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Tech

The Steel Rooms Helping Cops Fight Cyber Crime

Storing seized cell phones is a lot harder than you think.

​Nowadays there aren't too many places left in the world without cell signals beaming in to let you text, call, or tweet from your iPhone or Android. For cyber crime investigators at the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, that can be a nuisance when you're trying to forensically analyze seized cellphones without the threat of interference from nefarious entities.

That's why the organization is trying to buy two steel boxes expressly designed for the purpose of blocking out all radio frequencies, while investigators examine confiscated computer electronics.

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In a proposal for purchase, the Mounties out of Saskatchewan are asking for a private contractor to deliver two "Radio Frequency Shield Enclosures."

Related: ​The Canadian Government's 'Secure Phones' Come Straight From the NSA​

"The RCMP "F" Division, Technology Crime, Regina, Saskatchewan, requires the provision, assembly and testing of two (2) Radio Frequency Shield Enclosures including the delivery of one (1) to Regina and one (1) to Saskatoon, Saskatchewan," said the government release.

If you're wondering how a mysterious steel box works in stifling sophisticated connections to things like seized cell phones—you're not alone.

But when asked about these critical pieces of investigative equipment, Canada's national police force was tight lipped about their function.

"We are unable to speak to why this equipment is required as that information could reveal investigational details/techniques," said a media relations spokesperson with RCMP F Division.

But in a Postmedia report about the expanding size of an RCMP cyber crime unit, a radio frequency shield enclosure, called "the cage," reportedly "allows investigators to analyze a mobile device without outside interference," and is described as a metal panelled room.

Criminal syndicates remotely accessing the data of seized electronics from afar within holding police facilities is a very real threat. Having a metal panelled room to store devices cuts out that possibility.

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For example, as the Guardian reports, when Pirate Bay co-founder Peter Sunde was taken into custody he asked police if he could use his cell phone to call his girlfriend, which they obliged. But instead, Sunde hit an app on his phone that remotely wiped all of his computer systems and cell phones.

Taking devices and storing them in dead zones like radio frequency enclosures, allows investigators to protect against those kinds of incidents, and from getting the pie in the face of a botched investigation.

We are unable to speak to why this equipment is required as that information could reveal investigational details

According to the peer reviewed Dartmouth Undergraduate Journal of Science, in criminal forensics, investigators face a number of threats from remote wiping of data from seized devices.

"A common protocol for handling a mobile device found at a crime scene is to turn the power off. Investigators want to preserve the battery and prevent an outside source from using the remote wipe feature on the phone's contents," said the article.

But whether or not a phone is on or off might not matter much to savvy criminals, so forensic investigators turn to "radio frequency (RF) shielded test enclosure boxes help keep signals from entering or leaving the device."

In other words, the next time you see a steel panelled room in a Saw or drug cartel flick—that type of facility can be used for more than just torture or storing coke—they help fight cybercrime.