Hypothetical scenario: You drop your smartphone into the toilet, damaging the screen and other electronic aspects of the device. Beside the obvious monetary loss, you’ve also lost thousands of megabytes’ worth of important photos, videos, contacts, and more.
What do you do?
Well, you can either kiss your data goodbye, or reach out to a digital forensics professional like Kevin Martin, owner of Mobile Phone Investigations.
Martin has a background in local law enforcement and has worked with recovering data from mobile phones for investigations for years now. He has since gone deep into digital forensics with a focus on mobile phones.
“I got into computer forensics back in 2004, and then working as a police officer had a need to start looking at cellphones,” he said. “Back then, cell phones were 80 percent phone and 20 percent computer, now it’s the other way around.”
Recovering lost family photos or contacts list is a small fraction of Martin’s business with Mobile Phone Investigations, however. He works mostly for attorneys, recovering data from phones in various cases.
He also teaches classes to law enforcement and military on how to use programs to recover data from phones and other devices.
“Now, with smartphones and the operating systems on these phones, you’re seeing all kinds of data being recovered from the software tools,” he said. “Cellphones, iPads, Android pads, even computer systems in cars, we’re able to get the data out of those as well. It’s kind of the whole mobile world now.”
Martin is a forensic examiner, not a private investigator, he said, but he does testify in court sometimes regarding the data he collects. He only does data recovery for civil trials, not criminal cases, he said.
Mobile Phone Investigations doesn’t have “a whole lot of activity” from private sector requests for data recovery, Martin said, but he thinks that’s because “people don’t know I’m out there.” Anyone who does want some data recovered from a phone has to prove they own the phone, he said.
“People who tend to want the data from a cellphone don’t typically have the legal right to have the data,” he said. “I have to make sure that they’re the owner of the phone, and then they sign an indemnity contract saying they have the right to the data once I pull it off.”
Martin said that he offers data recovery, like pulling images off an SD card or a phone. He’s seen his company grow since it began in 2009, and hopes to expand his services to serve more in the community.
The services include data recovery from most Android devices and some iPhone models, he said. The latest models of both Android and iPhone devices have increased the amount of encryption on the data-storing parts of the phone, Martin said, so recovering lost data from those devices is next to impossible.
“My actual recommendation for people is to make sure that you’re backing up your phones, either to the cloud or to a local system or external storage,” he said, “and we do have the ability to process and recover that data.”
More information about Mobile Phone Investigations and its services is available at the company’s website, mobilephoneinvestigations.net, or by calling 310-1790.
Highlights
• The Santa Maria Valley Chamber of Commerce and Visitor’s Convention Bureau is working toward a much-needed facelift for the “Welcome to Santa Maria” sign located on the south side of town off of Highway 101, near the Elks Unocal Event Center property. A simple design is in the works before rodeo season, but a more permanent welcome sign is planned as well. Locals and service organizations are welcome to provide input or pose questions to the chamber at 925-2403, santamaria.com, or santamariachambernews.com.
• The UnitedAg Health & Wellness Clinic holds its grand opening event in Santa Maria on April 28, from 4 to 6 p.m. The event will include food by Testa Catering, wine, a formal ribbon cutting ceremony, and special guest Mayor Alice Patino. The clinic is located at 2605 S. Miller St., No. 100, Santa Maria. More information is available at mcamarillo@unitedag.org or unitedag.org.
Managing Editor Joe Payne wrote this week’s Biz Spotlight. Have a business tip or one that should be featured? Email spotlight@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Apr 27 – May 4, 2017.