Forensic Investigation | 16.12.20 | minute(s) reading time
AviaTor Project: the next phase

Cor Mulder

Marketing & Account Manager

The AviaTor Project, funded by the European Union’s Internal Security Fund – Police, aims to develop automation and intelligence tools to greatly reduce the time spent by LEAs on processing, assessing and prioritizing NCMEC reports. Recently, version 4.0 of the AviaTor tool was released. Highlights of this version are the addition of a hash matching plug-in, the integration of export functionality for investigations and the possibility to add investigation information to a report. If you want to know more about version 4.0, then keep on reading!

 

AviaTor has already facilitated fuzzy matching with PhotoDNA and fuzzy matching for videos. To enable AviaTor affiliates to match images in NCMEC reports with known material, a hash matching plug-in has been added to the tool. The plug-in calculates the MD5/SHA1 score for images and matches these with a hash set. The hash sets can be added and maintained in the AviaTor configuration application. What’s more, it’s now possible to include matches with certain hash sets in the priority calculation. This means that if, for example, an image matches a CSAM hash list, like the ICSE hash list or a local hash list, it gets a higher score and therefore higher priority. This functionality can also be used to find a batch of irrelevant material, by using for example a viral hash list to lower the priority.

 

Furthermore, it is now possible to export a given investigation as a ZIP file containing the original PDF, the original XML file, the uploaded files in subfolders per classification and an “unclassified” folder for uploaded files that have not yet been classified. This export is commonly used for sharing with local law enforcement teams for further investigation.

 

Another addition to the tool is the possibility to add investigation notes to a report. This is especially useful if, for instance, a report is exported and handed over to another authority. The investigation notes of the investigators that have already handled the report are included in the export. The findings and conclusions of preceding investigators can prove to be crucial in a next phase of the investigation. In addition, it prevents investigators from doing double research.

 

For the full list of additional features implemented in version 4.0 of the AviaTor tool, please read the release notes for version 4.0.

 

If you are a law enforcement agency representative who is interested in learning more about the AviaTor Project, then sign up for a demo! If you have any additional questions regarding the project, feel free to get in touch!

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