What does the ‘Smart’ in Smartphone Mean?
Today the average American’s smartphone holds more electronic information than was stored in our PCs just a decade ago. It is estimated that smartphone users worldwide will reach 1.75 billion in 2014 as devices become more affordable and 3G and 4G networks advance. So what does the ‘Smart’ in smart phone mean? What it means to Law enforcement agencies and enterprises is an ever growing treasure trove of discoverable information: your call history, contact lists, IMs, social media, voicemail, videos, chats, browsing histories, apps, GPS location data, e-mail, and images (with identifying metadata). Yet even with this treasure trove so close many criminal and civilian investigations are threatened because there are just too many types of devices, too many mobile apps, and too many data types for some to handle. The five critical aspects of mobile device forensics threatening these investigations are:
1) The increase in Mobile Devices
2) Rapidly Changing Technology
3) The Increase in Application Usage
4) The Increase in Data
5) The Increase in Mobile Malware
As smartphone adoption continues it is estimated that internet traffic from mobile devices will exceed traffic from wired devices by 2016. This is due to the fact that mobile phone users worldwide continue to use their mobile devices as their primary internet source as well as the proliferation of mobile apps. It is estimated that 66% of all emails are opened on mobile devices and up to 86% of the average US users time is spent on mobile devices inside apps. This means that mobile devices and the data they hold are going to continue to grow in importance and being unaware of mobile e-discovery is not a good strategic position. The best plan, then, is to be aware of mobile data and its importance and then to be prepared to collect and/or analyze it.
Learn more about how AccessData can help you with mobile device forensics by visiting our website.
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