Cellular Forensics

Cellular forensics has really changed things when it comes to suspect profiling. The fact that people use mobile devices so frequently these days has provided investigators with another source for profiling criminal suspects, as well as helpful insight into their personal habits and personalities.

This is not just from all the calls and SMSs that are sent and received, but also from the rich data that can be extracted from messaging apps (WhatsApp, BBM) and social media apps (Facebook, Twitter) gives digital forensic investigators the ability to develop a picture of a suspect and a criminal case.

A suspects’ social media personality can offer a more tailored overview of the character, his or her likes and dislikes and a reflection of “who” they really are. A victim’s presence on social media can also be used to find a common link to possible suspects!

The widespread use of cellular apps makes them a source of extremely critical data for digital investigators and general law enforcement officers, both in terms of evidence and investigative leads.

These days’ people use their mobile devices to access social media apps rather than using their laptop or computer. Even more so, social media data can actually be extracted from a suspect’s mobile device and provide details such as, their WhatsApp chat history, location-based data, recovery of images and frequently contacted people.

Investigators can even find out when someone was in a certain place at a certain time by looking at the WiFi all the networks they have ever connected to.

While data points such as SMSs and GPS locations can end up in a great lead in a criminal case, looking at the online social identity of a suspect will allow investigators to dig deeper into the personality of the suspect, which can help to build a case.

Suspect profiling is changing as people use more and more social apps to communicate with one another. This is providing digital investigators with another source of information to build up a complete profile of a suspected criminal.

The amount of data that is now being consumed and shared is opening up a huge amount of different opportunities for cellular forensic and digital suspect profiling cases.

At DLA digital and cellular forensics, we never lose sight of the goal of an investigation, which is to identify the suspects and find the perpetrator using digital suspect profiling.