13.5 Summary

There are a growing number of handheld devices for personal organization and communication, some with access to the Internet. These devices can be an instrumentality of a crime when used to eavesdrop on wireless network traffic. The information they contain can also be an instrumentality of a crime when they are used to steal intellectual property or create and disseminate child pornography. They can also be a source of digital evidence, containing passwords and other useful data, or showing where individuals were at a specific time and with whom they were communicating. In some countries, including Sweden and Japan, it has become routine for investigators to collect handheld devices as evidence. Embedded systems are a challenging source of evidence because the data on them is volatile and different tools are needed to process different devices. Currently tools and training in this area are limited but, given the rapid increase in their use, this is likely to become one of the largest growth areas in the field of digital evidence examination.