Smartphone forensics is the application of the forensic process to find information and answer questions about how a smartphone was (or was not) involved in a particular incident. Smartphone forensics is a sub-field of digital forensics, and it follows the same principles.

Forensics is the application of scientific knowledge to legal problems.¹ Forensic sciences are widely tied to Locard’s Exchange Principle: “Every contact leaves a trace.”²  The process of digital forensics is the same as other forensics sciences, and the process in mobile device forensics closely follows the same path. In mobile device forensics, however, we also have the extra challenge of isolation of devices we are working with because they are designed to communicate with the surrounding mobile network, satellites, surrounding wireless networks, and via Bluetooth or other means.

Not all applications of digital or mobile device forensics are designed to produce evidence, but all require reliability, integrity, and veracity, whether the forensics is being performed for information security, incident response, intelligence gathering, policy compliance, remediation, research, or for criminal or civil investigations.

References:

[1] Webster’s Dictionary

[2] Prof. Edmond Locard, c. 1910