HAIC Talk: Time and Place in Digital Forensic Science – with Matthew Sorell
September 25 @ 16:00 - 17:30
Lecture description: Everywhere you go, you leave your digital traces behind. Mobile and wearable devices, video, social media and pervasive sensors everywhere capture every breath you take, and every move you make.
Or so you think. In reality it’s rarely that simple.
Since 2022, my team at Digital Forensic Sciences Australia has been developing a new form of map visualisation when handling sparse time-location data. Instead of showing how a suspect can get from one place to another, we show where the suspect can reach. Our prototype is now used operationally in active missing persons investigations in Australia. The impact of our approach is profound. Whereas a conventional investigation will work outwards from the crime scene and inwards from an outer cordon, the reach map approach quickly narrows down the focus to what is possible. For the first time, defensible use can be made of negative results to exclude geographical options.
In this presentation, I’ll demonstrate the current capability of the prototype tool and show examples of the tool in practical use cases. I’ll discuss computational complexity and visualisation of real investigative problems linking locations and timelines into a coherent view of what is possible, and show the impact reach mapping can have on real-time investigation.
About the speaker: Dr Matthew Sorell joined the faculty of the School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering at the University of Adelaide in 2002, specialising in telecommunications and multimedia engineering. In 2016 he assisted South Australian Police in a murder investigation, the first case worldwide involving an Apple Watch and Apple Health Data. Dr Sorell is currently the sole court-recognised independent expert on mobile device and network evidence in Australia.
In 2022 he founded Digital Forensic Sciences Australia, a private company providing specialist digital forensic science services in Australia and internationally. Since 2017, he has been an invited member of the INTERPOL Digital Forensics Experts Group and in 2019 was appointed Scientific Advisor to FORMOBILE, an EU-funded project concerned with mobile phones as evidence from crime scene to court room.
Dr Sorell has led cybersecurity research and education collaboration between the University of Adelaide and the Tallinn University of Technology (TalTech), Estonia, since 2015. He was appointed Adjunct Professor of Digital Forensic Science at TaltTech in 2018 and in 2021 was appointed Honorary Consul of Estonia in South Australia.
Time: 25.9.2024 at 16:00 – 17:30 (coffee and buns served from 15:30). The lecture will be approximately 60 minutes, after which there will be time for questions.
Venue: Lumituuli auditorium, Dipoli, Aalto University (Otakaari 24, Espoo).
Registration: The event is open to all and free of charge but we ask you to register for the event as it helps us to estimate the number of coffee ordered. Please register at https://link.webropol.com/ep/HAIC-talk-with-Matthew-Sorel