Editor’s Note: In today’s digital landscape, mobile devices have become critical sources of evidence in legal, forensic, and eDiscovery investigations. Exterro’s new Remote Mobile Discovery tool addresses a longstanding challenge: collecting mobile data securely and remotely without disrupting device access or user privacy. This approach has the potential to reshape how legal and compliance professionals handle mobile data collection—making the process faster, more secure, and less intrusive. For cybersecurity, information governance, and eDiscovery experts, this solution marks a significant advancement in remote investigation capabilities.
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Industry News – eDiscovery Beat
Exterro Tackles Mobile Data Collection Challenges with New Tool
ComplexDiscovery Staff
Forensic investigators face a growing challenge in an era where critical evidence often hides in plain sight on mobile devices: how to access that data quickly, securely, and without disrupting users. Exterro, a leading data risk management software provider, believes it has found the answer.
The company unveiled its latest innovation on February 18, introducing Exterro Remote Mobile Discovery—a solution designed to eliminate the need for physical access to mobile devices during digital investigations. Legal, eDiscovery and forensic professionals can now remotely collect and review mobile data without installing software on the target device, a significant departure from the traditional, more invasive collection methods that have dominated the industry for years.
For digital forensic investigators, mobile data collection has long been bogged down by logistical and technical roadblocks. Traditional methods typically required direct physical access to devices, specialized cables, or shipping devices across locations for manual analysis. Exterro’s new solution disrupts this model by allowing secure, remote data collection initiated directly from within the company’s existing data management platform.
The new approach allows legal and IT teams to collect mobile data remotely over Wi-Fi, wired networks, or existing enterprise infrastructure—without disrupting the user’s ability to access their device. The solution also eliminates the need for intrusive software installations on the device itself, which has historically raised privacy concerns and increased technical complexity. Investigators can collect data from specific applications or retrieve an entire device’s worth of information, with current support for popular apps like WhatsApp, Instagram, Reddit, and TikTok. New app support is being added on an ongoing basis.
Ryan O’Leary, Research Director of Privacy and Legal Technology at IDC, highlighted the importance of Exterro’s approach. “Mobile data discovery has become one of the most important and challenging aspects of data collection,” he said. “Exterro’s intuitive platform makes mobile data collection accessible to legal and compliance teams, enabling them to efficiently review mobile data alongside other evidence for faster, more effective case resolution.”
One of the tool’s most notable features is its seamless integration with Exterro’s FTK Suite and E-Discovery Data Management (EDDM) module. Once mobile data is collected, it can be reviewed immediately alongside other digital evidence—whether from computers, cloud platforms, or internal databases—offering a consolidated view of all relevant information in a single interface. This approach eliminates the need to shuffle evidence between platforms and allows teams to accelerate investigations without compromising thoroughness.
Cost savings are another key advantage. Remote collection eliminates expenses related to device shipping, reduces IT personnel travel, and cuts down on custodian downtime—the time a user would otherwise lose access to their device during the collection process. By consolidating mobile, computer, and cloud data collection within one platform, Exterro also reduces IT overhead and streamlines the investigative process for legal teams.
Bobby Balachandran, CEO of Exterro, emphasized the growing significance of mobile data in digital investigations. “With the exponential growth of data residing on remote mobile devices, the ability to identify, collect, and analyze it efficiently has been a significant limitation for e-discovery and forensics professionals around the world,” Balachandran said. “Exterro Remote Mobile Discovery solves this problem with a seamless and comprehensive solution for mobile data investigations.”
The platform’s flexibility allows organizations to deploy it either on-premises or through a cloud-based software-as-a-service (SaaS) model, making it compatible with a wide range of enterprise IT infrastructures. Pricing will depend on the number of mobile devices under management and the total volume of data collected.
Exterro plans to showcase the new solution at LegalWeek 2025 in New York, where attendees can see Remote Mobile Discovery in action at Booth 2100. The product will be generally available by the end of March 2025.
As organizations continue to grapple with the increasing complexity of mobile data in legal and forensic investigations, Exterro’s latest tool could represent a turning point. The company’s approach promises to simplify mobile data collection and redefine what’s possible in remote investigations—making it faster, more secure, and less intrusive than ever before.
The real question is whether the rest of the industry will catch up—or if Exterro’s innovation will set a new standard for mobile data discovery.
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- Complete Look: ComplexDiscovery’s 2024-2029 eDiscovery Market Size Mashup
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Source: ComplexDiscovery OÜ