The third annual DFRWS APAC 2023 Conference will be held 17-20 October 2023, as an in-person conference (pandemic permitting) run concurrently with attendees participating in both Singapore and Hong Kong.
We invite original contributions in the form of research papers, non-research presentations, demos, and posters in topic areas related to Digital Evidence and Digital Forensics.

Conference Location:
The DFRWS APAC 2023 conference will be held at 2 locations: Suntec City and Marina Bay Sands (Singapore Locations) & Cyber Range, 8/F, Arsenal House, Police Headquarters, 1 Arsenal Street, Wanchai (Hong Kong Location)
October 17, 2023 to October 20, 2023
Accommodation
DFRWS-APAC Teams With GovWare on Room Rates
You are encouraged to book your own accommodation for Singapore Location.
NOTE: The rate mentioned doesn’t include Friday night

Keynotes
Reverse Engineering Hardware
Bunnie Huang | Studio KosagiHardware reverse engineering is fundamentally a metrology problem, assisted by human intelligence sources. On the one hand, any system can be decomposed with sufficiently powerful microscopy and enough resources. On the other hand, no metrology is required if the design sources can be obtained through human intelligence measures. Practical reverse engineering is always a blend of the two. This talk gives an overview of some of the historical techniques for practical reverse engineering, then pivoting into the challenges of reverse engineering today's ever more complicated and obfuscated hardware ecosystems.
Keynote: Streamlining Digital Forensics
Tuan Liang LIM | HTXAbstract:With the convergence of services across device form factors, platforms and operating systems, it is becoming increasingly important to have a streamlined approach to digital forensics. The ecosystems built by Apple, Google, Microsoft, and others allow for user data to be synced across all devices, making it easier but also more difficult at the same time for digital forensic examiners to access and analyse data. The presentation will explore the challenges of digital forensics in this new landscape, alongside the growing volume of data, and how a streamlined approach can improve efficiency and effectively manage the increased volume. Attendees will learn about the benefits of automation, standardisation, and collaboration in digital forensics and how to implement these strategies to help alleviate the strain on digital forensics teams. The presentation will also share how HTX intends to support investigations across different devices and platforms, while keeping things simple. Overall, attendees will gain a deeper understanding of the importance of streamlining digital forensics and how it can lead to quicker results, and a higher probability of successful investigation outcomes.





Future Challenges in Digital Forensics and Cybercrime Investigations from a Prosecutor's Perspective
Thomas Goger | Deputy Director of the Bavarian Central Office for the Prosecution of CybercrimeThis presentation will explore the complex interplay between forensic science and evolving technology from a prosecutor's perspective. The speaker will highlight the profound opportunities and significant challenges presented by advances such as digital forensics, machine learning and artificial intelligence. The presentation will explore the impact of such technologies on evidence gathering, courtroom proceedings and jury perceptions. It will also address issues of privacy, the veracity of digitally-derived evidence, and the potential for technological bias. Finally, the presentation will highlight the need for legal professionals to gain a broader understanding of these technological tools in order to ensure justice while mitigating risk.
Participation
DFRWS APAC invites contributions in the categories listed below and follow the submission guidelines (https://dfrws.org/submission-
FULL RESEARCH PAPERS that align with the topics of interest undergo double-blinded peer review, and the proceedings are published by Elsevier (10 pages, blinded).
PRESENTATIONS / DEMOS require a brief proposal (~500 words; not a paper) and undergo a light review process. Accepted proposals will be given a presentation slot (~15min) during the conference.
POSTERS / DEMOS allow for the presentation of current research efforts and the discussion of preliminary results with the Digital Forensics Community during a dedicated poster session.
WORKSHOPS can be 2 to 4 hours (please indicate) and ideally include hands-on participation by attendees, allowing for an in-depth, detailed exploration of tools and techniques of interest to DFRWS attendees. DFRWS will provide one free conference registration for each workshop accepted.
Birds of the Feather are informal gatherings and discussions of a specific topic without a pre-planned agenda. You may propose a topic that you feel is of interest to the community.
PRESENTATION DELIVERY MODE
All presentations must be delivered in-person, either from the primary conference venue in Singapore or the secondary venue in Hong Kong. Delivery remotely may be accepted by the organizing committee in exceptional circumstances, at the discretion of the organising committee.
SUBMISSION INFORMATION
We ask you to submit all contributions via EasyChair (select the appropriate track during submission). Please make sure to follow the submission criteria (https://dfrws.org/submission-criteria/) on the website. Organizers may reject work that does not follow the listed criteria.
Easychair: https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=dfrwsapac2023
Contact Information
For questions relating any kind of submissions contact the corresponding chair or send an email to: apac[at] dfrws [dot] org
Student Scholarship and Award Program
DFRWS encourages the active participation of students studying digital forensics. One or more Student Scholarships are made available for students to present their accepted research papers for each event.
Scholarships are awarded on a first come first serve basis, depending on financial need and sponsorship funding available each year. Exact award amounts will vary, but usually cover registration expenses at a minimum.
Please apply using the Google form below.
Topics of Interest
DFRWS welcomes new perspectives that push the envelope of what is currently possible in digital forensics. Potential topics (alphabetical) to be addressed by submissions include, but are not limited to:
- Anti-forensics and anti-anti-forensics
- Artificial intelligence-assisted digital forensics
- Case studies and trend reports
- Copyright infringement response
- Cryptocurrency investigation
- Data decoding, deserialization and decryption
- Deleted/Damaged data recovery methods and tools
- Development of digital forensic infrastructures
- Digital evidence sharing and exchange
- Digital forensic preparedness / readiness
- Digital forensic tool validation
- Digital forensics in smart cities
- Digital investigation case management
- Event reconstruction methods and tools
- Forensic analysis of anonymous network based activities
- Forensic analysis of cloud and virtualized environments
- Forensic analysis of cloud-based services
- Forensic analysis of databases
- Forensic exploration of newly emerging devices, OSes, apps and services
- Incident response on malware and targeted attacks
- Laws and policies for digital evidence
- Machine learning and data mining for digital forensics
- Memory acquisition and analysis
- Methodological frameworks for digital forensic activities
- Mobile and embedded device forensics
- Multimedia (image, audio, video) data analysis
- Multi-source data integration and correlation analysis
- Network and distributed system forensics
- Non-traditional forensic scenarios / contexts
- Steganography and steganalysis
- Vehicle forensics (e.g., drones, cars, vessels)
- Visualization methods and tools for forensic analysis
Deadlines
Date | Event |
---|---|
March 17, 2023 | Call for papers announced |
May 15, 2023 | Full papers: Submission via EasyChair |
June 28, 2023 | Full papers: Acceptance notification |
June 30, 2023 | Workshops : Submission via EasyChair |
July 10, 2023 | Full papers: Camera-ready submission |
July 14, 2023 | Workshops: Acceptance notification |
July 31, 2023 | Presentations: Submission via EasyChair |
August 14, 2023 | Presentations: Acceptance notification |
September 15, 2023 | Posters: Submission via EasyChair |
September 22, 2023 | Posters: Acceptance notification |
October 17, 2023 | Conference date (Hong Kong & Singapore) |
Committees
Organizing Committee
Academic Outreach
Manoranjan Mohanty (University of Technology Sydney)
General Chair
Dr Matthew Sorell (University of Adelaide)
Commercial Outreach
Sylvain Hirsch (Mandiant)
Conference Vice Chair (Hong Kong)
Prof KP Chow (University of Hong Kong)
Conference Vice Chair (Singapore)
Prof KY Lam (Nanyang Technological University)
Singapore Local Chair
Dr Tan Teck Boon (Nanyang Technological University)
COO
Daryl Pfeif (Digital Forensics Solutions)
Emeritus Chair
Dr Bradley Schatz (Apple)
Keynote Chair
Dr Hans Henseler (University of Applied Sciences Leiden and Netherlands Forensic Institute)
TPC Chair
Jungheum Park (Korea University)
TPC Co-Chair
Prof SM Yiu (University of Hong Kong)
Poster Chair
Dr Nilay Mistry & Dr Dinil Divikaran
Presentation Chair
Dr Raymond Chan (Singapore Institute of Technology) & Dr Darren Quick
Production
Daryl Pfeif (Digital Forensics Solutions)
Project Manager
Dr Richard Matthews (RHEM Labs)
Proceedings Chair
Saed Alrabee (United Arab Emirates University)
Proceedings Co-Chair
Andrew Marrington (Zayed University)
Quality Assurance
Dr Frank Breitinger (University of Lausanne, CH)
Rodeo Chair
Dr Raymond Chan (Singapore Institute of Technology)
Secretary (Ex officio)
Frank Adelstein (NFA Digital)
Web & Social Media Chair
Yogesh Khatri (CyberCX)
Web & Social Media Co-Chair
Bhargav Rathod (Salesforce)
Workshop Chair
Manoranjan Mohanty (University of Technology Sydney)
Workshop Co-Chair
Asanka Sayakkara (University of Colombo)
Technical Program Committee
Andrew Marrington
Zayed University
Andrew Case
Volaitility
Asanka Sayakkara
University of Colombo
Bradley Schatz
Apple
Bruce Nikkel
UBS AG
Changhoon Lee
Seoul National University of Science and Technology
Ching-Bon Chan
Singapore Institute of Technology
Christian Riess
Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg
David Billard
University of Applied Sciences in Geneva
Dohyun Kim
Catholic University of Pusan
Doowon Jeong
Dongguk University
Felix Freiling
Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg
Frank Breitinger
University of Lausanne
Frank Adelstein
DFRWS
Gibum Kim
Sungkyunkwan University
Goh Weihan
Singapore Institute of Technology
Guo Lili
Institute of Forensic Science Ministry of Public Security P.R.C
Hans Henseler
Leiden University of Applied Sciences
Harald Baier
Universität der Bundeswehr München, Research Instiute CODE
Irfan Ahmed
Virginia Commonwealth University
Jan-Niclas Hilgert
Fraunhofer FKIE
Jewan Bang
Korean National Police Agency
John Sheppard
Waterford Institute of Technology
Jongsung Kim
Kookmin University
KP Chow
University of Hong Kong
KY Lam
Nanyang Technological University
Kyounggon Kim
Naif Arab University for Security Sciences
Luke Jennings
University of Adelaide
Manoranjan Mohanty
University of Technology Sydney
Mark Scanlon
University College Dublin
Matthew Sorell
Tallinn University of Technology
Min Yu
Institute of Information Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences
Nhien-An Le-Khac
University College Dublin
Ondrej Rysavy
Brno University of Technology
Patrick De-Smet
Nationaal Instituut voor Criminalistiek en Criminologie
Peng Liu
Pennsylvania State University
Richard Matthews
University of Adelaide
Richard Overill
King's College London
Rune Nordvik
Norwegian University of Science and Technology
Saed Alrabaee
United Arab Emirates University
Taeshik Shon
Ajou University
Vivek Balachandran
Singapore Institute of Technology
Wietse Venema
DFRWS
Yong Guan
Iowa State University
Zeno Geradts
Netherlands Forensic Institute
Registration
Early Bird Discount Code: EarlyBird!
$100 off In-Person Tickets until September 14th, 2023
In Person Conference Prices
Type of Registration | Early Bird Rate | Regular Rate | Last Chance Rate |
---|---|---|---|
Available through... | September 14, 2023 | ||
Full | $595 | $695 | |
Law Enforcement | $495 | $595 | |
Student | $395 | $495 |
Virtual Conference Prices
Type of Registration | Triple - All 3 Conferences | Double - Any 2 Conferences | Single - Just DFRWS APAC 2023 |
---|---|---|---|
Virtual | $150 |