Technological advances and development of sophisticated functions in mobile devices led to new usages and dependencies. Mobile phones are often a key factor in criminal cases, intrusions, intellectual property theft, security threats, and more. The data stored in these devices may contain critical evidence associated with the above-mentioned crimes. The latest generation of devices incorporate new security features and encryption schemes to "protect" the device and its associated user data. The other side of the coin is that the rapid processing of critical evidence by various information retrieval techniques is slowed down, if not made impossible. The mobile device forensics field is a challenging area for forensic analysts, particularly given the increasing number of data encryption mechanisms. The EXFILES project aims to provide law enforcement agencies (LEAs) with new tools to extract data and associated evidence from these devices in strict legal contexts. A unique consortium of five LEAs, universities and cyber security companies from the EU have joined forces to address these challenges. Together, they defined three areas of work on technical data extraction techniques, namely software exploitation, hardware methods and combined methods. In addition, tools and methods inspired by other areas of information security (e.g. security assessments based on common criteria) will lead to new judicial methods of accessing data for lawful investigations. Another unique dimension of EXFILES is the clear focus on the ethical and legal aspects of research and exploitation as well as dissemination and training activities for the next generation of forensic experts. The main objective of EXFILES project is to improve Law Enforcement Agencies techniques and methods, to extract digital evidence from modern encrypted smartphones used by criminals based on holistic approach (both software and hardware).

Transfer traces analysis currently suffers from several limitations: highly subjective and selective, this process is also very time-consuming, hence inefficient, whereas results are difficult, if not impossible, to compare and share among forensic laboratories. As a consequence, the use of forensic data in cross-border investigations, and in foreign courts is limited. Creating a unified transfer traces automated analysis toolkit would allow for a higher productivity of forensic workers, better crime resolution and enable further collaboration across end-users. In addition to the lack of maturity of its potential components, the economical question is the barrier that hinders the development of such a toolkit as a sole forensic service can’t afford funding the corresponding R&D activities. the SHUTTLE project then intends to run a Pre-Commercial Procurement (PCP) action between forensic institutes across Europe to mitigate these technical and financial barriers and jointly carry out the procurement of the necessary Research and Development (R&D) activities to develop a machine+toolkit that will integrate different tape analysis tools to automate the routine part of the work of trace evidence examiners and, eventually, strengthen further judicial and police cooperation. The SHUTTLE toolkit will be scientific, as the results obtained will be objective and validated, which will strengthen their usefulness and usability. It will be high-throughput, as the instrumentation will be built to process large amounts of samples and data. The acquired data will be stored in a database together with the results of other methods. These databases can be shared and maintained together, and be used to provide a scientifically justified, numerical evidential value. Finally, SHUTTLE, which will be validated in conformity with ISO17025, will unify the methodology used in several European countries and will foster collaboration across countries and institutions in Europe.

Though security is a field of study capable of diverse applications in daily life, security science is a young discipline requiring larger inter-disciplinary effort. ESSENTIAL seeks to develop security science by addressing two of its main problems: the ad-hoc approach to security research and the growing complexity of the security environment. To do so, ESSENTIAL has set itself two main goals: a) to train inter-disciplinary security experts and professionals, to tackle security threats in a systematic manner and b) to increase societal resilience and security by addressing in an interdisciplinary manner 15 research topics, each associated with long-standing problems in the field of security science ranging from modeling security perception and democratizing intelligence to improving security and privacy in data ecosystems. ESSENTIAL will be the first programme of its kind that aims to jointly educate the next generation of interdisciplinary experts in security science, by uniquely exposing the 15 ESRs to: (1) theoretical knowledge and practical expertise in such areas as: (a) the policing and regulation of information-security technology, and (b) the implementation of policies and legal standards within computing and communication systems; (2) real-world environments in law enforcement, intelligence and industry; (3) strong academic guidance offered by highly qualified supervisors and mentors; (4) high tech research infrastructures; and (5) a diversity of interdisciplinary research events, such as workshops, conferences, summer/winter schools. The ESSENTIAL consortium is built upon long-lasting cooperation relations among leading organizations coming from academia, international and national stakeholders and the private sector, many of whom have over 25 years of experience in contributing directly to national, European and UN technology-related policy making.

Mobile devices, especially smartphones represent a unique challenge for law enforcement. Criminal offenders use phones to communicate, coordinate, organise and execute criminal actions. This is especially true for organised crime and terrorist organisations. This development provides new challenges for criminal prosecution and it is vital to empower law enforcement to access the data stored on mobile devices to use it as court evidence in a trustworthy and reliable manner. The overarching objective of FORMOBILE is to establish a complete end to end forensic investigation chain, targeting for mobile devices. To achieve this goal three objectives will be pursued. Novel tools shall be developed that include the acquisition of previously unavailable mobile data, unlocking mobile devices, as well as the decoding and analysis of mobile data. Based on the definition of requirements of law enforcement and legal and ethical issues a new mobile forensics standard shall be developed. With the developments of the new standard and the new tools, training for police and criminal prosecution will be established, providing the end users with the latest knowledge in a novel and an innovative curriculum to ensure a quality standard of investigations. The European Union has developed as a Security Union, building on the European Agenda on Security. This aims to ensure that people live in an area of freedom, security and justice, without internal frontiers. To strengthen digital forensics in the context of criminal investigations is crucial to achieve this vision. FORMOBILE contributes to the fight against virtually all forms of crime. This is because mobile devices are widely used in crimes, especially in the arrangement of conspiracies. Yet, there are crimes more closely related to mobile devices; this includes child abuse and emerging forms of cybercrime in particular. To fight crime effectively, law enforcement has to be empowered to access all evidence stored on mobile devices.