Case summary
Water damage recovery where encrypted data depended on the original device state.
Modern phones use file-based encryption. That means the data is not useful as a raw memory dump alone. The original device must be stabilized enough to boot, unlock, and allow the data to be accessed safely.
Device
Samsung S25 Ultra recovered from the bottom of a lake.
Failure
The phone spent three days underwater and contained critical business information and cryptocurrency-related data.
Main challenge
File-based encryption required the original device state to be stabilized enough for unlock and secure data access.
Recovery path
Liquid damage cleaning and board-level data access work were used to stabilize the electronics and regain access to the data.
What made it difficult
Liquid damage keeps spreading after the phone leaves the water.
Lake water leaves minerals and contamination inside the phone. Even after the device is removed from the water, corrosion can continue attacking board traces and small components. The recovery process required careful cleaning, inspection, and controlled board-level data access rather than repeated power attempts or basic drying attempts.
Because of modern phone encryption, the goal was not simply to remove a memory chip. The practical recovery path was to make the original device state stable enough for safe access, then extract the needed files, business data, and cryptocurrency-related information.
Outcome
Phone data successfully recovered.
The original device state was stabilized and the data was recovered, including the critical business information and cryptocurrency-related access data the customer needed.