An iOS device recovered from a crime scene can be a rich source of evidence. Think about how personal a smartphone is to a user. Nothing else digital comes close. We rarely leave our homes or even walk around our homes without our smartphones within arm's reach. It is literally a glimpse of the most personal aspects of a human, almost like a diary of our everyday activity. According to several news references, Ocsar Pistorius' iPads were examined by a mobile expert and presented during the murder trial to show Internet activity hours before the murder of his girlfriend. When an iOS device can provide access to the so-called "smoking gun," the examiner must ensure that they know how to properly handle, acquire, and analyze the device.

There are different ways to acquire forensic data from an iOS device. Though each method will have its positives and negatives, the fundamental principle of any acquisition method is to obtain a bit-by-bit or physical...