Cell Site Analysis Discussions

Cell Site Analysis Discussions

CSA related items
http://cellsiteanalysis.blogspot.co.uk/2013/12/csa-related-items.html


Location Tracking in the US
http://cellsiteanalysis.blogspot.co.uk/2013/12/location-tracking-in-us.html

A European Focused Mobile Consumer Survey

A European Focused Mobile Consumer Survey

Informa Telecom and Media have published the results of their Smartphone Usage and Behaviour Survey 2012 conducting the survey in four european countries UK, Spain, Germany and the Netherlands http://www.informatandm.com/mobile-consumer-survey/ .

The results for the UK identified the brand of mobile phone owned in particular age groups.













The responses to the survey confirm that the smartphone market in the UK is segmented and therefore mobile operators attempting to forecast device usage and data/services activity may require enabling customers the selection and choice of a range of platforms to sink their teeth into optimising any consumer initiative to enable the growth of smartphones to continue.

For examiners the survey illustrates that predominantly the smartphones to be examined fall into a fairly small category, which could be quite useful for forecasting future examinations and, in particular, the expenditure on tools etc.

Cyber What?

Cyber What?

We had a short discussion recently about "cyber" labels and their meanings. The wave that has been engulfing society for the last decade, driven by Psychology "with everything" NNNOOOOWWWW!!!!  and the use of 'label-ism' phenomenon to influence us that we need/must have/do something, is now causing much confusion. 

Cybering was discussed, done and dusted, in the late 1990s early 2000, thus cybering has not just occurred as a new phenomenon. Label-ism, in the case of cybering, isn't helping its cause either when announcing cyber threats to the UK or the World (for that matter) where mistakes in the use of definitions are publicly announced. It wont help the security services to do their job - protect the Realm - if society doesn't understand what the heck is discussed.  There must be a drive from top Government (David Cameron top table people) to make a substantive effort to clarify label-ism when discussing publicly threats we are led to believe are imminent.

Discussing cyber defintions with Simon "Si" Biles, the security specialist at Thinking-Security dot com, he offered these descriptions assigned to their labels identifying possible security threats that might be engineered from within cyber space:

"There seems to have been a general mixing of the terms : cyber-warfare, cyber-terrorism & cyber-crime : the news, as is oft the way with things they don't/can't/won't understand, interchanges them without consideration.

"cyber-crime is no better or worse than it has ever been, phishing, cracking etc. are much the same as allways - there are highs and lows, but nothing particularly extreme. Of course these figures are allways exagerated by the number of crimes that are committed that have a computer used in their research/planning/excecution - but this isn't cyber-crime anymore than stealing a knife is "knife crime".

"cyber-terrorism, to take the traditional use of the word "terrorism" ( or arguably "freedom fighting" depending on where you are standing ) is the "guerrilla warfare" of the computer world - denial of service, defacements etc. For example the "Anonymous" attacks on the Copyright crowd. Where this "terrorism" impacts on the general public is few and far between - a denial of service against a particularly greedy bank might impact on a few, but in real terms, this doesn't, and is unlikely to, create problems on the scale or magnitude of a traditional terrorist attack. And again, this has been going on, much of a muchness for sometime - highs and lows - usually associated with world events - but predominantly from individuals or insignificant groups.

"cyber-warfare is a bit different, and, really hasn't been seen except in Georgia - and even then, although that was suspected to be from Russia, that was never really proved - it could as well have been from a reasonable size hacker group just stretching in a country where there was little chance of prosecution or repercussion. I guess what Greg is suggesting above is probably the worst case scenario where the internet is compromised in some way that means that businesses can't communicate funds transfers - e.g. PoS - in reality though, as "the internet" is built on a wide variety of technologies ( from many and varied manufacturers ) and is designed to be resilient in the case of nuclear war ( or not ... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arpanet#The_ARPANET_under_nuclear_attack ) the chances of "taking out the internet" for a given country are fairly limited in a cyber-warfare scenario. Infact you'd stand a better chance of taking out the internet in the UK with some more traditional arson against certain backbone sites ...

"It is this, final, threat that is both having it's bandwaggon jumped on and is being blown out of proportion. Like most things - it's exciting, so it gets a lot of press - you are more likely to be burgled, have your car stolen, be involved in a hit & run or have your pocket picked than you are to be a victim of cyber-crime. Even Identity Theft ( which is portrayed as cyber-crime) is considerably easier to achieve through a dust-bin sift than a computer. Cyber-terrorism ? I'd be delighted to sell "cyber-terrorism" insurance to anyone who wants it ! "

The term 'Cyber' has been discussed above in context with types of threats that could be generated using it. The discussions above do not rule out or suggest that cyber is or could be put to good use too.

Non-Law Enforcement Mobile Forensics Conference UK

Non-Law Enforcement Mobile Forensics Conference UK

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A queries that has been raised about "When and where are the Mobile Forensic Conferences usually held in the UK? Also are they open to non Law Enforcement?" A discussion about this is running over on the other website that I am connected with, which is owned by Jamie Morris, called Forensic Focus. My reply to the query is:

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"We can have a Mobile Forensics Conference in the UK. The problem getting it off the ground is getting people to pay the entrance price or get the numbers to actually attend. It is impossible to hire a large enough conference centre when it presents high costs.

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"I recently found a place where the combined costs for a suite for a 2-days conference, promotion of conference, producing handout material, getting conference speakers to attend and have some good grub (not that canteen cacky food that often gets thrown up) would generate an entrance charge of £150.00 + VAT per head but to breakeven 150 paying people attending the two days conference are needed.

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"The agenda would need to reflect what people want to know more about or just to be able to attend and go through forensic and evidential issues to see if our understanding is the same.

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"So here is something for Forensic Focus forum members to comment: Are there 150 forum members of the 10,000+ FF members willing to attend and more importantly can you afford and willing to pay £150 + VAT per person. I will create a new thread for this discussion containing a Poll to see what forum members would like to do."

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The Poll is here:

http://www.forensicfocus.com/index.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=4288

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To see or added to the discussion go here:

http://www.forensicfocus.com/index.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=4231

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UPDATE

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MTEB Mobile Forensics Conference UK we will be looking at the conservatively estimated £1-billion market for the criminal and civil mobile forensics marketplace. What are the likely business opportunites?

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There will be the topics:

- Practises

- Procedures

- U/SIM Card

- Handsets

- Cell Site Analysis

- Directives

- Statutes

- Regulations

- Rules

- Standards

- etc

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The list above is undefined because there will be new ideas and initiatives as we will be casting of the old, stagnated and stale that prevails in the marketplace - they are history.

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A new, fresh age is starting in our forensic arena and you should be a part of it.