Deletion of information! Have you ever accidentally deleted a text message, or a string of messages or wanted to delete a certain text and you deleted the string of messages? How about those photos you took and deleted them prior to downloading to a cloud or voicemail messages you saved for one reason or another and then deleted?
In all these instances, whether you accidentally or purposely made those deletions and then you needed them, and they were gone, we can retrieve it for you.
Sure, you could get a printout from your carrier that you sent and received a text message, or you made or received a call from a certain telephone number, but you cannot obtain the content of the text message, nor the recorded call. We work with many law firms to obtain the information they need for their case from their Client’s phone.
When a Forensic Extraction is conducted, the logical and analytical information on the phone can be viewed, even if it was deleted. With the number of Gigabytes available on a device, the success of pulling up that deleted information is good, especially if the time of deletion has been recent.
When the device is forensically extracted that information is encrypted, therefore any information not requested by the Client remains confidential while the information extracted from the device is admissible in court. We can obtain information by a specific date, by a specific time period, by one telephone number or multiple telephone numbers, which provides our Client with only the information they need.
The Client does not have to “comb” through unwanted information, unless that is what they requested, the ability to scan through all information on the phone along with the deleted information. Attorneys are looking for very specific information from the device that is necessary to make their case.
Examples are:
A deleted photo that contains metadata that would prove their Client was either present or not present at a certain time. With so many “Selfies” being taken, the probability of going out to a bar or attending an event and not taking a photo or selfie is very low. The attorney wanted to prove that their Client was at a specific bar and was overserved (Dram Shop Case) but their Client had deleted the photo from their phone. We were able to forensically extract that photo and provide the metadata to the attorney.
Another case involved a situation where a doctor called the mother of his patient, who was only days old and left a voicemail message regarding the baby’s health. The message left for the mother did not contain any information that she should stop feeding the baby a certain formula only that the test results had come back and at her convenience, she should call the office, so she continued giving the baby the formula that was making him very sick. Although she had the ability to play the voicemail, her attorney had us extract the phone so that we could obtain the date, time and content of the voicemail forensically in case it was accidentally deleted.
Another scenario of a cellular extraction is a case where a teenage son was instructed by his attorney to have no contact with his friend as they were arrested for a crime they committed together. The teenager deleted the calls and texts so that his parents wouldn’t know. When the phone was brought to our office for extraction, we were able to provide a detailed report of the hundreds of text messages to and from this person along with the call history and the made-up contact name. Knowing the boys were communicating could have had a negative impact to the case, but in the end, the deleted information proved our Client’s son was actually innocent of wrongdoing, he was just in the wrong place at the right time.
A Forensic Extraction prevents any modifications from being made on the device. Only the extracted information is used for the analysis. In this manner, any information gleaned from the device can be used in court.
