We posted previously (20th Oct) about an iPhone that had apparently fell – ‘by accident’ – into a fish tank. Following on from that post, the VALKYRIE (GB) LIMITED team purchased several replacement parts for the iPhone and set about repairing it, the repairs, cleaning and drying resulted in us being able to power it up – an excellent result considering the state the phone was in when handed over. The next stage of the process is to connect the device to our forensic workstation in an attempt to extract the data.
It is an interesting case as the battery was missing (removed) when we first examined it, and when we told the client they were also puzzled. When the ex-employee was questioned as to how the phone had ended up in such a poor state he said that he had ‘tried to dry out the parts post the fish tank incident but the battery was severely damaged’ so he thought the best thing to do was remove it.
The data on the phone is important to the client so they are keen for us to exhaust all options in getting it back up and running and hopefully retrieving the data. Phase one has proved successful, although it ended up being a tedious and lengthy process. Now for phase two of the investigation, extraction. The client is pleased with the progress so far, he thought due to the level of damage to the phone it very unlikely we would be able to power it up again alone extract any data, were not there yet and we continue to manage the clients expectations. However, now the phone has powered up we are increasingly confident we will be able to extract the data – to be continued in part 3!
