As you may already know, we have just updated our recently released forensic tool, Elcomsoft Phone Viewer. The update received a major performance boost and numerous usability enhancements.

So what’s the point of having a “yet another” mobile forensic tool? Aren’t there enough already? In fact, we considered making this tool for a long time, and were hesitant to make the move exactly because there are so many great forensic packages already. However, our customers kept asking for a lighter, smaller, faster and easier alternative to complement our existing tools. They cited how bulky those all-in-one forensic packages were, and mentioned training courses they had to take just to begin using those tools. Call it minimalism, but we made a tool that doesn’t require training sessions to use, and employs the same familiar user interface as other ElcomSoft tools.

Speaking of other ElcomSoft tools; have you seen the updated Elcomsoft Phone Breaker? We’ve also released a native Mac version. Elcomsoft Phone Breaker is a great backup acquisition and cloud forensic tool allowing to extract vital information from the cloud or local backup in a matter of minutes – with or without the password. However, once you extracted the data, your options were limited to using third-party analysis tools. We wrote an article [http://blog.elcomsoft.com/2014/03/itunes-icloud-backups/] about the issue, but most tools we could find were either too simple (and generally not passable as ‘forensic’ tools) or too bulky, complex and sheer expensive. And so we decided to help by making a tool of our own. Our goal was making exactly the opposite of the bigger, bulkier and overly complicated forensic tools.

The updated Elcomsoft Phone Viewer 1.1 continues to deliver on that principle, adding full-text searching and filtering and making navigation even faster than the already fast initial release. Besides, we added support for latest iOS and BlackBerry versions, group chat support and a few small things here and there. With all that, Elcomsoft Phone Viewer gets one step closer to becoming a viable replacement for bulkier and much more complex forensic packages.

So what exactly is new in the new version? Here’s the full list:

1. Significantly higher performance when browsing through thousands Calls and Messages. All items are now loading and scrolling blazing fast.
2. Full-text search in Contacts, Calls, Notes and Messages. All fields are supported.
3. Real-time filtering in Messages and Contacts. The following filters are supported:
   1. Messages: SMS/MMS/iMessage; Incoming/outgoing; date (range)
   2. Contacts: by account (Exchange, iCloud, Google, Facebook)
4. All available fields are now available when displaying Contacts
5. Messages: added group chat support
6. iOS: now displays emoticons and images as well as audio and video (with an external player) and location (via Google Maps). Files and attachments can be exported.
7. BB 10: added support for pictures, videos, audio, location, appointments, files, and contacts.
8. UI improvements: emoji support in all plugins
9. BB OS 10.3 and iOS 8.3 support
10. Added automatic check for updates

Searching and Filtering

Being able to locate information is essential for any investigation. Being able to locate it quickly is a must. The updated Elcomsoft Phone Viewer implements searching and filtering to allow you locating information by simply searching for it.

Did you know a phone you are about to examine might have more than one account? Instead of trying to get around the mess of all notes, emails or messages altogether, you can now click a button to view records belonging to a particular user account.

Investigating a certain time period? With Elcomsoft’s new Filtering, you can specify a date range, and everything you look at will be filtered to only display items within that specific range.

Are you trying to make sense of the suspect’s calendar? Facebook is a well-known polluter. By simply unchecking Facebook via Filtering you can reduce the number of entries to look at tenfold or more.

Are you searching for a particular call or message? You can reduce the number of entries to look at by separating incoming and outgoing calls, received and sent messages.

Did you buy the tool already? Download the update free of charge! Still sitting on the fence? A free evaluation download is available!