A team of researchers announced that it has developed new tools that can access the data of burned, broken and submerged phones in water, and restore them again with a high success rate that approaches the limit of full recovery of these contents without a shortage, explaining that the recovered data includes call log, internet browsing data and social networks, as well About pictures, videos and GPS data.

This achievement was achieved by a joint team of digital forensic researchers, from the US Department of Homeland Security and the American Institute for Measurement and Calibration, as part of a study published on the Department of Homeland Security's digital forensics site, and aimed at providing support and tools to assist criminal investigators, enforcement agencies The law provides access to data and information that can be used as evidence that reveals the circumstances of the various crimes, in the various stages of investigation and litigation.

Digital forensics

The researchers started their explanation of this prominent development in the field of digital forensics, emphasizing the increased role of computers and portable media devices, such as mobile phones and GPS devices, in criminal activity in recent years significantly, because new technological developments in the field of hardware and software are occurring at a very rapid pace, They are used in criminal activity almost immediately, and thus these devices often contain vital evidence, such as user information, call logs, location information and text messages, emails and pictures, sound recordings and Video, and data on social networks.

Scrutiny

The researchers pointed out that criminals have become aware that their mobile phones have become one of the things that undergo a strict criminal examination during investigations, as it is an important element in the crime scene, whatever its time, location or nature, so they are quick to get rid of them by destroying, burning and drowning in water, and other ways Destruction, to block law enforcement and digital forensic experts from accessing the crime-related data it contains, which hampers law enforcement.

Two new styles

And Dr. Rick Ayers, the forensic digital expert at the American National Institute for Calibration and Measurement, who led the study, revealed that his team has come up with two new digital forensics methods that can be used to access damaged phones, to see if data can be recovered, the first method known as "G-tag", and the second "shutdown chip," both of which allow access to data on the "mobile" at the level of "bytes behind bytes" ((a byte is the smallest data unit used in the field of information technology, storage and processing).

Precision ports

For its part, the Institute's computing professor, member of the research team, Dr. Guinness Reyes Rodriguez, explained that these two methods work on the level of the very accurate ports in the electronic chips for mobile phones, which are usually used by manufacturers to test their circuit boards, by welding wires On the ports.

She added that to use these new methods of data recovery, the phone is separated to reach the printed circuit board of the phone known as "BCB", whose wires are welded very carefully, as they are wires in the thickness of the head hair or less, and crowded with accurate nails to install them, pointing Until dealing with these tiny little components on the phone, it takes very long patience, sharp eyes, and steady hands that are not shaken by the expert who is doing the examination and recovery coin.

Rodriguez showed that in this process, the PCB chips are pulled from the PCB gently, patiently and with great caution, so that small nails are not destroyed, and then it becomes impossible to obtain data, and when editing the high-precision and highly sensitive chip from the seams and nails, they are pulled Then put it on a special reader, to recover its data.

Digital forensics

The digital forensic expert at the American National Institute for Calibration and Measurement, Dr. Rick Ayers, said that what was reached was a continuation of a long research and effort journey that began in 2003, when attempts were made to extract data from digital personal assistive devices that appeared at the time, and were used in Aviation and other fields, as well as early generations of mobile phones, were all limited in capacity.

He added that this situation has changed now, as the capabilities of the phones have become useful for criminal investigations, considering that the most important thing is that the applications, videos and surfing the internet that we do, are accompanied by metadata that can be extracted by modern digital forensic methods.

• Recovered data includes call log, "communication" networks, photos and videos.