Delete Doesn’t Mean Gone to a Cell Phone AnalyzerDelete. Delete. Delete. And you think it’s done and gone. Well, you’re probably wrong.

Once information is searched out, read, written or stored on a digital device, it is most likely there forever – if only in bits and pieces. But for digital forensics teams, that is often enough to piece together a bigger picture.

Not too long about there was quite a bruhaha in the media about a secret subpoena of two months’ worth of phone records from the Associated Press. Authorities went through the legal process for cell records and subpoenaed the cellphone records in order to piece together what they could about an alleged leak of sensitive national security information.

They weren’t so concerned about cell tower triangulation or mobile phone tracking, they were interested in the information shared through the phones. A cell phone investigation, including mobile phone forensic analysis provided the evidence they needed to charge a former FBI agent in the matter.

Cellular forensics can range from the retrieval of historic call records and the actual content of text messages to the cellular location evidence calculated from cellular tower location. Forensic cell tower evidence gathering can be a complex process to undertake, especially with the number of cell phones in use and the bouncing of signals from tower to tower depending on immediate volume as well as location.

recognized that cell phone investigation would be a service that could benefit a wide variety of clients in the investigation field, so they have built a leading team of experienced and expert cell phone forensics specialists who use utilize the most current cell phone forensic tools to retrieve every bit of data available from the mobile devices so they actually become a cellphone witness.

Yes, you might think delete means delete – gone forever. But that is a weak challenge to an expert in cell phone investigation. I wouldn’t bet against them.

-Brenda McGinley, CEO, All in Investigations, All in Investigations