Accessing a locked system is always a challenge. Encrypted disks and encrypted virtual machines, encrypted files and passwords are just a few things to mention. In this article we are proposing a straightforward workflow for investigating computers in the field. Note: you may be able to perform live system analysis if the computer being investigated […]

The user interface is a major advantage of Elcomsoft tools. Setting up attacks in Elcomsoft Distributed Password Recovery is simpler and more straightforward compared to the command-line tool. In this article, we’ll talk about the general workflow, the use and configuration of distributed and cloud attacks in both products. We received lots of feedback after […]

After publishing the first article in the series, we received numerous comments challenging our claims. We carefully reviewed every comment, reread and reevaluated our original article.  Elcomsoft vs. Hashcat Rev.1.1 is here. The unsupported algorithms In our original article, we made the following claim: “While both Hashcat and Elcomsoft Distributed Password Recovery advertise hundreds of […]

If you are familiar with iOS acquisition methods, you know that the best results can be obtained with a full file system acquisition. However, extracting the file system may require jailbreaking, which may be risky and not always permitted. Are there any reasons to use jailbreaks for extracting evidence from Apple devices? In the time […]

Four years ago, we published our first book: Mobile Forensics – Advanced Investigative Strategies. We are really proud of this achievement. Do you want to know the story behind it and what’s changed since then in mobile and cloud forensics? Here are some insides (but please do not tell anyone!) If you read “Novel Notes” […]

Is it possible to extract any data from an Apple Watch? It’s relatively easy if you have access to the iPhone the device is paired to, or if you have a backup of that iPhone. But what if the watch is all you have? If there is no paired iPhone, no backup and no iCloud […]

It’s been a week since Apple has released iOS 14.2 as well as iOS 12.4.9 for older devices. Just a few days later, the developers updated the checkra1n jailbreak with support for new devices and iOS versions. What does that mean for iOS forensics? Let’s have a look; we have done some testing, and our […]

How secure are your chats in your favorite instant messenger? Can someone intercept and read your secret conversations, and can you do something about it? Apple users have access to the highly popular instant messaging system, the iMessage. But how secure it really is? Let’s find out. When it comes to instant messaging, there are […]

Intuit Quicken is one of the oldest tools of its kind. Over the years, Quicken had become the de facto standard for accounting, tax reporting and personal finance management in North America. Finances is an extremely sensitive area that demands adequate protection of the user data. However, prior to 2003, Quicken employed a weak protection […]

Believe me or not, but this is exactly the 500th post in our blog! The first one was posted in March 2009 and was about Distributed Password Recovery and GPU acceleration. At that time, we even did not do mobile or cloud forensics. Today it’s not about our achievements. I want to thank you for […]