Jim, we want to thank you for the time you’ve taken to chat with us about your work and about your expertise in the areas of white collar and cyber crime. It’s an area ADF is proud to support investigators in. Your work with NW3C covers areas of white collar cyber crime such as fraud, bribery, money laundering, and more. We’ve been proud to partner with NW3C before in our joint webinar and most recently in your Capture the Flag competition!

Gina: How did your background, and 25 years of service in the United States Marine Corps Military police, prepare you for what you’re doing now?

What is CEM

In Australian states and territories, CEM refers to “Child Exploitation Material”, otherwise known as child abuse material, child sexual abuse material (CSAM), and child pornography. For digital forensic examiners, telecommunications-based child exploitation includes viewing, copying, downloading, sending, exchanging, soliciting, and making CEM. 

In our series on our Culture Code, I want to dive into the first “E” in our LEGEND - Engage and Energize! While last time I explained how ADF as a whole leads and learns, this time I thought I’d highlight one of our team members who I think truly exemplifies the idea of engagement and energy both within the company and within the field of digital forensics; Rich Frawley, our Digital Forensic Specialist. Chances are you know Rich already from ADF’s free short How To videos, his engaging and thoughtful webinars, or through his assistance in technical enablement and support. 

We’re living in a wild time right now with the Coronavirus changing work for millions of people across the US and worldwide. All of a sudden, people who worked in offices are now working remotely. Your commute is nonexistent, leaving more time to sleep and less incentive to get up and moving as before - especially on a rainy day. 

Today’s investigators and prosecutors are very familiar with the extreme difficulty in child exploitation cases: getting through your forensic backlog to get to the data in time. Law enforcement officers routinely report that a lack of technology which, combined with stringent time limits, can severely restrict their ability to check devices in a timely manner. ADF understands that digital forensic examinations can be both costly and time-consuming, which hampers investigations into suspects that have downloaded or participated in Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM). 

Knowledge is power. At ADF, we strive to empower our users and prospective users by giving you easy access to free tutorials and knowledge base articles. We’ve received rave reviews for our short How To videos, so we wanted to share another way investigators can get support - the ADF Knowledge Base. 

How We Lead

Our mentality at ADF is that in order to grow as a company, and as human beings (who doesn’t want to get better?), everyone has to find ways to both lead and learn. ADF’s co-founders led the way by developing DOMEX and digital forensic triage tools 15 years ago.

Putting Victims First. That’s the message that Richard W. Brown, the CEO of Project VIC International impressed upon me when I had the opportunity to speak to him about how and why he helped found the non-profit organization which helps law enforcement agencies around the world fight child exploitation. 

The Child Abuse Image Database (CAID) is the United Kingdom’s national system used by law enforcement to help fight the growing problem of Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM). The system helps police detect, flag and analyse illegal digital media images. 

The inaugural conference for Virginia police, sheriffs, prosecutors, digital forensics investigators, and cybercrime specialists was held last week at James Madison University in Harrisonburg, VA. The first-ever CIIFER conference (which stands for Cyber-attacks, Internet Investigations, Forensic Analysis, and Electronic Records) featured training from industry professionals, university professors, and Commonwealth attorneys. 

Gina: Charissa, thank you for taking the time to chat with me. As a young female in business, your work ethic and drive have been an inspiration! What advice would you give to young women who want to succeed in the workplace?

Child pornography- more properly identified as Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM). It’s appalling that there is a need for a definition for this kind of material. U.S. Federal Law defines child pornography as any visual depiction of sexually explicit conduct involving a minor- meaning any person less than 18 years old. 

The numbers surrounding pornographic images of children, and the child abuse that creates it, are so staggering that it’s difficult not to be disheartened. According to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC), their cyber tipline received over 42.9 million reports by November 2018. NCMEC had also reviewed over 267 million images and videos, and identified over 15,800 victims of online child exploitation and abuse.

As communities search for new ways to employ wounded, injured, or ill special operations veterans, there's a new federal government program that offers hope. 

The program which provides financial support for communities seeking to further increase their effectiveness in the fight against child exploitation is run by the U.S. Department of Justice. Communities will benefit in two key ways: 

1. Employ wounded veterans paid for via federal grant money
2. Help communities fight the ever growing battle to stop child exploitation

ADF Solutions Releases New Digital Forensic Software to Power Field Investigations

Triage digital evidence with a single license for smartphones, tablets, and computers

ADF Solutions, the leading provider of automated forensic software for investigators and lab examiners, today announced new software versions for Digital Evidence Investigator^Ⓡ, Triage-Investigator^Ⓡ,  Triage-G2^Ⓡ, and Mobile Device Investigator^Ⓡ software.

ADF Solutions is proud to announce that we have joined forces with Carahsoft, the leading government IT Solutions provider as an authorized reseller of our products.

The Massachusetts Attorney General's Office (AGO) has announced the dates for the NCCC  2020 National Cyber Crime Conference (MASS.gov).

We could have just written a mission statement. Maybe we’d throw in some core values, and hit you with some motivational quotes from great thought leaders. We could have done that, but that’s not the ADF way. ADF is an innovator, so we took those ideas and went further. Meet our Culture Code: a living, breathing set of standards, principles, values, and goals that we put our hearts and souls into as a team, because we are #AllinForensics. 

Conferences are an excellent opportunity for like-minded individuals in a shared career to network, expand your knowledge, find solutions to problems, or to present your ideas and knowledge. Furthermore, they're a great opportunity for others to get to know you and your work. You also have the chance to learn outside of your field and area of work. We've compiled a list of the best forensics and law enforcement conferences in the UK for 2020. 

Triage- the word is normally associated with hospitals, where doctors and nurses prioritize patients’ treatments based on the severity of their condition. The concept has been around since the Napoleonic wars and is responsible for saving innumerable lives ever since.

While many of these events may be postponed or rescheduled due to the Coronavirus (COVID-19), annual conferences are great events for networking with thought leaders and your peers.  In addition, these law enforcement conferences can provide you with the opportunity to get timely, objective, relevant education from a variety of subject matter experts.  You can benefit from training, knowledge sharing, and from the camaraderie and time spent with professionals like you that have dedicated their careers to protect and serve.