Kroll Ontrack Recovers Data From Apple Fusion Drives and Encrypted Devices

Combining technical expertise with proprietary technology, Kroll Ontrack, Inc. announced extended capabilities to recover data from Apple, Inc.‘ Fusion drives and encrypted devices.

While Apple’s ‘closed door policy’ on devices means iOS recoveries are foundationally more difficult than Windows recoveries, Kroll Ontrack’s new capabilities allow for recovery from all Apple drives on the market.

Paul Le Messurier, manager, programme and operations, Kroll Ontrack, says: “Kroll Ontrack has seen significant changes in Apple storage technologies coming through our labs requiring data recovery services, including an uptick in fusion drive recovery requests. With over 250 years of combined experience recovering data specifically from Apple devices, our global team of experts developed bespoke tools to reverse engineer Apple drives. Now we can offer data recovery services from all Apple drives.“

The influx of Fusion drives in the marketplace raises significant problems for amateur data recovery efforts as the drives operate in a different way to previous iOS drives which are simpler to recover from. The latter require both sides (SSD and HDD) to be working for a successful recovery to be made and therefore requires a greater amount of skill and expertise.

The company has additionally seen nearly double the number of recovery requests for encrypted devices in 2015 as compared to 2014 as business leverage the security of encryption in response to the increasing threat of data breach and hacking. Older recovery methods are useless on encrypted drives unless a level of decryption has taken place. Company’s engineers, with expertise in Apple storage technologies, are able to decrypt devices before recovery attempts are made, avoiding additional damage and data loss from devices.

Le Messurier says: “We’re proud of our abilities in tackling recoveries for any Apple device on the market. Our trained specialist engineers, Apple expertise and in-house technologies mean we are well placed to continue serving this market.

“With the ever changing nature of devices, users should ensure that they do their research and seek advice before repairing a device. Drives are often delicate and older recovery methods that worked before may end up damaging newer devices beyond repair. The best advice is to get help from an expert.“