Physical and Virtual Acquisition of Data from Android Phones for Forensic Analysis

The digital revolution in the past decade plus has made our life much easier. The
computer screens have become sleeker and the machines smarter with every passing year. The high
computing power coupled with artificial intelligence has made our devices much easy to
use with practically zero learning curve. However, the enhanced sophistication brings with
it a unique challenge for the civilised community
i.e. how to detect and prevent cybercrimes. Cyber is touted to be the 5th dimension of war after
land, sea, air and space and will be the deciding factor in future conflicts. In order to build up
a strong defence, it is very important that the security breach is detected at the earliest and
analysed for weak links. Towards this, forensic analysis of data acquired needs to be done
to identify the perpetuator and prevent future attacks.
Forensics is a branch of science that deals with the evidences that can be presented in the Court
of Law. Its sub-domain that deals with acquiring and analysing data from computers, smartphones
and other digital devices is known as digital forensics. Digital Forensics is the art of
acquiring and analysing information obtained from a computer/digital device.

The word "Smartphone Forensics" synonymous with "Mobile Forensics" has a natural
reference to an Android Smartphone, primarily because of its popularity. Analysis of
basic phones, smart phones and feature phones is included in Mobile Forensics. Android,
Windows and iOS OS are installed in 90-95% of the mobiles used across the world.
Mobile Forensics is expanding its horizon with Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs) and
Tablets already in its domain and sooner or later will include Internet of Things (IoT)
devices and smart TV primarily because they contain a similar OS which can store lot of data.

In the nascent mobile forensics days, prime focus was on getting information somehow
from the phone. This data was related to call history, contacts stored in phone book,
SMS, MMS in addition to data on SIM card. However with increased usage of mobile phones, the
focus has shifted on extracting data related to social media posts like Facebook,
WhatsApp, Twitter, etc which are large repository of personal information. With
technological advancements privacy has become a prime concern in mobiles.