CSi: Crime Scene iPhones Yield Forensic Evidence, Confusion About Data Handling

What smartphone and tablet data can be captured and analyzed? How does one do that correctly? And how reliable is the information, anyway? These are other questions beguile law enforcement officials as they confront mobile forensics. FastCompany reports.

Related articles on mobile phone forensics blogged by textually over the years.

Why Your Cell Phone Is More Private in Ohio than in California

The Supreme Courts of California and Ohio have come down on opposite sides of the question of whether police need a warrant to search an arrested person’s cellphone. Forbes reports.

In an opinion issued Monday, California’s court said, “No warrant needed,” equating a cell phone with a pack of cigarettes, referencing a Supreme Court decision that allowed police to search a cigarette package in an arrested person’s pocket that turned out to contain heroin.

Ohio’s court, on the other hand, ruled in December that a cell phone is more like a laptop, holding vast amounts of personal information and thus subject to greater privacy protections — namely, a warrant for searching it.

Two widely divergent decisions within a month of one another.

Read full article.

Court upholds searches of text messages in drug arrests

The California Supreme Court ruled in San Francisco on Monday that police are entitled to search text messages on the cell phones of arrestees without obtaining a warrant. The San Francisco Examiner reports.

The court, ruling in a Ventura County case, said by a 5-2 vote that warrantless searches of text messages are permitted under precedents set by the U.S. Supreme Court.

The panel upheld the drug conviction of Gregory Diaz, who was arrested for aiding in selling Ecstasy to a police informant during an undercover sting operation.

Read full article.

The role of SMS in the law

An interesting release from Dr Pieter Streicher, MD at BulkSMS.com on the role of cell phones and SMS in preventing crime, enforcing the law and its legal standing.

The high-profile Glenn Agliotti case has once again highlighted the role cell phones and SMS unsurprisingly play in the law. In this case, Clinton Nassif’s cell phone records were subpoenaed by the court from Vodacom and the times of calls and messages were used to show that the former security consultant had lied in previous testimony about his communication with Agliotti.

Preventing crime

From a crime prevention point of view, SMS is immensely powerful thanks to its ability to allow anonymous tip-offs.

Law enforcement

When it comes to law enforcement, SMS’s are considered to be written documents according to the Electronic Communications and Transactions Act (ECT) and are admissible as evidence in both a criminal and civil court case.

SMS’s legal standing

As mentioned above, SMS’s are legally equivalent to written documents and so written contracts may be legally concluded via an SMS. Saved SMS’s are also adequate proof that a contract has been entered into. SMS’s can therefore be immensely useful in confirming and keeping a record of verbal agreements.

Read full text.

Rape charges dropped after deleted messages recovered from iPhone

In may be the first time an iPhone's memory has saved someone accused of a serious crime, reports The Sydney Morning Herald. Deleted data retrieved by a leading surveillance expert appears to have led to the dropping of five rape charges against a Sydney man.

Interesting:

... Apple has sold more than 50 million iPhones since 2007 but few users know how much information they collect. The keyboard logging cache means an expert can retrieve anything typed on it for up to 12 months. Its internal mapping and ''geotags'' attached to photos indicate where a user has been.

An iPhone has up to 32 gigabytes of data that can be ''imaged'' or decoded with the right equipment even if it has been deleted, said Gary Coulthart, a former covert operations policeman and ICAC surveillance expert.

Read full article.

Related articles on cell phones and forensic science

French Courts to Admit Text Messages in Divorce Cases

Experts say the recent ruling by the top French court — to accept phone exchanges as legitimate proof of adultery — will make it easier for the French to get divorced. The New York Times reports.

Previously, husbands and wives often had to wait for years to escape a marriage if they could not prove that their spouse was misbehaving or mistreating them.

The ruling, made in June, was reported by the French media last week.

Text messages have long been accepted as official proof in murder and other criminal trials in France, and the new decision extends the practice to family law. E-mail messages are also accepted as evidence in trials.

Related articles on Text Messaging used as evidence in Court

Growing Presence in the Courtroom: Cellphone Data as Witness

The pivotal role that cellphone records played in two prominent New York murder trials this year highlights the surge in law enforcement’s use of increasingly sophisticated cellular tracking techniques to keep tabs on suspects before they are arrested and build criminal cases against them by mapping their past movements. The New York Times reports.

... In what would be the highest-level court decision on the issue so far, a federal appeals court in Pennsylvania is expected to rule this summer on whether search warrants are required for the most basic cellphone tracking data — the electronic footprints that cellphone users leave behind in company records, often without realizing it.

In March, Google announced that it would require search warrants before releasing GPS data that pinpoints the movements of customers who use its mapping applications — like Latitude, which lets people see where their friends are — on their phones.

But phone and Internet companies want Congress to clarify the laws so that they are clear about their legal responsibilities.

Civil libertarians do not oppose using cellphone surveillance to solve crimes or save people in emergencies, but they worry that the legal gray area is enabling it to happen without much scrutiny or discussion.

US College Students busted in drug sting. They promoted cocain by SMS

Dozens of San Diego State University students were arrested after a sweeping drug investigation found that some fraternity members openly dealt drugs and one even sent a mass text message advertising cocaine, authorities said Tuesday, reports MSNBC.

... "Those arrested included a student who was about to receive a criminal justice degree and another who was to receive a master’s degree in homeland security.

A member of Theta Chi sent out a mass text message to his “faithful customers” stating that he and his “associates” would be unable to sell cocaine while they were in Las Vegas over one weekend, according to the DEA.

The text promoted a cocaine “sale” and listed the reduced prices."

Text messages enter public-records debate

Those supposedly private messages that public officials dash off on their government cellphones to friends and colleagues aren't necessarily private after all, reports USA Today .

"Courts, lawyers and states are increasingly treating these typed text messages as public documents subject to the same disclosure laws — including the federal Freedom of Information Act — that apply to e-mails and paper records.

"I don't care if it's delivered by carrier pigeon, it's a record," said Charles Davis, executive director of the National Freedom of Information Coalition at the University of Missouri. "If you're using public time or your public office, you're creating public records every time you hit send."

'SMS murder'

iAfrica reports on a murder case ruled South Africa , dubbed "SMS murder". It illustrates how text messaging was used as crucial evidence in getting a conviction.

"The drama started when Wesley Neil Julyan's co-perpetrator, Jaco Strauss, who was jailed for 15 years for murder and aggravated robbery, sent an SMS to a former lover in England about the incident.

The lover went to the police in England and Interpol informed Port Shepstone detective Basil Crause.

After murdering a drunk Kenneth van Aarde by strangling him with a shoe lace, Strauss and Julyan dumped his body in a bushy area and buried him near the Julyan home at Mtwalume. They tried to sell his car.

It is doubtful if his body would have been found had it not been for the SMS sent to England."

Related: - South African "SMS murder"

Judge OKs text message use in drug case

A judge ruled that text messages could be used as evidence in a Washington, D.C drug case, reports News.com.

"... U.S. District Judge Ellen Segal Huvelle ruled on Aug. 10 that the search warrants were permissible "because the Wiretap Act does not apply to the government's acquisition of text messages held in storage at electronic communication service providers."

Translation: The Wiretap Act only applies to live intercepts, not archived e-mail or SMS messages. In general, a lower legal standard applies to archived messages. (As an aside, the government claims that technology to capture the contents of text messages had "only become available to law enforcement within recent weeks.")

Bribe recorded on a mobile phone

MobHappy reports on a Zimbabwe corruption case, where the defendant was recorded soliciting a bribe on a mobile phone.

"After making much fuss about finding a place “safe to talk” by going to a shopping mall, the main witness for the prosecution calmly recorded the entire conversation on his Siemens SL45 mobile phone, which comes complete with a handy dictaphone facility."

"The defence lawyers want proof that the tape hasn’t been tampered with".

Gotti trial rests on text message interpretation

In another example of SMS used as evidence in court, the US government combed through page after page of carefully selected text-message exchanges between convicted crack dealer Kenneth "Supreme" McGriff and the Gotti brothers with New York Police Detective William Courtney — all within Judge Edward Korman's courtroom in Brooklyn on Monday afternoon. MTV.com reports.

"Before Korman allowed the evidence, and away from the ears and eyes of the jury, both sides butted heads over the two-way transmissions.

Defense attorney Gerald Shargel blasted the prosecution for drawing inappropriate inferences from the abbreviated text-message records provided by the Gottis' pager service.

... "The government's making assumptions," Shargel challenged, adding that some of the transmissions could be misconstrued even further because jurors — as opposed to listening to a recorded conversation — wouldn't be able to "tell inflection, so they won't be able to tell if these messages are jokes or not."

According to Vibe.com, text messages sent between Irv "Gotti" Lorenzo and druglord Kenneth "Supreme" McGriff raised about a connection to the shooting of 50 Cent."

Text message transcripts admitted as evidence in teen murder trial

In another example of SMS being used as evidence in a court case, damning text messaging was presented in a Brampton court Wednesday in the case of two teenaged girls accused of drowning their alcoholic mother in a bathtub on January 18, 2003. Toronto's Pulse24.com reports.

"Text messages between the two girls and their friends written that day revealed a detailed plan and a shocking nonchalance considering the chilling subject matter".

Click here to read transcripts of text messages presented in court.

[via Waxy.org]

London bombings. Police follow email, phone trail

According to Syney Morning Herald, police investigating the London bombings are reconstructing telephone records and hunting for email evidence in an attempt to identify the associates and supporters of the four men who killed 55 people.

"Scotland Yard anti-terrorist officers are reported to be trying to establish whether the bombers carried mobile phones on the morning of the attacks and hope to recover remnants of the phones, and particularly their SIM cards, from the wreckage.

They could then establish the locations of phones used by the bombers in the hours and days before they attacked three Underground trains and a bus."

Dropped cell phone leads to murder conviction

Yet another case were a cell phone is found at a crime scene and incriminates a suspect, this time in the Bay Area. The Daily Review reports:

"Lee was found guilty of second-degree murder Tuesday in the shooting death of Roderick Kelly, a former housemate gunned down Jan. 6, 2003, at Palma Ceia Park.

It is Deputy District Attorney Butch Ford's position that Lee unwittingly dropped the cell phone as he chased Kelly through the park, firing his handgun at the hulking man who bullied and intimidated residents at the Decator Way home.

Related stories - where cell phones incriminate suspects:

-- Cell phone leads police to arrest in child death

-- Cell phone could be clue in attempted jewel heist

-- Dropped cell phone leads police to robbery suspect

-- Two charged with burglary after cell phone inadvertently calls 911

-- Cameraphone picture gives suspect up

-- Cellphone bandits'apprehended

Cell phone leads police to arrest in child death

A cell phone found at the scene where a toddler was fatally shot in the head led to the arrest of a 19-year-old reputed gang member - charged Saturday with capital murder, reports The Houston Chronicle.

Related stories:

-- Cell phone could be clue in attempted jewel heist - San Carlos detectives have obtained phone records for a Los Angeles resident believed to be the owner of the phone, part of which may have fallen from a van used in the March 29 robbery, according to a search warrant.

-- Dropped cell phone leads police to robbery suspect - A Northwest Side man was charged with attempted robbery after police said they found his cell phone at the scene of the crime and used the man's phone book to track him down.

-- Two charged with burglary after cell phone inadvertently calls 911 - A pair of Church Hill men (Rogersville, TN) have been charged with burglary and theft after one of the men inadvertently made a 911 call from a cell phone that allowed authorities to overhear their plans, authorities claim.

-- Cameraphone picture gives suspect up - A ringing cell phone was the downfall of two men, who insisted they had no knowledge of an AK-47 used in an October shooting. They continued to stand by their story under questioning. Then their cell phones chimed in. As Detective Kevin Doran tried to silence the rings, he noticed one had interesting wallpaper - a picture of one of the suspects holding an AK-47.

-- Cellphone bandits' apprehended - A much sought after team of "cell phone bandits" recorded themselves robbing a store with one of their camera phones. The police recovered it.

Philippines: Text messages are admissible as evidence

Without going into all the details of the case that prompted this decision, balita.org reports that "the Philippine Supreme Court on Friday ruled that text messages are now admissible as evidence in court".

The rule provides that, "Ephemeral electronic communications shall be proven by the testimony of a person who was a party to the same or who has personal knowledge thereof."

Police nab couple accused of torturing children by tracking their cell phone

In another example of cell phones used to track criminals, a Florida couple accused of torturing and starving five adopted children were captured Friday in southeastern Utah after police tracked them through their cell phones, reports the Associated Press.

Pastor jailed for murderous text messages

In a court case which has fascinated Sweden with its intoxicating mix of sex, death and the workings of an obscure religious sect, a Swedish pastor has been jailed for life for faking text messages from God to get his nanny-lover to murder his wife and try to kill the husband of a second mistress. via Reuters.

Interesting and I wonder how this is done: "A technology company traced erased messages on her phone to Fossmo, who admitted sending them but said they were intended only to guide the nanny in her faith."