About This Workshop
This workshop provides a practical, legally grounded training track for European law-enforcement officers and DFRWS EU attendees who investigate technology-facilitated child sexual exploitation (CSE). Led by Project VIC International in collaboration with partners including MSAB, Child Rescue Coalition, Web-IQ, the Griffeye Team from Magnet Forensics, and the Swedish Police, the workshop combines foundational digital forensics with state-of-the-art online-investigation tradecraft anchored in EU legal and ethical frameworks.
Across two days (four 4-hour blocks), participants will learn to plan and document imaging, triage, and on-scene analysis in a manner suitable for court; apply hash-based intelligence (e.g., Project VIC and CRC data) to reduce exposure to CSAEM while accelerating triage; and normalize evidence into open standards such as the DFRWS sponsored CASE/UCO ontologies and the Project VIC Crimes Against Children Ontology to support cross-tool semantic analysis, provenance, and inter-agency collaboration.
Hands-on labs use synthetic, legally permissible datasets and prebuilt virtual environments to practice full workflows: acquisition and verification, intelligence-driven artifact review, structured online collection and evidentiary capture, and end-to-end case development from initial lead to victim-centric prioritization and prosecution support. No child exploitation material is used in this workshop.
Throughout, the workshop emphasizes necessity, proportionality, data minimization, auditability, and investigator wellness, with clear deference to each attendee’s national laws and agency SOPs. Participants will leave with concrete artifacts—checklists, SOP templates, CASE/UCO export examples, validation scripts, and a capstone brief-back—designed to be immediately reusable in their home agencies.
Learning Objectives
At the end of this workshop you will be able to:
- Have a clear understanding of the scope and scale of child exploitation activities worldwide (general view) and within the EU (detailed view) in 2026 and the opportunities for the digital forensics research community to innovate to help investigators, digital forensics examiners, and legal professionals be more effective and efficient, ultimately enabling stakeholders to find and rescue children from abusive and exploitive situations
- Plan and execute legally sound imaging, triage, and on-scene analysis for child sexual exploitation cases, documenting actions for court
- Apply Project VIC hash intelligence to efficiently identify known CSAM and reduce examiner exposure while preserving evidentiary integrity. Know how to enroll into the Project VIC hash intelligence ecosystem
- Normalize artifacts into open schemas (e.g., CASE/UCO, Project VIC CAC Ontology) to enable cross-tool semantic analysis, provenance, and inter-agency collaboration
- Conduct online investigations and operational workflows aligned with EU legal requirements (necessity, proportionality, data minimization, logging/auditability)
- Employ state-of-the-art platforms (e.g., Magnet Griffeye, MSAB, Web-IQ, Autopsy with updated CASE/UCO reporting) to surface leads, prioritize victims, and support suspect attribution in coordination with local and cross-border partners
Requirements
- Laptop capable of installing trial software
- Internet access required during workshop (high-speed)
- Large files will be distributed locally at the venue
Note: This is an extended 2-day workshop consisting of four 4-hour blocks. Please check the conference schedule for specific dates and times.
Workshop Partners
This workshop is presented by Project VIC International in collaboration with: