CSI Stick Plays Forensics with Your Cell Phone

Digital forensics specialist Paraben Corporation has just announced its newest Cell Seizure Investigator Stick, also known as the CSI Stick. The device is a thumb drive size appliance that can acquire all the data from a suspect's cell phone, including the deleted messages or instant messaging sessions.

According to the company, the CSI Stick features a one-button recovery interface that can bring back critical details for first responders, such as deleted SMS messages, phone-book entries, flushed call logs and multimedia messages.

"The Paraben CSI Stick has the potential to be a great tool for street level patrol officers. The functionality of the stick allows street level officers to view media quickly and at the same time the stick maintains a forensic image for full exam by forensic lab personnel", said Jay Poupard, of the State Police.

The CSI Stick can recover any type of data, be it physical or logical. The appliance can currently work with 330 different models of mobile phones manufactured by Motorola and Samsung and comes with three data adapters for different connector types. However, Paraben plans to release some other types of connectors to increase compatibility between the device and the subject's mobile phone.

Support for other popular phone brands such as LG and Nokia is also in development, but there is no information about when they will be released on the market.

The CSI Stick is primarily targeted at law-enforcement agencies that rely on recovering critical information from suspects' seized mobile phones.

"After years of developing innovative cell phone forensic technology, we saw a definite need to take cell phone forensics to the masses allowing patrol, narcotic, and gang officers and many others to have access to digital evidence they did not have access to before", stated Amber Schroader, CEO of Paraben Corporation.

Mobile phone repair shops could also benefit from the CSI stick, as it allows technicians to recover accidentally-deleted information. The Stick is available for an estimative retail price of $199.99.