The Expert Podcast

A lot of times, we get cases where it's important to recover data and records from electronic devices. Many times, it's a client who needs to find out what internet activity is happening at their house on their router. Other users in the house might be accessing certain content—maybe there are emails, maybe there's messaging happening—and many times, the router itself retains some of that information.

Here's the story from the New York Post, where a person bought a router from Goodwill—a used router—and when they went inside, they found all kinds of records from the previous use of that device.

In this case, the previous owner's files dated back to 2010 when the router was reportedly last used. The buyer contacted this person and let them know that this information was there. Instead of having one backup, it was a whole list of backups. If you wanted to go back to a certain period, you could go back to that time. Here's a screenshot of all the files—all the backup files—that were retained on that router device.

What they found were credit card numbers, flight information, bank account numbers, balances, life insurance, all kinds of contact information, and even messaging and photos that were used in emails.

If you have records that you need to recover from prior use of internet activity at your residence, you may find that your router, modem, or other devices on the network may be retaining records, files, information, and activity that might be useful to you. Sometimes, they retain even internet activity—what websites were visited, what pages were visited, what messages were exchanged.

Many times, it'll show what's called the cookie information for that website to show what the visitor typed in. Did they type in a search? Did they type in a request for information? Electronic devices are a treasure trove of data to get records—maybe for a court case, maybe for some type of fraud investigation, or other access to private information that may not be available through other sources.