The Paraben Phone Recovery Stick and more!
Phone Recovery Stick Testing done by Investigator Casey Mullis!
I had the luxury of testing the new Paraben Phone Recovery Stick today.
The computer system used for the test was the Lenovo T510.
Test Acquisition Computer Specifications:
- Windows 7 Enterprise 64bit
- Intel Core i7 M620 - 2.67GHz
- Installed Memory (RAM) 8.00GB
Test Phone: HTC EVO 4G (Carrier - Sprint)
My friend, Tim O’Neill , a cyber instructor for the Georgia Police Officers Standards and Training, is always getting the latest forensic tools for us to test to see if we can improve our lawful acquisition techniques, skills and ability. In the past we had tested the Paraben I-Stick for recovering the iPhone for forensics. Recently Tim gave me the Paraben Phone Recovery Stick to test and I got the opportunity to test the product today on the HTC EVO 4G (Sprint).
First and for most, I am a guy and the last thing guys like to do is read manuals and or instructions. You know how it is, “We don’t need no stinking instructions”. Well the really good thing Paraben was to made this click simple, because the first thing I did was pop in the Paraben stick, double click the EXE file located on the root of the Paraben stick, and plug in the cell phone via USB.
I know, I know… there is a manual and or instructions for a reason. Great thought, it is located on the USB drive as well. If you have to read it, then feel free to do so but note this tool is so simple, even the manual is only twenty pages long.
Within minutes I had all the data from the cell phone. The tool even let me select what I wanted to get, so if my investigation and or warrant only pertained to text messages then so be it, here you go. Let’s say the investigation pertained to images, then so be it, here you go. It is easy and the manual is available just in case.
So all I can say about this tool is, it works as advertised. My only gripe about this tool is it only does Android OS cell phones but you can only put so much in a USB stick but I always want more and ask why not! This does not change the fact that it works, only that I think it should do all “SMART” phones. I know the ability is out there, so it should not be too hard to implement. Only my two cents…
Tim and I did get to test the partner i-Stick for i-Phone acquisition and just like the Phone Recovery Stick the i-Stick works in the Apple world. Either way, if you have an Android cell phone and need to get data from it this tool is for you. No need to go buy a $4000.00 unit, when you can buy this $169.00 simple and easy to use tool. Especially if you are required to do a Forensic check quickly or for a full review!
If you are in Law Enforcement and want one of these awesome sticks or one of the others, e-mail Tim and he will try to help you get want you need at a law enforcement price, as the Paraben Team is extremely Law Enforcement focused and very friendly to the thin blue line.
Notes from Tim –
We have also tested the Porn Stick and the TXT Stick and soon we will have the pleasure of testing the Computer Recovery Stick, the New Windows Password cracker and their ultra-new P2Commander and MORE!!!.
The new P2Commander–
- Incorporates E-mail Examiner, Network E-mail Examiner, Chat Examiner, Forensic Sorter, and Registry Analyzer so you can imagine how well it performs with email and chat logs
- Incorporates the variable and select Porn Detection technology
- Utilizes a back end database for handling large amounts of data, quickly
- Has multi-threading to utilize the full power of multi-core machines but doesn’t require heavy duty hardware to run
- It has the standard digital forensic features like hash database filtering, file viewers, deleted data recovery, etc.
- And meets all the standards for a Forensically Sound acquisition tool for Law Enforcement and for overall Corporate security and focused user review.
All this at a very nice and low price! Finally something inexpensive for Law Enforcement!
If you are into Cyber Investigations then you should attend the upcoming Paraben Forensic Innovations Conference and get to know and work with the founders Rob and Amber. These two are passionate about making lawful acquisitions easy to do, easy to explain and very powerful.
There will be a variety of boot camp options with the event as well as three lab tracks this year for you to get the hands on learning experience.
Saturday (Nov 5) Bootcamps
• Expert Testimony Prep (8 Hour Class)
• 360 Degrees of Forensics-Walking through a complete examination (8 Hour Class)
• BES Forensics-Server to BlackBerry (8 Hour Class)
• GPS Forensics (8 Hour Class)
Sunday (Nov 6) Bootcamps
• Advanced eDiscovery Techniques for Forensic Investigators (4 Hour Class)
• PCME Examination (4 Hour Block)
• Incident Response (8 Hour Class)
• Apple Forensics (8 Hour Class)
For all of the past Paraben students we are doing a very special promotion that allows you get come to the conference and receive a special bonus for your attendance.
Student promotion is a Free Data Recovery Stick with your conference enrollment.
For more information of the PFIC is right around the corner and we are excited for all that it has in store.
To get your conference registration taken care of you can go to:
http://www.pfic-conference.com/register.html
This will get you signed up for either the conference for the $299 rate or the conference and bootcamp combo for $399. Space is filling up so sign up today.
Speakers are confirmed and excited to share the knowledge they have for a look at the agenda go to:
http://www.pfic-conference.com/agenda.html
Finally we have our annual charity fund raiser at the Sunday evening Casino Night for Hackers for Charity. Come and play for a great cause.
If Casey and I could travel we would surely be there!
At the Coweta County Mantracker Conference in April 2012 we will be presenting POST certified tool classes and one set of tools selected is Paraben’s series of Stick technology for Rapid assessment to Full acquisition.
Both Casey and Tim are independent of all vendors and we love to talk about new and innovative tools for Law Enforcement. Please test any tool before purchasing to make sure that it meets your needs! Tim and Casey are testing every tool that they can get their hands on so as to be able to make the correct choices for the State of Georgia POST Cyber Investigator Curriculum planned for 2012.
Casey is “a one of a kind” investigator and the best Cyber Investigator that I have had the pleasure of knowing and working with. We are Blessed to have him in the Law Enforcement arena toprotect our children, as a collaborator and as a Friend. Casey is fortunate to work for one of the finest Sheriff's in Georgia, Sheriff M. Yeager who sees the new and growing demand for Cyber Investigations and soon will have one of the finest Cyber only focused labs in the Southeast.
Please send us your comments and thoughts!
We both wish everyone the Best – Be Safe and let’s STOP the bad people trying to hurt our children!
Please, Support your local Law Enforcement and become involved with your community!
Author - Investigator Emory Mullis has been in Law Enforcement for roughly 14 years including military and civilian law enforcement. He started learning about computers back when Gateway 266 MHz was the top of the line and cost about $2000.00.Right out the box, I was compelled to take my new found 266 apart. Why I have no idea other than pure curiosity. Once I had the computer out the box and on the floor in pieces, my wife walked in. Trust me people, this was not a good thing! Either way I got a good understanding at this point on how a computer is put together and / or the components inside. This was my starting point with computers and I still hear my wife in the back ground “It better work when you put it back together!” That was my humble beginnings as a Cyber Investigator. Now with many Cyber cases under my belt, I have learned that you must question, challenge and test almost daily to keep up with all the new tools, software, computers and cell phone formats to be able to forensically acquire evidence and it is a real challenge. I enjoy the challenge and look forward to learning more every day!
Tim is the Oldcommguy and Chief Technical Editor of Lovemytool.com and working as a volunteer for the Georgia POST helping to train Georgia's Law Enforcement community in sound techniques for recognition, protection and acquisition of lawful cyber evidence.
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