We are excited to announce the 2nd Digital Forensics Doctoral Symposium (DFDS), organized by DFRWS EU. This symposium provides a unique platform for doctoral students to share their (early-stage) research, engage in discussions with peers, and build connections within the digital forensics’ community.

The Doctoral Symposium is co-located with DFRWS EU 2026, taking place 24th-27th March 2026. By co-locating DFDS with DFRWS EU, participants also gain the opportunity to attend the main conference, interact with leading experts in the field, and benefit from a rich exchange of ideas. We invite doctoral students to join us for this enriching experience.

Conference Location:

Co-located with DFRWS EU 2026, which takes places 24th-27th March 2026, DFDS will take place on the 24th March.

The event is organized in cooperation with Linköping University and Digital Forensics Sweden.

Linköping, Sweden

March 24, 2026 to March 27, 2026

Participation

Topics of Interest

The Doctoral Symposium is open to fresh insights that challenge the current boundaries of digital forensics. The submissions can cover a broad range of topics related to digital forensics, including, but not limited to:

  • Anti-forensics and counter-anti-forensics
  • AI-assisted digital forensics
  • Case studies and trend reports
  • Cloud and virtualized environment forensics
  • Covert channels (e.g. TOR, VPN)
  • Cryptocurrency investigation
  • Development of digital forensic infrastructures
  • Digital evidence sharing and exchange
  • Digital evidence and the law
  • Digital forensic analysis of AI models
  • Digital forensic preparedness / readiness
  • Digital investigation case management
  • Digital forensic tool validation
  • Digital forensic triage / survey
  • Event reconstruction methods and tools
  • Forensics analysis and visualization of Big Data
  • Forensic analysis of anonymous networks
  • Forensic analysis of databases
  • Implanted medical devices
  • Incident response on malware and targeted attacks
  • Machine learning and data mining for digital evidence extraction/query
  • Memory acquisition and analysis
  • Methodology for digital forensic processes
  • Mobile and embedded device forensics
  • Multimedia (image, audio, video) data analysis
  • Network and distributed system forensics
  • Non-traditional forensic scenarios / contexts
  • SCADA / industrial control systems
  • Smart power grid forensics
  • Steganography and steganalysis
  • Smart building forensics
  • Vehicle forensics (e.g., drones, cars)
  • Visualization methods and tools for forensic analysis

Submission Information

The Doctoral Symposium invites contributions in the form of Short Research Papers typically 6 pages in length, with up to 8 pages tolerated in exceptional circumstances (excluding references). They must be original contributions, must not be under simultaneous publication review elsewhere, the lead author must be a student, and must align with the topics of interest of the symposium. Survey/literature review papers are not suitable for publication at DFDS.

Papers must be written in English, blinded, and must not exceed 8 single-spaced, two-column pages. This page limit does NOT include references and appendix, although references and appendix should be limited to one page to the extent possible (= 9 pages in total). Papers must be submitted as PDF files. The preferred reference style is Harvard. Please use the ACM LaTeX sigconf proceedings template for your article. Fonts used in the template cannot be substituted; margin adjustments are not allowed.

All submissions undergo an initial screening by the TPC Chair(s) ensuring relevance to the event and compliance with the submission criteria. Once approved, submissions will undergo a “double-blind” review process, therefore, the version submitted for review must not contain the names or affiliations of the authors and should anonymize content that readily identifies the authors, such as references to tools developed by the authors. When referring to their own previous work, authors should use the third person instead of the first person (i.e., “Smith and Jones [2] previously determined…” instead of “We [2] previously determined…”). Please note that the Doctoral Symposium submissions will undergo a separate review process (and be published in a separate proceedings) compared to the full papers of the main DFRWS EU conference.

All contributions must be submitted to the Digital Forensics Doctoral Symposium track through the EasyChair site at https://easychair.org/my/conference?conf=dfrwseu2026.

Articles will be published with ACM as DFDS ’26: Proceedings of the Digital Forensics Doctoral Symposium. Please note that the publication is subject to an ACM Open Access Fee. For institutions participating in ACM Open the publication is free of charge.

At least one full DFRWS EU registration per paper is required before submitting the camera-ready version, i.e., before the camera-ready submission deadline. Please note, this DFRWS EU registration is separate to any ACM ICPS publishing charge (should it apply). Authors MUST present their work in person at the symposium.

For questions related to the doctoral symposium, please send an email to: janine.schneider (at) dfrws (dot) org

Previous Submissions

Previous submissions can be found at https://dl.acm.org/doi/proceedings/10.1145/3712716, providing examples of the paper format and previously accepted topics.

Click Here For Proposal Requirements

Deadlines

Date Event
October 31, 2025 Full papers: Submission of Abstract & Title via EasyChair
November 7, 2025 Full papers: Final submission via EasyChair
December 12, 2025 Acceptance notification

Committees

Organizing Committee

Symposium Chair

Ricardo J. Rodríguez, Ph.D. (University of Zaragoza)

Symposium Co-Chair

Aikaterini Kanta, Ph.D. (University of Portsmouth)

TPC Chair

Janine Schneider, Ph.D (University of Augsburg)

TPC Co-Chair

Frank Breitinger, Ph.D (University of Augsburg)

Proceedings Chair

Mark Scanlon, Ph.D. (University College Dublin)

Proceedings Co-Chair

Áine MacDermott, Ph.D. (Liverpool John Moores University)

Web Chair

Matthew Thomson (Edinburgh Napier University)

Promotions Chair

Silvia Lucia Sanna (University of Cagliari)

Peer Discussions Chair

Céline Vanini (University of Lausanne)

Technical Program Committee

Frank Adelstein, Ph.D.

NFA Digital, LLC

Edita Bajramovic, Ph.D.

Siemens Energy

Frank Breitinger, Ph.D.

University of Augsburg

Milan Čermák, Ph.D.

Masaryk University

Virginia Franqueira

University of Kent

Chris Hargreaves, Ph.D.

University of Oxford

Aikaterini Kanta, Ph.D.

University of Portsmouth

Martin Lambertz

Fraunhofer FKIE

Sean McKeown, Ph.D.

Edinburgh Napier University

Jan Pluskal, Ph.D.

Brno University of Technology

Ricardo J. Rodríguez, Ph.D.

Universidad de Zaragoza

Jens-Petter Sandvik

Norwegian University of Science and Technology

Asanka Sayakkara

University of Colombo

Janine Schneider, Ph.D.

University of Augsburg

John Sheppard, Ph.D.

South East Technological University

Hannes Spichiger

Hochschule Luzern HSLU

Harm Van Beek, Ph.D.

Netherlands Forensic Institute

Wietse Venema, Ph.D.

Google

Jenny Ottmann

Femi Fasunlade

University of Portsmouth

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

Forensic Focus

Forensic Focus is the web's leading digital forensics portal for computer forensics and eDiscovery professionals. Founded in July 2002, the site quickly developed a reputation for encouraging open discussion and information sharing in support of best practice development within the digital forensics industry. Although perhaps best known for its busy forums, Forensic Focus also offers breaking industry news, a worldwide directory of computer forensics education courses, interviews with industry thought leaders, job vacancy listings, a growing articles section and a monthly email newsletter with over 16,000 subscribers. For those looking to expand their professional network, Forensic Focus runs LinkedIn's largest digital forensics group.

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