Starting with version 2.40, Elcomsoft Extractor for WhatsApp supports physical and cloud acquisition of WhatsApp Business. The physical extraction method requires root access, while cloud acquisition requires authenticating into the user’s Google Drive account with proper authentication credential. In addition, a verification code received from WhatsApp as an SMS must be provided to decrypt the backup downloaded from Google Drive. In this guide, we’ll describe all the steps required to perform physical and cloud acquisition of WhatsApp Business. (more…)

Numerous vendors advertise many types of solutions for extracting evidence from Android devices. The companies claim to support tens of thousands of models, creating the impression that most (if not all) Android devices can be successfully acquired using one method or another.

Cloud acquisition is arguably the future of mobile forensics. Even today, cloud services by Apple and Google often contain more information than any single device – mostly due to the fact that cloud data is collected from multiple sources.

We live in the era of mobile devices with full-disk encryption, dedicated security co-processors and multiple layers of security designed to prevent device exploitation. The recent generations of Apple mobile devices running iOS 10 and 11 are especially secure, effectively resisting experts’ efforts to extract evidence. Yet, several solutions are known to counter Apple’s security measures even in iOS 11 and even for the last-generation devices. It is not surprising that Apple comes up with counter measures to restrict the effectiveness and usability of such methods, particularly by disabling USB data connection in iOS 11.4 after prolonged inactivity periods (well, in fact it is still in question whether this feature will be available in new iOS version or not; it seems it is not ready yet, and may be delayed till iOS 12).

UPDATE June 2, 2018: USB Restricted Mode did not make it into iOS 11.4. However, in iOS 11.4.1 Beta USB Restricted Mode Has Arrived