Advancing the intersection of Artificial Intelligence and Digital Forensics

• Applicants: Professor Dr.-Ing. Frank Breitinger; Professorin Dr. Rebekah Overdorf, Ph.D.
• Subject Area: Security and Dependability, Operating-, Communication- and Distributed Systems ; Methods in Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning
• Term: since 2025
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 562510291

Problem description: Digital forensic (DF) laboratories have a massive backlog of cases due to increased complexity and larger amounts of data. While other domains have included AI in their processes, The DF community has not effectively incorporated AI and ML into its practices (sub-project B "AI for forensics"). Specifically, it remains unclear which challenges can be addressed (and which ones cannot) as there are ethical and legal implications. On the other hand, AI can frequently be found at crime scenes (e.g., autonomous vehicles) but the community is not well prepared and lacks expertise in analyzing AI-related crime scenes (sub-project A: Forensics on AI). Goals: The goal of this project is to advance the status quo by (objective 2) evaluating the integration of AI in digital forensics and providing guidelines for their ethical and effective utilization, i.e., how can the community benefit from AI and what are the implications. In addition, this project also (O1) systematically explores the ways in which AI systems can be manipulated and develops the means to detect and attribute such manipulations. This project pushes into a relatively unexplored niche that has received little attention. There are currently few applications or techniques for studying AI in digital forensics. Its use, on the other hand, is limited to a handful of subfields.Project description: In our research approach and implementation, we will employ an exploratory methodology that includes several key phases, including data analysis, ethical framework development, algorithm creation, testing, and policy formulation. This multi-faceted strategy will be complemented by discussions with local law enforcement and practitioners to ensure a balance of theoretical advances and practical implications. Our overarching goal is to strengthen the synergy between AI and digital forensics (DF) to accelerate investigative processes and ultimately eliminate and reduce backlogs in forensic laboratories.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants