Hosting our first digital image forensics summit in the US was an extraordinary milestone for us here at CameraForensics, to hear success stories from our users, gather feedback on BigSearch, and learn about emerging AI threats.

Held in the heart of Nashville, Tennessee over three days, CameraForensics Connect 2024 brought together a wide range of innovators, investigators, and specialists dedicated to combating online child sexual abuse and exploitation.

Now, with the event at an end, we wanted to take the time to reflect on an incredible experience and shine a light on some of the key points raised.

Bringing together agencies and tech providers alike

One of the biggest takeaways from this year’s summit was the importance of collaboration. This includes collaboration between law enforcement and tech experts, and collaboration between multiple law enforcement investigators and agencies.

There are three core benefits of working together:

1. Investigators can learn new techniques and stay updated on the latest innovations that can make their research more efficient.
2. Tech developers can learn directly from users on the capabilities they wish they had, or the tools that they think could be improved.
3. Investigators can work with other law enforcement specialists, drawing on a bank of experience to unlock new intelligence.

At CameraForensics 2024, we were proud to create a platform where knowledge and expertise could be shared freely.

Many attendees left with a deeper understanding of our mission and tools, and it was a pleasure to see so many new partnerships being made.

As our Commercial Director Dave Ranner puts it:

“The biggest highlight for me was the willingness of so many dedicated people to give us their time and to pitch in to help us work out how we can do things better.”

Exciting BigSearch updates based on user feedback

A significant highlight was the discussion surrounding our BigSearch tool. At our last London-based user summit last year, users provided feedback on its ability to handle large volumes of data.

We took this feedback seriously, and have made several updates since then to improve its capabilities to process large amounts of data and supply results clearly.

Our latest summit gave us the perfect opportunity to check in with our users and gather their reactions to these changes. We’re more than proud to have received some great feedback, with positive responses confirming that we’re on the right track.

Reflecting on the key highlights

The summit wasn’t without some great highlights. While we can’t showcase every one of them, we wanted to round up a few below.

A focus on AI and emerging threats

AI-generated imagery was a topic that was front and centre in Nashville.

Adobe’s John Penn, and our very own Dr Shaunagh Downing, both presented some incredible presentations on the emerging threat of AI and how it’s currently being misused.

Illuminating and inspiring, both presentations highlighted the need for ongoing vigilance and adaptation in our strategies. These insights are crucial as we navigate the complexities of modern digital forensics.

Want to learn more? We recently sat down with Shaunagh and Fred to explore the latest generative AI news and threats.

Hearing some incredible success stories

One of the most rewarding aspects of the summit was hearing success stories from our users, and we wanted to say a special thanks to anyone who shared their experiences with us, including our partners at Canadian Centre for Child Protection, Amy Davey from Toronto Police and Ron Woodbine from the Western Australia Police Force.

These applications of our tools underscore the real-world impact of our work and reinforce the importance of continuously innovating and supporting our users.

A growing interest in CameraForensics Labs

There was also some keen interest in our new project: CF Labs. This is designed to draw connections from extensive sets of image and video intelligence enabling offline analysis of user data.

We can’t wait to share more about this new project as soon as possible, and if you’d like to be one of the first to learn more, why not subscribe to our monthly newsletter?

A special thanks to everyone who attended

We want to extend our heartfelt gratitude to everyone who attended, worked on, and participated in CameraForensics Connect 2024, with a big shoutout to our partners at Onemi-Global Solutions and Estrella Ventures.

From MagnetForensics’ Jad Saliba, who opened the summit with his keynote presentation, to Paul Griffiths for his invaluable contributions, each and every attendee helped make the US summit a memorable one, and we were delighted to see so many experts from across North America in attendance.

To be one of the first to learn more about our next event, why not join our mailing list?