Very Low Cost Training $99.00 - US Marketplace

Just been reading a post from Dennis Carroll Special Agent / Law Enforcement Instructor about some very low cost training in the States

"The Fox Valley Technical College in partnership with the National Criminal Justice Training Center (NCJTC) have approved my three day cellular device investigations course. The first course is being offered in Appleton Wisconsin in December as a pilot and then throughout the US as requested. The FVTC and NCJTC have obtained a grant to lower the cost of this course to $99. This is the lowest price you will find for a three day comprehensive cellular device investigation course. There is a link to request this course at your host agency on the link below. Please share if you would."
https://ncjtc.fvtc.edu/training/details/TR00005533/TRI0005534/cellular-device-investigations

Field Project Investigations

Conducting a technology review/audit prior to commencing field projects is an important task in order to understand the 'technology estate' owned and/or operated by an organisation. It is for revelation purposes and to comprehend [legacy] technology as stand-alone or interconnected/intra-connected with [current] technology and significantly if or how legacy has been ported-over to operate via applications/software to work with current. So more information has been posted. This is for the purposes as mentioned previously dealing with cases requiring 'field project investigations' (from installs to troubleshooting). I am sharing these .pdfs because I found forensics became one of the tools to be applied during investigations and not the main tool. Knowing the background details (tech spec, set-up, logs files, install procedures, etc.) assists understand "why an artefact was there".

To read the posts - https://www.linkedin.com/groups/2436720

Latest Updates: Institute for Digital Forensics

- Windows Registry Reference
- Apple Reference Cards and iPad iOS7 Quick Guide
- USB Guide & USB Key Guide
- Hardware Configuration Dell Precision WorkStation
- Legacy DOS
- 100 Windows 8 Keyboard Shortcuts
- 100 Chrome Tips

Institute for Digital Forensics - Previous Updates

- Tron Commands
- Malware, Junkware, Virus
- Checking Implemented Security
- Backups
- Troubleshooting, Tips and Guides
- Windows NT Server Resource Reference
- Admin Tools To Know and Explained
- Corrupted Registry
- Windows Resource Kit Reference
- Fasteners
- Projects - Win 10
- Projects - Win 8
- Projects - Win 7
- Vulnerabilities in Critical Evidence Collection
- Imaging with Image-X: The Ghost Killer
- A Guide for the Forensically Sound Examination of a Macintosh Computer
- Interpol's Forensic Report on FARC Computers and Hardware
- Reducing Data Lifetime Through Secure De-allocation
- Realising - Risk Sensitive Evidence Collection
- Notes on Computer Systems and Operating Systems
- Finding Child Porn in the Workplace
- Drafting Electronic Evidence Protocols
- Data Hiding in Journaling File Systems
- Investigation of Protected Electronic Information
- Electronic Evidence: The Ten Commandments
- Electronic Evidence Best Practices
- Laws of evidence in criminal proceedings throughout the European Union
- Evaluating Commercial Counter-Forensic Software
- Hacking into computer systems
- Windows device interface security
- NSA Redacting with Confidence: How to Safely Publish Sanitized Reports
- Reproducibility of Digital Evidence
- Windows Memory Analysis
- Secure Deletion Myths
- Spoliation of Evidence
- Forensic Discovery
- VMware to boot cloned/mounted hard disk images
- Volume Serial Numbers: Format Verification Date/Time

eMMC

Download software here http://www.up48.com/english/download.htm

Frequently data recovery work undertaken is on eMMC (embedded MultiMediaCard) found in a large number of the smartphones and memory sticks etc. on the market. I was asked what tool I would use for working with e.g. eMMC. One tool that is most frequently turned to is Up-n-Up UP828P Ultra Programmer ('P' is the latest version).

The hardware reader which can be found here http://www.up48.com/english/product.htm. It supports the newest types of FLASH, NAND FLASH, SERIAL FLASH, MoviNAND, iNAND , eMMC etc., in addition, the BOOT area of iNAND, eMMC and MoviNAND can be read and written

Also required are the chip adaptors http://www.up48.com/english/adapter.htm.

And if you want to try your hand with iPhone there are adaptors for them too.

Of course, once an image has been acquired soft tools are still needed to read and interpret the data. Chip removal from iPhone (depending upon version involved A6, A8) would be problematical where data are encrypted.

Evidentially, do not experiment with exhibits (seized items) to avoid contaminating or corrupting data on the chip. Instead take the common path to chip exploration and obtain second-hand devices to gain your experience.

The above does not include additional hardware and tools used for the actual chip removals.

Hope this helps.

Chip Off, JTAG, NAND and YAFFS2

Chip Off, JTAG, NAND and YAFFS2

An article and a presentation identifying practices and concepts. Both contain add-value content with respect to the subject matter

Practitioner's view of Chip Off and JTAG

http://db.tt/ybQFitvS

Raw NAND flash and the YAFFS2 file system

http://db.tt/B379qsYM

Mobile microprocessors

Mobile microprocessors

This is an interesting article about the players in the mobile processor field, which will have an impact on mobile evidence in the future.

http://tech.fortune.cnn.com/2012/02/21/intel-mobile-chip-strategy/?

Android Data Extractor Lite

Android Data Extractor Lite

The author of this tools states:

"This Python script dumps all important SQLite Databases from a connected Android smartphone to the local disk and analyzes these files in a forensically accurate workflow. If no smartphone is connected you can specify a local directory which contains the databases you want to analyze. Afterwards this script creates a clearly structured XML report.

If you connect a smartphone you need a rooted and insecure kernel or a custom recovery installed on the smartphone.

ADEL needs a predefined configuration for each device to work proper."

https://github.com/mspreitz/ADELhttps://github.com/mspreitz/ADEL/tree/master/xml

GPS Improved Accuracy

GPS Improved Accuracy

Research conducted by Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (also known as UC3M) have found they can boost conventional standard GPS devices by a magnitude of 90% and significantly decrease the margin of error to improve positioning and location. UC3M see an objective to integrate their system into smartphones. This could assist the emergency services to improve pinpointing in emergency cases, in addition to added capability where handsets have modules included using existing conventional GPS capability.

A system that improves the precision of GPS in cities by 90 percent - http://www.uc3m.es/ 

Smart Device Usage

The latest report from Flurry reported through Venturebeat, a website that reports China technology usage, confirms China has out smart device usage that of the US. Moreover because the US only has 310-million population and China has 1.3-bilion population it is unlikely, Flurry believes, the US will ever rise to the top usage spot again because of population sizes. Well maybe so, but population size isn't all it is about, but requires regulation, liberalisation, free markets and economic indicators etc, too. What is interesting is that Flurry also envisage the only possible competitor to matching China's growth in smart device usage could probably come from India, which the report states has a 1.2-billion population.

A short note in the report identified other countries having growth in smart device usage. "Countries that grew faster than China in the past year were Columbia, Vietnam, Turkey, Ukraine and Egypt."

See report here: China becomes the world’s largest smartphone market - http://venturebeat.com/2013/02/18/china-becomes-the-worlds-largest-smartphone-market/

Further reading on possible outcomes for Chinese OSs - Originals and Copies. Britain and Smartphone Manufacturing http://trewmte.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/originals-and-copies-britain-and.html

Smartphone BYOD

Smartphone BYOD

The article about Application Performance Management highlights five factors to influence APM in 2013. Approaching APM not from the service angle (end-to-end interoperability) but what the user gains from it is an uncertainty with BYOD (e.g. mobile tablet etc), as stated by the article. BYOD is not simply about browsing habit to prove an issue or trend but whether such devices are used (a) as company property? (b) what work material is available? (c) is that on-site access or off-site access? (d) are external private access points accessible? (e) are there, regarding (d), obligations to reveal? .....and so on

During the heady parts of the recession, and even now, many companies operational costs and write down (depreciation) on operational assets (phones, computers etc) have been slimlined and moved some obligations on to staff to use their own smartphones and tablets, thus the company also realises reductions in capital expenditure by avoiding mobile services contracts, too.


Strange that so much effort and money has been spent and is being spent on cybercrime detection and prevention and yet the more likely statistic as to where an ICT attack would occur seems not to be determined from yet another market survey but plain, good old-fashioned common sense. If employees bring their own devices to work employers cannot legislate as to what happens whilst at work. If employers don't pay for communications devices/services because they want to turn an operating profit or 'twinkle' before their shareholders then it is not difficult to comprehend, from a security point of view, that smartphones are potential carries of 'digital infection' that are deliberately being allowed to propagate with BYOD. National societies have watched over the last two decades at the decay in common-sense and seen the removal of barriers that locked pandora's box shut. Why have the barriers been taken away? For the sake of emotional gratification of earning a short-term profit, globalisation and commercialisation that required reduction and removal of local barriers originally put in place by mandatory regulation.  

The task for digital investigators is to now re-engage with digital access policies in companies and discover the implemented and evolving communications route plan.

http://www.apmdigest.com/compuwares-top-5-apm-predictions-for-2013

Additional research

zdnet - http://www.zdnet.com/byod-mobile-workers-thumbing-nose-at-it-security-7000003519/

Forbes - http://www.forbes.com/sites/markfidelman/2012/05/02/the-latest-infographics-mobile-business-statistics-for-2012/
 
 Network World - http://www.networkworld.com/news/2012/061912-byod-20somethings-260305.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.

Originals and Copies. Britain and Smartphone Manufacturing

Originals and Copies. Britain and Smartphone Manufacturing

A recent post at Global Sources discussed the Chinese smartphone manufacturing competition and the design, technical and feature competitiveness of home-grown brands in comparison to Apple's iPhone and Samsung.

Chart image courtesy of Global Sources

It is possible to read the data in chart as signalling a dynamic chinese marketplace presenting its wares to the World that can compete not only locally but at the international level. It is equally possible to read the data that Andoid has driven that evolution or that Western skillsets brought to China to exploit low costs has actually turned the 'student' into a 'master', such that the original 'master' is being forced to step aside and be replaced. To draw a different analogy, but with similar outcomes, was noted by Dr Carroll Quigley in his book Tradegy and Hope a history of the world in our time (1965).  Quigley identifies the Age of Expansion by defining four common expansion factors that re-occur throughout history: (i) of population, (ii) of geographic area, (iii) of production, and (iv) of knowledge.

Furthermore, Quigley equally notes that expansion ebbs and flows by noting that expansion occurs through trade-offs between centres (cores) of expansion and peripheries. The use of circles within circles provides the mental image the author wants the mind to imagine to understand where the core is located and where the periphery can be found. His use of analogy helps the reader to understand that development (production/knowledge) occuring at the core eventually reaches the periphery. At the periphery the incoming development is received and subjected to localised influences. 

Fast fowarding from that 1965 commentary to today's manufacturing and placed in context with the above data in the chart, it can be seen that the Chinese have taken western developments and are enjoying expansion from the harvest (production/knowledge) brought to their door whilst the Western core is shrinking. Problematical with expansion ebbs and flows is the change that occurs and the ability to keep up with changes. Those changes have created problems regarding visual identity (mirroring), hardware functionality (imitation) and software (reproduction). Whilst Android OS may not have a problem with reproduction, given the widescale use of it in single country block manufacturing, eventually it would be cheaper for Chinese manufacturers to agree their own smartphone OS and use that to rival Apple, Google, Microsoft, Nokia, etc etc.

Subtle change can be seen by the shift towards differentiation between local manufactures product. As Global Sources comments "Most large suppliers combine the Android OS with proprietary UI, widgets and mobile applications for differentiation." Eventually, and it is not far off, that differentiation will impact on Android. As Nokia and other European manufacturing was caught cat-napping when the Americas hit the stage with two big band anthem songs called the 'iPhone' and 'Android', which endeared them to the World, so Chinese manufacturing is heading, at a fast rate, for the pinnacle. Granted we don't know the OS name, but it really isn't about the name but what the OS will do that will create challenges Western manufacturing has not yet fully understood, even less are they ready for it.

However, in a quirk of fate just as China is starting to reach the peak, scientific technological breakthroughs that will impact on hardware means that there is no one dominant force in the World that has yet to or will control solely those breakthroughs. This is where Britiain should demonstrate it is leading with a/the British lionheart approach to industrialisation as opposed to 'I have a hug here with your name on it'. Britain must learn the lessons from throwing away (as it did in the 1970s - 2000s) the national treasure of quality manufacturing: - read up on the loss of British Steel, the confusion of the early Airbus project and the mistakes with British Chrysler.    

PM Cameron and the British Government may be learning from these changes. The Government should have by now a blueprint for re-industrialisation for manufacturing in Britain. Rather than being dominated by people 'crying into their soup' about manufacturing pollution, perhaps set out the vision where a manufacturing industrial revolution in the UK can take place and explain where all these "green" policies are leading Britain? Answer the question is 'Britain is being artificially held back in manufacturing after billions of pounds of taxes have been spent on so-called non-pollutants to show our "green" credentials that have been and are paraded around the globe? Also, ask the British people to recall any significant programme for British industrialisation and manufacturing and then note the deafening silence? There is also curiousity why only a handful of entrepreneurs are working to get Britain out of the dulldrums.

Industrialisation, and to use that in context with smartphones as one example of a manufacturing stream that Britain can and should be capable of performing, could be adopted in manufacturing areas to see Britain mass produce smartphones and the components to go with them:

- new ultra fine silicon
- smartphone design and casing
- new electronic production technqiues
- a British labelled operating system (OS) -
- etc

In this day and age it does seem inconceivable as to why Britain is not noted for being a mobile phone manufacturing base to a level that is noted for other countries that come to mind when the spoken brand names are heard: Nokia, Ericsson, Alcatel, Apple and Samsung etc.