ISP means “In-System Programming”.In-System Programming (ISP) allows communication to take place with a target chip without the need to remove it. The main advantage of this method is the possibility to communicate with a target chip eMMC or eMCP bypassing the CPU. It brings higher speed for data extraction compared with JTAG but it requires great soldering skills. ISP applied to forensics, is the practice of connecting to an eMMC or eMCP flash memory chip for the purpose of downloading a device’s complete memory contents.
eMMC and eMCP memory are the standard in today’s smartphones, and the ISP practice enables examiners to directly recover the complete data without removing the chip and destroying the device.ISP benefits the examiner who faces the challenges of tightening budgets, yet wants to expand their expertise in retrieving evidence from locked smartphones. A cost-effective technique, ISP provides examiners with the same results of a chip-off at a lower price-point.