Our warmest congratulations to AI experts and fellow ACE Award winners, Qumodo, who are working with the Home Office CAID team to deliver the CAID Digital Media Examiner (DME) to UK police.
Like Cyan Forensics, Qumodo also aids CSE investigations, but with a different technology for a different part of the process.
Qumodo and Cyan Forensics Compared
| Qumodo | Cyan Forensics | |
|---|---|---|
| Product | DME | Cyan Examiner |
| Technology | AI based tools for image categorisation, and assisting in victim and suspect identification | Fast forensics triage to rapidly analyse seized devices |
| Best for | Previously unknown material | Known files |
| Speed | Fast | Very Fast |
Cyan Forensics’ rapid triage technology very quickly identifies devices of interest by detecting previously known material on the device. This can provide initial evidence within the custody window and minimise the number of devices that need to be seized.
Qumodo’s AI technology is used on seized devices to search for previously unknown material. The DME will process all images on a device and suggest likely classifications for review by an examiner. This will quickly surface CSEA content, reduce manual classification work, and minimise the time required to process the seized devices.
The DME is the first tool developed and integrated with CAID following a call to industry by the Home Office in 2018.
The call to industry from the Home Office had three parts:
- a fast-forensic algorithm to rapidly analyse seized devices and categorise against CAID
- a capability to automatically identify and categorise illegal imagery based on UK legislation of classification of A, B, C against the CAID trusted images
- a capability to detect images with matching scenes to help identify locations in common of indecent images of children
We look forward to more announcements from the Home Office about further measures to help tackle all forms of CSE, including the other requirements from the 2018 call.