Securities and Exchange Commission’s Forensics Lab can extract data from phones found at the bottom of rivers

I spent a day at the Security and Exchange Commission’s headquarters with SEC Chairman Jay Clayton and the co-directors of the Division of Enforcement, Stephanie Avakian and Steven Peikin. The highlight was a visit to the Forensics Lab, a copper-lined room where the SEC extracts data from cell phones and computers that are part of ongoing investigations. It’s amazing the kind of information they can extract, even from phones that have been deliberately broken or thrown into rivers. You think you have a phone that can be accessed? Think again.