Cellular Phone Forensics / Investigations

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Course Description - This 40 hour course is designed to provide law enforcement personnel with foundational skills and knowledge necessary for the forensic examination of cellular phones. Special circumstances arise and special consideration has to be given when a cellular phone is used as an instrument of crime or when a cellular phone contains records of criminal activity. These records can be in many forms including, but not limited to; phonebook entries, call history, text messages, calendar entries, images and videos. This course will help the investigator by giving them a foundation for cellular phone forensics so that they better understand and respond to these types of criminal activity.

NOTE - Students must have a working knowledge of computer operating systems and simple operations (word processing, spreadsheets, copy files, etc.) before enrolling in this class. This class will be directed at individuals already in possession of these skills. No class time will be devoted to developing these skills in the students.

Who Should Attend - Law enforcement personnel assigned to high technology crime investigation units, white collar crime units, fraud or forgery units, identity theft units as well as individuals whose primary responsibility is to seize computer evidence/equipment discovered at crime scenes.

Course Objectives - Upon completion of this course, students will have the knowledge and ability to examine cellular phones and investigate crimes committed by use of cellular phones as well as seize cellular phones used in criminal activity.

Course Outline

  • Basic understanding of cellular phones and cellular networks
  • Description of a variety of tools (both hardware and software) available for extracting data from cellular phones
  • Demonstrations of how different cellular phone forensic tools work
  • Laws related to seizure and examination of cellular phones
  • Hands on exercises for extracting data from cellular phones, SIM cards and flash media cards using a variety of different tools
  • Basic understanding of SIM cards
  • Techniques for isolating cellular phones from cellular networks

Additional Information - For further information contact the ATC at (916) 464-1200, and ask for the Program Training Officer or Secretary for this course.