Recently MOBILedit partnered with Stop! Violencia de Género Digital to aid in their efforts of handling digital domestic violence cases. The following story is a first-hand adaptation of a conversation that was held with the Director of the organization, Encarni Iglesias Periera.
Encarni Iglesias Periera, President, Stop! Violencia de Género Digital
Encarni was a woman suffering from domestic violence who took the step and decided to separate from her ex-husband but instead of ending her problem the situation worsened.
The abuser, not being able to have access to her and her son, since they had a restraining order, was dedicated through social media to continue with psychological abuse. In addition to the defamation and insults he made hundreds of calls to her day and night. The worst being 74 calls in a period of 3 hours. He also sent WhatsAppp messages with death threats against her and her son.
He used this same network to contact mutual friends, trying to turn them against her. Realizing that this was not working they began to suffer the same harassment as Encani did, receiving insults throughout the day along with constant threats.
Encarni endured this situation for several months until she went to the police. The first response was to change her phone number and not to use any social media. She always points out that this advice was given in good faith but it achieved the opposite, creating incredible anxiety in her and the belief that she was guilty of the situation.
She received the same answer three times, until her luck changed. Encarni heard about the work of computer forensic experts, who were able to help her, accompany her and made her understand that she was not guilty of what was happening to her.
Going through this experience was what led her to create the association, so that no one would feel as she felt at that moment.
“We are incredibly grateful to have a product like MOBILedit because it simplifies our investigative work and gives the police their case on a silver platter ready to be processed.”
One of the first tools she found was MOBILedit Forensic Express. It has been and remains to be instrumental in solving these kinds of cases. The software is easy to use, can export all of the data stored in a phone, and present the results in easy to read the report. This evidence can then be used in court ensuring good, solid convictions.
One feature that was extremely helpful in her case, was the ability to search for photos by comparing them to an existing one. In addition, once that photo was found, the EXIF data (date, time, location, etc.) was used to locate where the photo was taken, leading the police right to his door and successfully arresting her ex, therefore, bringing him to justice.
In the eyes of Encarni Iglesias Periera, the biggest challenge today is public awareness. In her words, people do not understand that violence can be perpetuated via social media. She believes the public needs to be educated about the fact that digital violence is a crime just like any other type of violence. Public awareness and education will help to elicit more complaints to be filed while allowing them to feel more comfortable doing so.
Stop! Violencia de Género Digital fights against domestic violence mainly in Spain
That is what led to a creation of an organization Stop Violencia de Genero Digital. Today, Stop Violencia is a robust all volunteer organization that is completely supported by donors and has 67 members handling Digital Domestic Violence cases in Spain and other Spanish speaking countries.
There are more specific example cases where Stop Violencia was able to help.
There was a girl who was being harassed via a social media site. Stop Violencia was able to get the evidence from her phone and then prepare a MOBILedit report for the police. From this report, the police were able to get a search warrant that allowed them to collect the cloud storage of the perpetrator and corroborate the girl’s story. This led to a successful criminal conviction.
Another case involved an image of a young girl that had been abducted. Stop Violencia was able to take this photo, use geolocation in order to navigate where/when it was taken and then turn it over to the police who were then able to break up a child endangerment ring where they recovered five other children. “This could not have happened if we did not have MOBILedit” Encarni said.
Encarni said a remarkably interesting thing at the end of our conversation, “We are incredibly grateful to have a product like MOBILedit because it simplifies our investigative work and gives the police their case on a silver platter ready to be processed.”
The MOBILedit Team is committed to continue support organizations in the fight against domestic violence.
MOBILedit Forensic Express offers maximum functionality at a fraction of the price of other tools. It can be used as the only tool in a lab or as an enhancement to other tools such as UFED through its data compatibility.
Want to try MOBILedit Forensic Express? Request a demo here.
If you have any questions or inquiries we welcome you to contact us at sales@compelson.com.