Mobile labs, big data and management in Forensic Science

One of the challenges in forensic science, is to receive results quickly after a crime happened. We will discuss in this blog three developments which help in speeding up the forensic investigation.

1. Mobile labs 
The development of labs on the crime scene is a challenging one. We can see several developments in DNA and chemistry to receive faster results after a crime has happened. Also in digital evidence we see several mobile solutions to collect the data from the crime scene. The lab-on-a-chip techniques are also contributing to faster results.

2. Big data
By using big data and analyzing the results from the past, it might be possible to have profiles of certain crimes. They can help to make a selection of techniques that work best for finding evidence at the crime scene. Since often over hundred traces are collected from the crime scene, a selection has to be made which should be analysed within 48 hours and other later.

3. Management of forensic labs
By using the right management of a forensic lab, the analysis might be conducted more efficient. Also backlogs should be prevented by using Service Level Agreements. Methods such as Lean Six Sigma can help, however most important is to spend time to the Human Resources and look that they are not overloaded with work also to maintain quality assurance as well.

The working group of ENFSI Forensic IT will have a meeting in London from 20-22 September 2016. This working group will be focussed on digital forensic science, and topics include mobile forensics, forensic data science, forensic big data platforms, chip forensics and analysis of location data.

Likelihood ratios, Digital Evidence and Big Data cloud systems, the paradox of security and forensic science

During the conference of Digital Forensic Research Workshop EU in Lausanne several topics were important. A wide range of new developments was published in the proceedings. During the keynote talks also attention was given to the issues with decryption of smart phones and several solutions were brought to attention, as well as the paradox that exists between security and digital evidence. Other solutions and issues were brought forward on collecting data from the cloud as digital evidence, as well as issues with time stamps that might occur.

A nice panel discussion on the different aspects of using Bayes and likelihood ratios provided different views on using it in digital evidence. Though one would not easily use this for dictionary attacks of passwords, it is used in interpretation of the evidence. The hypothesis of the defence and of the prosecutor should be clear however. And questions rise if the defence is able to provide a good hypothesis, since education and insights on different scenarios is needed. 

Also one topic of importance is that users of the reports should also understand the report and the conclusions drawn and interpret them correctly. In law systems with trained judged and prosecutors this might be easier then with a jury that is generally not trained in Bayes Theorem and the use of likelihood ratios. Some good guidelines of using this are provided by ENFSI.

March 2016

Enhanced support for Forensic Science

Mar 16, 2016

• 0 views
• 0 Likes
• 0 Comments

• Share on LinkedIn
• Share on Facebook
• Share on Twitter

It was good to see that in England and Wales Forensic Science is attracting more attention of government and that now steps are made to improve the system. Also the realization that we have to move from the lab to the crime scene with new mobile techniques to have "real time" results, will lead to changes in the system. However quality assurance remains vital in these new developments, and we see much progress is made with new standards.

Last month at the AAFS (American Academy of Forensic Sciences) it was good to see that the OSACs and the efforts on improving the quality of forensic science will be visible in new standards. Also the AAFS is a SDO for groups that were not handled by others. And moreover the standard will be freely available. During this meeting it was also good to see that the Brazilian Academy of Forensic Science, is now an affiliate member academy.

In the EU IAI meeting were I was at the Board of Directors meeting in Brussels, new developments were also seen. The meeting in October of the IAI at Interpol in Lyon will be very nice, and we will also handle digital evidence, face comparison and of course fingerprints during this fingerprints. The webinars also appear to be a great success.

And this month the DFRWS EU (Digital Forensic Research Workshop ) in Lausanne will be held, so we also see a very nice program here with many new developments and good workshops. 

Also at the NFI, I had followed a very nice course by Reinoud Stoel on context effects, which are really applicable in practice. So we try to prevent the context effects within our cases, and although it might take more time, it also is expected to improve the quality of our forensic examinations.

February 2016

This month I went to the AAFS www.aafs.org meeting in Las Vegas.  It was a very well attended meeting with over 4200 participants and 600 international.  There were many excellent papers presented and it is good to see the forensic science strengthening in the USA.  As Vice president I was elected to Treasurer. I also received the Carrie Morgan Whitcomb award.  Furthermore our section Digital and Multimedia Sciences organized several well attended workshop.  Also as Chair of the think tank we saw many new developments that have impact on forensic science ranging from designer drugs to the dark net and drones as well as new mobile analytical techniques that are available on the crime scene.  I presented two papers one on deep learning of video and one on video camera identification on social networks. Also I chaired the workshop on the leading edge of forensic science and gave a talk on digital and Multimedia services. The director of the NFI www.forensicinstitute.nl gave an excellent talk on reconnecting to forensic science and the plenary had much consensus on the near future.

It was an excellent network opportunity and I met many colleagues.

January 2016

This year looks very nice, with several new opportunities. The combination of casework and research projects is always challenging and bringing new solutions which can be used in casework. Current projects on biometric spoofing as well as on drone forensics give some new insights.

I look forward to the annual meeting of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences in February, where I am currently Vice President. Together with Laura Liptai and the Theoretical Forensic Science Committee of the Forensic Science Foundation, we prepared a workshop with new developments in forensic science that we expect might have impact in the next years. Furthermore, I am also chairman of the International Affairs Committee, and look forward to meet our international colleagues.  The major efforts of the OSACs to improve the standards of forensic science, are also important for the forensic community, and international collaboration remains important. Also within ENFSI (the European Network of Forensic Science Institutes) major efforts have been made on best practice guides.

Also the webinar for the European Division of the International Association of Identification will be presented next week, with more information on challenges in eforensics combined with emerging biometrics. 

The start was also good where I was one of the lectures on Digital Forensic in Complex Crime Scenes, for the MFS students of the University of Amsterdam. Also with lots of practical assignments. 

November 2015

This period was a learning experience, since I prepared an inaugural lecture on forensic data science, with the title evidence from big multimedia data. The lecture was at the University of Amsterdam for my special chair forensic data science, for 1 day a week. It was for me a very nice event, and my family, as well as many colleagues, friends and other attended it. I uploaded it also to my website

Also I am happy that the special issue big data and intelligent data analysis of the journal Digital Investigation, where Katrin Franke and I am guest editors is finished now, and it should be available soon. 

August 2015

 This month we worked for an update on the best practice manual for the ENFSI Forensic IT working group in London which will be soon out for public review on www.enfsi.eu . It is one of the actions to have more standards and validation of results in Digital Evidence. We can see some issues with digital evidence in this article with a case to that standard software from the shelf led to the conclusion in court that the word chloroform was retrieved 84 times instead of 1 and the software designer reported this error. So validation of the results and the interpretation of digital evidence remains important.

I also worked on some casework and had to testify in court. Currently also working on my inaugural lecture as professor in Amsterdam on forensic data science on 12 november 2015. As usual the deadlines of European projects is also at the end of the summer on 28 August, so currently on two of them related to big data as a participant.

The EAFS will be held in Prague and the Forensic IT working group which I am currently chairing will also meet for three days.