Mobile security: A balance between encryption, privacy, and forensics

Technological advances in modern mobile devices have transformed the way people communicate and information storage options on smartphones and other forms of mobile devices such as iPhones, iPads, Tablets, etc. Some of which include storage of sensitive and private data and/or information on mobile devices, which can be subjected to privacy protection under the Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution against unreasonable search and seizure. Mobile devices afford mobile device end users the flexibility, convenience, and mobility to share information through the practical applications via the Internet and Internet-enabled software and/or applications, to include Web 2.0 technology applications and websites. Mobile device storage capacity has also increased--allowing end users to store large volumes of digital data (e.g., photos, videos, music, and other private information). Mobile technology continues to advance; consumers have demanded increased mobile security through data encryption. The demand for both software and hardware-based encryption from manufacturers of devices like, Apple for iOS-based devices and Google for Android-based, to protect privacy information is on the rise. As manufacturers such as Apple and Google continue to engineer default full-disk encryption standards on their mobile devices to satisfy consumer demands, the U.S. Government and law enforcement agencies struggle to obtain backdoor access to such mobile devices to carry out investigative leads and digital forensics investigations. The intent of this paper was to examine the key challenges that exist in mobile security and to attempt to propose a balance between the demands for increased security and digital forensics in mobile platform devices. This research concluded that it is possible to identify a balance between increased consumer demands in mobile security while offering a viable solution for digital forensics investigators.