Guidance Software has unveiled an update to its EnCase Neutrino mobile eDiscovery platform that introduces support for Apple’s iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch devices.
EnCase eDiscovery is the firm’s flagship product and enables legal teams to identify and collect information as needed during legal proceedings. Neutrino is the mobile version of EnCase and enables investigators to process and analyse mobile device data.
It currently supports Android 2.1 and 2.2 as well as Nokia and BlackBerry products but Guidance believes that with the huge sales of iPads and iPhones over the last year there was a need to support Apple devices as well.
Citing a survey carried out by ChangeWave, Guidance reckons business use of tablet devices is going to double over the next three months, with 78% of respondents claiming Apple’s iPad will be the tablet of choice.
Frank Coggrave, GM EMEA at Guidance Software, told CBR that retrieving data being held on mobile devices is a real issue for businesses. "IPads are becoming more common in businesses, enterprises are giving them out to workers and there’s 64GB of very mobile storage on them.IT departments probably don’t want them in there but it’s happening. If a court demands all information relevant to a case, you have to provide it and there will be data on these devices."
Coggrave added that the company distances itself from other firms in the eDiscovery (also called eDisclosure) space – such as Autonomy and Clearwell – due to its ability to hunt down data across an entire organisation. "We aim to collect anything from anywhere across an entire estate, and that includes mobile devices. We can connect to all devices and data sets."
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If a company needs to find data related to a certain issue EnCase Neutrino will automatically search through a device if it’s attached to the corporate network; if not the mobile device will need to be physically connect to the system in order for the data to be found.
If the device is a personal one but is being used for work – which is a fast growing issue for many businesses – the company will need to ensure it reserves the right to connect to those devices when needed, Coggrave added.
"Few organisations allow the connection of personal computers to a corporate network but, for some reason, many are fine with allowing employees to bring personal smart phones into the office – some going so far as to allow Wi-Fi-capable devices to connect to the corporate wireless network," said Andrew Hay, senior security analyst, Enterprise Security Program for The 451 Group. "With this new support for iPhone and iPad, Guidance Software can help analysts using its products to overlay traditional forensic and incident response strategies to one of the most prolific mobile device architectures in use today."
EnCase Neutrino with added support for iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch is available now.
