Women in Forensic Computing 2023

Women in Forensic Computing Workshop and Bootcamp
held in in cooperation with DFRWS EU 2023 in Bonn, Germany on March 20, 2023

Scope

Digital forensic science is the application of scientific methods of computing in order to recover and investigate evidence found in digital devices, often in relation to computer crime. Digital evidence is increasingly important in almost all types of juridical proceedings, mainly due to the increasing volume and quality of digital evidence.

The objective of this workshop is to increase the interest of students and academically young researchers in digital forensic science as a career field or a research field. Another aim of this workshop is to increase awareness and appreciation of the achievements of women in the area of forensic computing/digital forensics and therefore this workshop wishes to be a forum to help women build their technical confidence and thereby attract more female researchers to the field. This workshop is aimed to introduce new people to the area. Talks will be technical but are aimed at novices in the area. The workshop is part of a workshop series that started in 2019.

The workshop will include a sequence of presentations by women that introduce some fundamental and current topics of the field and allow for first-hand hands-on experience. Attendees may also present own work in short presentations.

Event Updates:

  • February 27, 2023: We have currently 38 registered attendees and have awarded 9 travel scholarships. Please still consider participating in person or online and send your application today. The first 50 applications will receive a gift voucher for the WinFC webshop.
  • March 19,2023 (day before the event): 48 attendees have registered (40 female, 8 male), 30 will attend in person, 18 online. Strongest participating nations are Germany (22 attendees) and India, Sweden, UK, USA (3 each).
  • March 20, 2023 (event day): Due to unforeseen circumstances, we unfortunately have to cancel the hands-on part of the workshop. We have reorganized the program to add space for discussions and networking.
  • March 20, 2023 (post event): Thanks to everybody for participating and contributing to the success of the workshop! The (hybrid) group photograph shows some of the participants and looks only slightly redacted.

Some Post-Event Feedback Statements from Participants

„Thank you for giving more women the opportunity to know more about the digital forensics area.“

„A fantastic opportunity to network with Women in Forensics prior to the DFRWS Conference.“

„A very well executed and informative conference, that contributes to create a more diversified and productive digital forensics scene.“

Location

The workshop takes place at the following physical location:

Seminarraum 1 and 2 (not Hörsaal 3)
Hörsaalzentrum Campus Poppelsdorf
Friedrich-Hirzebruch-Allee 5
53115 Bonn, Germany

Directions on how to get there can be found in the DFRWS EU conference website.

Virtual participation will be possible via Zoom. The Zoom meeting ID will be sent to registered participants before the meeting.

Participation

Participation in the workshop is limited but it is free of charge and open to both male and female participants.

To participate, send a one-page letter describing your current affiliation, your research interests, why the workshop is interesting to you and whether you wish to participate in-person or online via email to <women-in-forensic-computing@lists.informatik.uni-erlangen.de> by February 6, 2023. Applications after that date are also possible but will be handled on a first-come first-serve basis. Please also consider to submit a presentation proposal and apply for a travel scholarship.

Participant Presentations

Participants of the workshop also have the opportunity to apply for a slot to present their current research or insights into the profession in the field of digital forensics in a 5-10-minute talk at the workshop. If you are interested, please send the title and an abstract of the presentation proposal together with the registration (see above) by February 6, 2023 (deadline has passed). There will be a lightweight selection process on presentations by the organizing committee. Presentations can be delivered on-site or online. Presentations should include one slide to motivate why digital forensics is an interesting field.

Travel Scholarship

We also offer several scholarships (sponsored by FAU) for female students who wish to participate in the workshop: The scholarship will cover part of your travel costs and the attendance fee for the DFRWS EU 2023 conference. For applicants from Europe, we support travel costs up to 500 EUR. For applicants from outside Europe, please give an estimate for the expected travel costs in your registration (see above) by February 6, 2023 (deadline has passed).

Preliminary Programme

Physical location: Seminarraum 1 + 2 (not Hörsaal 3), Hörsaalzentrum Campus Poppelsdorf, Friedrich-Hirzebruch-Allee 5, 53115 Bonn, Germany

Monday, March 20, 2023

9:30 Arrival and coffee

9:45 Welcome by the organizers

10:00 Round of individual introduction by attendees

10:20 Invited talk 1: Margarita Louca (Europol): #a_conventional_career_not (online presentation, talk by Antje Raab-Düsterhoft moved to 16:00) [slides]

11:15 Coffee break

12:00 Participant presentations (20-minute slots for presentation and discussion)

  • Dominique Calder (George Mason University, USA): Building and Decaying a File Corpus for Sub-Sector Analysis and Evidence Correlation
  • Funmilola Fagbola (University of Pretoria, South Africa): Towards a Digital Forensic Readiness Framework for Shadow IoT Devices in Vehicle to Everything Communication Networks [slides]
  • Céline Vanini (University of Lausanne, Switzerland): A Discussion of Quality/Reliability of Events for Timelines [slides]

13:00 Lunch break

14:00 Invited talk 3: Mariya Shafat (University of Kashmir, India): IoT Forensics – Navigating Current Trends and Charting Future Directions

14:50 Invited talk 4: Amber Schroader (Paraben Corporation): Smartphones – The Path Forward (online presentation)

15:40 Coffee break

16:10 Invited talk 2: Antje Raab-Düsterhöft (Wismar University of Applied Sciences, Germany): Introduction into Database Forensics – Issues to be solved [slides]

17:00 Lightning talks

17:50 Group Photo

18:00 Workshop ends

19:00 Social event in downtown Bonn

The hands-on session Breaking and Analyzing Microsoft (In)Active Directory, organized by Svenja Mischur (HJP Consulting GmbH, Germany) and Theresa Müller (aroundsec, Germany), had to be canceled due to unforeseen circumstances.

Organizing Committee

The workshop is jointly organized by the following people:

  • Felix Freiling, FAU, Germany
  • Katerina Kanta, UCD, Ireland
  • Yasin Köse, FAU, Germany
  • Daryl Pfeif, Founding Member – Cyber Sleuth Science Lab, DFRWS, Digital Forensics Solutions
  • Svenja Mischur, HJP Consulting GmbH, Germany
  • Mamoqenelo Morolong, Botho University – Maseru Campus and Namibia University of Science and Technology
  • Theresa Müller, aroundsec, Germany
  • Maike Raphael, Leibniz University Hannover, Germany
  • Sophia Seubert
  • Mariya Shafat, University of Kashmir, India
  • Radina Stoykova, Universität Groningen, The Netherlands
  • Lena Voigt, FAU, Germany

Artwork and T-Shirt

Feel free to use the workshop logo in any way that spreads the word about this workshop.

You may also visit the workshop webshop to order the official workshop t-shirt and other merchandise.

Contact

Contact the organizers via email at <women-in-forensic-computing@lists.cs.fau.de>

Thanks

This workshop series is supported by the office of Gender and Diversity of Friedrich-Alexander-Universität (FAU) and by Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) as part of the Research and Training Group 2475 „Cybercrime and Forensic Computing“ (grant number 393541319/GRK2475/1-2019).