A UK-based mobile phone forensics firm, which specialises in recovering data from cell phones for police investigations, had a server stolen in a break in at its Kent premises last week.

The server contained administrative data and details of some case files in relation to the forensic work carried out by Forensic Telecommunication Services (FTS).

FTS issued a statement claiming that the information on the server is made up of old cases that have passed through the judicial process, or cases that are already in the judicial system and so subject to full disclosure to both defence and prosecution teams.

“In the unlikely event that the server was accessed, none of the data stored on the server in any way compromises ongoing police operations,” the company said.

FTS specialises in recovering data from mobile phones, PDA’s and all other types of telecommunications equipment, for evidential purposes. The company uses forensic analysis to retrieve information held in the phone and SIM card, even on partially destroyed models, with the provision of cell site analysis for mapping caller routes, call locations and times and such like.

FTS does not appear to do in network data retrieval, or phone tapping. That kind of stuff is left up to the operators. So it could be that the equipment was either stolen to order on behalf of someone wishing to know what kind of information they are up against in court, or by someone with the intention of selling the information to potential suspects.