital forensics services to both business entities and individual clients.

We have obtained all the necessary licenses and we perform mobile phone forensics capable of recovering data from all types of iOS and Android devices.

In addition, we can offer data wipes and transfers from one phone to another. Choosing a person and agency that you will entrust your phone (and all the private and business info stored in it) to is not an easy feat.

We use the latest phone data analytics tools, and we employ and develop modern methods of phone data recovery to meet the needs of the modern age.

Discretion is guaranteed to all our clients.

We also guarantee data protection and privacy, and we provide:

• – Up-to-date and accurate phone data
• – Inviolability of phone contents during the forensics process
• – Conditions for unhindered use of data and information consistent with the primary purpose of their gathering
• – Data and information protection
• – Standards related to data storing, transferring, processing, and disclosure

We promise to take all the necessary precautions against:

• – Unauthorized access
• – Unauthorized alteration and deletion
• – Unauthorized disclosure and sharing
• – Accidental loss or destruction

The data access authorization is exclusively given to the forensic analysts working in our agency.

That is why if you want to recover or retrieve data from a damaged or malfunctioning phone, you should contact us. Bring us or send us your phone, and we will use the latest mobile phone digital forensics equipment and our forensic experience to retrieve all or some of your phone’s data.

Frequently Asked Questions