Police Scotland has announced plans to deploy forty one Cyber Kiosks that use technology from Cellebrite to extract data from locked smartphones.
Cyber kiosks are desktop computers, which will be located in police stations across local policing divisions. The technology allows specially trained officers to triage mobile devices to determine if they contain information which may be of value to a police investigation or incident. This will allow lines of enquiry to be progressed at a much earlier stage and devices that are not relevant to an investigation to be returned quicker.
“Increases in the involvement of digital devices in investigations and the ever-expanding capabilities of these devices mean that demand on digital forensic examinations is higher than ever,” says Deputy Chief Constable Malcolm Graham. “Current limitations however, mean the devices of victims, witnesses and suspects can be taken for months at a time, even if it later transpires that there is no worthwhile evidence on them. By quickly identifying devices which do and do not contain evidence, we can minimise the intrusion on people’s lives and provide a better service to the public.”
Police Scotland says it will only examine a digital device where there is a “legal basis and where it is necessary, justified and proportionate to the incident or crime under investigation”.
Take a look at the video below to see a Cyber Kiosk in action.
