DFRWS USA 2020 has gone Virtual!  Join us July 20-24 for a week of digital forensics research!  David Cowen and Mari DeGrazi will start Monday and Tuesday off with Keynotes.  Throughout the week we have 12 peer-reviewed papers, 8 presentations, 5 workshops, and 2 Birds of a Feather gatherings.

The World Famous Forensics Rodeo will be held as a 4 day long CTF starting after the conference on Monday, July 20 and ending mid-day Thursday, July 23.  But you’ll be on your own for drink tickets.  We’re adding a new social event Tuesday, July 21 — Pub Quiz after the successful launch at DFRWS EU 2020.

The Best Paper Award went to Rune Nordvik, Kyle Porter, Fergus Toolan, Stefan Axelsson, and Katrin Franke for their paper “Generic Metadata Time Carving”.  The Best Student Paper Award went to Syed Ali Qasim, Jared Smith, and Irfan Ahmed for their paper “Control Logic Forensics Framework using Built-in Decompiler of Engineering Software in Industrial Control Systems”.

Student Scholarships are available to any students in a Ph.D, Masters, or Bachelors program. Decisions are made on a case-by-case basis. To apply email usa-scholarship@dfrws.org.

DFRWS 2020 USA is being held in cooperation with ACM’s SIGSAC.

ACM In-Cooperation Logo

ACM SIGSAC logo

Conference Location:

On the Internet

usa@dfrws.org

July 20, 2020 to July 24, 2020

Keynotes

Everything I Know About Forensics, I Learned from Elle Woods

Mari DeGrazia | Associate Managing Director, Kroll Cyber Risk

@MariDeGrazia

Abstract: Forensics can be a challenging and sometimes overwhelming field. New operating systems, new devices and new techniques attackers leverage keep us busy. Luckily, there are a wide variety of people with a wide variety of skill sets that each bring something unique to the table. Join me as I take a journey through my forensics career and all the lessons I have learned including tips, tricks and growing pains I have encountered along the way.

Bio: Mari DeGrazia is an Associate Managing Director at Kroll Cyber Risk, which provides cyber security services on a global scale. Throughout her career, Mari has investigated high-profile breach cases, worked civil and criminal cases and provided testimony as an expert witness. She has written and released numerous programs/scripts to the forensics community; presented on her research at industry conferences; and is a published author in several magazines. She is also a SANS instructor where she loves sharing her knowledge with students. She holds several certifications in addition to earning a B.S. in Computer Science from Hawaii Pacific University.

Website: Another Forensics Blog

This is the Way

David Cowen | Managing Director, KPMG

@HECFBlog

Abstract: Keynotes are supposed to be about the bigger picture, so why should this one be any different. The world of DFIR is ever-changing and if there is one thing that the DFRWS community excels at, it is being at the forefront of those changes. In this talk I will share where I think new frontiers and opportunities within the DFIR world exist and how you can get there to leave your mark on DFIR.

Bio: David Cowen is a Managing Director at KPMG and has been performing digital forensics investigations since 1999. The author of multiple books, the long running Hacking Exposed Computer Forensics Blog and host of the Forensic Lunch/Test Kitchen David loves all things DFIR, Texas BBQ and Tacos. David Cowen is also a Certified SANS Instructor teaching the FOR500 Windows Forensics Class and currently co-authoring FOR509: Enterprise Cloud Incident Response.

Participation

We invite contributions in five categories: research papers, presentation proposals, panel proposals, workshop proposals, and demo proposals.

Round 1 for presentations and workshops submissions has closed.

Round 2 for submissions of Presentations and Workshops has closed!

RESEARCH PAPERS undergo double-blinded, peer review, and are published by Elsevier in a special issue of Digital Investigation.  Read the Submission Criteria for more information.  The Call for Papers was open until January 24, 2020 @ 2359 AOE.

PRESENTATIONS and WORKSHOPS undergo a light review process to select presentations of maximal interest to DFRWS attendees and filter out sales pitches. Presentations are of 20-minute duration and are delivered alongside academic papers in the main conference. Workshops occur before and after the main conference. These are intended as in-depth and practical learning opportunities for attendees and often include hands-on participation by attendees. Workshop proposals must specify their target length of either 2 or 4 hours. DFRWS will provide one free conference registration for each workshop accepted.

Submit presentation proposals as a PDF to usa-presentations@dfrws.org by March 15, 2020.

Submit workshops and tutorials as a PDF to usa-workshops@dfrws.org by March 15, 2020.

POSTERS and DEMOS are accepted through the first day of the conference, which is when the Poster and Demo session occurs. Poster authors have the option of having an abstract included in the printed proceedings. If you would like the poster published, then a PDF of the poster and the proposed abstract must be submitted via email to usa-posters@dfrws.org by March 15, 2020.  Demos and other posters can be submitted at any time to usa-demos@dfrws.org.

Student award and student scholarship program

DFRWS continues its outreach to students studying digital forensics. DFRWS and its sponsors will award one scholarship to the Best Student Paper awardee — it will include registration, 4 nights hotel at the conference hotel, and a monetary award of $595. One or more Student Travel Scholarships may be awarded to include registration and 4 nights at the conference hotel, depending on sponsorship funding each year. DFRWS will notify the recipient of the Best Student Research Paper award on or before the conference registration deadline. Other awards (e.g. industry-sponsored awards for research in specific topic areas) may be awarded after the registration deadline and are fully contingent on scholarship sponsorship by industry each year. Refer to the Registration Section for additional information on eligibility requirements, selection criteria, and award schedule and administration.

Topics of Interest

  • Memory analysis and snapshot acquisition
  • Storage forensics, including solid state
  • “Big data” forensics, related to the collection, analysis, and visualization
  • Incident response and live analysis
  • Forensics of cloud and virtualized environments
  • Malware and targeted attacks (analysis and attribution)
  • Network and distributed system forensics
  • Event reconstruction methods and tools
  • Mobile and embedded device forensics
  • Digital evidence storage and preservation
  • Data recovery and reconstruction
  • Multimedia analysis
  • Database forensics
  • Tool testing and development
  • Digital evidence and the law
  • Case studies and trend reports
  • Data hiding and discovery
  • Anti-forensics and anti-anti-forensics
  • Interpersonal communications and social network analysis
  • Non-traditional forensic scenarios and approaches (e.g. vehicles, Internet of Things, industrial control systems, and SCADA)
  • Archival preservation & reconstruction

The above list is only suggestive. We welcome new, original ideas from people in academia, industry, government, and law enforcement who are interested in sharing their results, knowledge, and experience. Authors are encouraged to demonstrate the applicability of their work to practical issues. Questions about submission topics can be sent via email to usa-papers@dfrws.org

Click Here For Proposal Requirements

Deadlines

DateEvent
January 24, 2020 Submission Deadline for Research Papers
March 6, 2020 Research Paper Acceptance Notifications
March 15, 2020 Submission Deadline for Presentations & Workshops
June 1, 2020 Round 2 Deadline for Presentations & Workshops
July 13, 2020 Poster and Demo Submission Deadline

Committees

Organizing Committee

Conference Chair

Josiah Dykstra, Ph.D. (National Security Agency)

Conference Vice Chair

Tim Vidas, Ph.D. (SecureWorks)

Program Co-Chair

Alex Nelson, Ph.D. (NIST)

Program Co-Chair

Xiaodong Lin, Ph.D. (University of Guelph)

Proceedings Chair

Vassil Roussev, Ph.D. (University of New Orleans)

Proceedings Vice Chair

Alex Nelson, Ph.D. (NIST)

Presentations and Industry Outreach Chair

Jessica Hyde (George Mason University / Magnet Forensics )

Workshop Chair

Joe Sylve, Ph.D. (BlackBag Technologies)

Workshop Vice Chair

Golden Richard III, Ph.D. (Louisiana State University)

Event Management/Production

Daryl Pfeif (Digital Forensics Solutions and DFRWS)

Keynotes

Matthew Geiger (Qintel)

Posters & Demos Chair

Frank Adelstein, Ph.D. (NFA Digital)

Forensic Rodeo Chair

Andrew White (Dell Secureworks)

Forensic Rodeo Vice Chair

Erika Noerenberg (Carbon Black)

Challenge

Eoghan Casey, Ph.D. (University of Lausanne)

Local Host

Denise Ferebee, Ph.D. (LeMoyne-Owen College)

Registration

Bradley Schatz, Ph.D. (Schatz Forensic)

Advertisement/Sponsorship

Daryl Pfeif (Digital Forensics Solutions and DFRWS)

Web Chair

Elizabeth Schweinsberg (Facebook)

Social Media

Scar de Courcier (Forensic Focus)

Secretary

Wietse Venema, Ph.D. (Google)

Volunteers Chair

Dave Loveall (FBI)

Works-in-Progress Chair

Nicole Beebe, Ph.D. (UTSA)

Awards Chair

Mark Guido (The MITRE Corporation)

At Large Member

Cory Hall (MITRE)

Technical Program Committee

Alex Nelson, Ph.D.

NIST

Xiaodong Lin, Ph.D.

University of Guelph

Frank Adelstein

NFA Digital

Irfan Ahmed

Virginia Commonwealth University

Aisha Ali-Gombe, Ph.D.

Towson University

Stefan Axelsson

Norwegian University of Science and Technology

Ibrahim Baggili

University of New Haven

David Baker

DFRWS

Manish Bhatt

University of New Orleans

Frank Breitinger

University of Lichtenstein

Florian Buchholz

James Madison University

Michael Cohen

Velocidex Enterprises

Ali Dehghantanha

University of Guelph

Josiah Dykstra, Ph.D.

National Security Agency

Simson Garfinkel, Ph.D.

U.S. Census Bureau

Matthew Geiger

Qintel

Paul Giura

AT&T Security Research Center

Mark Guido

The MITRE Corporation

Joshua James

Digital Forensic Investigation Research Laboratory, Hallym University

Andrea Lanzi

Universita` degli studi di Milano

Timothy Leschke, Ph.D.

Johns Hopkins University

David Lillis

University College Dublin

Zhiqiang Lin

The Ohio State University

David Loveall

FBI

Holger Morgenstern

Albstadt-Sigmaringen University

Erika Noerenberg

Carbon Black

Fernando Perez-Gonzalez

Universidad de Vigo

Gilbert Peterson

US Air Force Institute of Technology

Tu-Thach Quach

Sandia National Laboratories

Mark Scanlon, Ph.D.

University College Dublin

Bradley Schatz, Ph.D.

Schatz Forensic

Elizabeth Schweinsberg

Facebook

Jill Slay

La Trobe University

Christopher Stelly

University of New Orleans

Joe Sylve, Ph.D.

BlackBag Technologies

Wietse Venema, Ph.D.

Google

Andrew White

Dell Secureworks

Junyuan Zeng

The University of Texas at Dallas

Ziming Zhao

University at Buffalo

Tim Vidas, Ph.D.

SecureWorks

Registration

DFRWS USA 2020 registration includes access to all presentations, keynotes, workshops, and entrance to the famous rodeo challenge.

Because the conference is being held online, there is only 1 price, no matter when you register!  

Group discounts are available. If you have a group larger than four, please contact usa-registration@dfrws.org.

If you are a student in a Ph.D., Masters, or Bachelors degree program, you may qualify for a student grant covering part or all of your registration fee.  The decisions will be made by the organizing committee on a case-by-case basis considering your circumstances, provided evidence, objectives of the conference, and the available/remaining funds.  For more information, please contact usa-scholarship@dfrws.org.

Sponsors

Sponsors help DFRWS to produce quality events and foster community. Click a logo to learn more about the sponsor.

Information about sponsorship opportunities is available at: http://www.dfrws.org/sponsorship-opportunities

LeMoyne-Owen College

LeMoyne-Owen College is a liberal arts college which provides transformative experiences for students to prepare them for future professional endeavors. LOC is a launching pad for success, no matter where scholars are on their academic journey. In 2019, LOC was designated as a Center for Academic Excellence in Cyber Defense.

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Magnet Forensics

Community Leader
Magnet Forensics is a global leader in digital investigative technology and was built on a foundation of helping and empowerment. We help investigative teams find more evidence and empower them to uncover the truth. Our products are designed to leverage the latest technological innovations to help law enforcement, consultants, military, and private enterprise address these issues. We use AI, automation, advanced searching techniques, modern data visualization and more to help investigative teams find digital evidence and understand the story it is telling.

Learn More