After virtually any incident Call Detail Record (CDR) analysis plays a key role in the investigation. Though the CDR data is available in a readable format, it is almost impossible to manually find useful information from a list of records, due to various reasons, including the human minds limitations at analysing huge strings of numbers, phone numbers making even lesser sense than names, cryptic cell IDs not disclosing where a Target has been, indirect links between Targets remaining unexposed, and CDR data being provided in multiple formats, which are neither standardized nor uniform, and exceedingly large in size, making them extremely difficult to analyze manually.
Linking the CDR with subscriber and cell tower directories is a difficult and time consuming process. Even answers to common queries like call frequency, common numbers, IMEI change, target movement, inter tower calls etc., can take weeks and result in investigation delays.