The MSAB ecosystem. How to extract data from a phone during forensic investigations

Experts from Swedish forensic technology company MSAB have told Q Magazine how data is being extracted and analyzed from mobile phones during a legal investigation.

THE POWER OF DIGITAL CRIME

The company develops high-quality, easy-to-use software applications, mostly used by experts from law enforcement institutions such as the Police, Prosecutor’s Offices or intelligence services.

The MSAB’s mobile device analysis Ecosystem is designed as a complete digital forensics solution developed to increase the efficiency of investigators, whether they are police officers, prosecutors or intelligence officers, to expedite forensic analysis, to conduct investigations. more efficient and ensure consistent quality of digital evidence.

“A mobile phone is a gold mine of data, and in an era where 98% of investigations and intelligence work rely on digital evidence, it is often the most critical factor. However, too often, the power and potential of digital forensics is not being realized,” – Mikael Falkovén, VP Sales EMEA & Asia, told Q Magazine.

Having the right digital forensics key at the right time can make a huge difference for an investigator. Digital tools can reduce the time of an investigation, eliminate delays in phone performance, and increase the efficiency of an operation.

XRY, MSAB’s flagship software for extracting data from cell phones, has been used by legal investigators since 2003.

Today MSAB technology is used exclusively by Law Enforcement, Military, Government Agencies and Forensic Laboratories in democratic countries all over the world to investigate digital crime, gather intelligence, investigate fraud and fight corruption.

“MSAB’s sole focus is on delivering a trusted digital forensic solution with supporting professional services in order to ensure reliable forensic evidence”, Falkovén mentioned.

Currently, MSAB technology provides support for the largest number of device types, over 39,300, commercial and non-commercial.

LEGAL TECHNOLOGY

The current product range offers users a variety of secure tools from the XRY, XAMN & XEC family of products that can be relied upon in court for the production of evidence.

The current product range offers users a variety of secure tools from the XRY, XAMN and XEC family of products, which law enforcement organizations can rely on in court to prove the legality of obtaining evidence, and the process of sending a case to court is more faster than ever.

XRY enables law enforcement agencies to demonstrate that they are taking all reasonable technological steps to mitigate the risks associated with holding personal data extracted via mobile phone recovery.

“A compelling reason to choose MSAB´s mobile forensic solutions is that the XRY file format is forensically secure”, Falkovén said. . The file format has built-in protection and encryption, with a secure forensic file container designed to ensure a secure chain of custody of digital data. This will help avoid the risks associated with data stored in open file formats. 

In 2016, MSAB and Berla, the global leader in digital car forensics, signed a strategic partnership that provided to the digital forensics and cybersecurity community with an essential solution for analyzing and correlating data from both automotive and mobile systems. 5 years later, in 2021, MSAB signed an impressive contract of about 3 million Swedish kronor (1.5 million euros) with the Japanese authorities. “This is a fantastic breakthrough, it shows that our strategy for such a large and important market as Japan, has been completely right,” says Joel Bollö, CEO of MSAB.

Since 2018, a revolutionary technology launched by MSAB, XRY Drone, allows the extraction and analysis of data from drones.

MSAB is a global leader in digital forensic technology for mobile device examination and analysis. Headquartered in Sweden with offices in the USA, UK, Canada, Europe, Asia, and Australia, as well as a network of distributors across the globe. MSAB has been involved in mobile data communications since its foundation in 1984.

Doing business responsibly and ethically is of great importance to MSAB and the technology is exported under the independent supervision of the Swedish Inspectorate of Strategic Products (ISP).

In April of 2020, it was revealed by the famous Hong Kong pro-democracy activist Joshua Wong that the police had used the XRY software to access his phone data. This was documented in a court document that Wong posted on his social media profile. It took the police less than an hour to hack Wong’s password-protected phone using the software they bought from MSAB.

Currently, MSAB technology provides support for the largest number of device types, over 39,300, commercial and non-commercial. In Romania it is reprezented by Accurate Business.