Introduction
Prior to attending this conference, I was still a student concerned about facing the professional world. Despite the reputation digital forensics holds in the technology industry. There were a number of questions regarding the social responsibility and experience that comes along with my education. How could I incorporate the knowledge I obtain from college to a unique and marketable solution for potential employers? How do I rely on myself to stay updated and well-connected with the ever changing field of technology?
Enfuse 2018 Keynote: Insights on Artificial Intelligence by CEO of OpenText
Source: https://www.channelpartnersonline.com/files/2018/05/Enfuse1-800×534.jpg
CEO Mark Barrenechea’s Keynote speech was quite an eyeopener in developing my understanding of the Digital Transformation. Mr. Barrenechea highlighted how the merger of information and algorithms can give actionable insights for predictive analysis. He expanded on this by stating the importance of artificial intelligence playing a key role. Artificial intelligence was described as a powerful tool, involving the use of machines to augment decision making. With that being said, it’s only at the rudimentary level to the concept of predictive analysis in a 3-layer hierarchy, including machine learning and deep learning. These all serve individual use cases to different kinds of solutions, such as in finance, retail and healthcare.
Source: Barrenechea, M. ‘Intelligent and Connected Enterprises’. Opentext, 2018
This keynote speech had reminded me of a time when a data analytics student, named Frederick Bussler. He had suggested that A.I. could be applicable to any field including digital forensics. Unfortunately to a young student of the field like me, adding A.I. to digital investigations was something students regarded as impractical with our current technology. I just couldn’t wrap my head around it. But listening to Mr. Barrenechea had sparked my interest. I wanted to hear more.
Enfuse 2018 Session: How Artificial Intelligence is Becoming a Crucial Tool for Next Generation Law Enforcement
As a result, I placed myself in a subsequent session that expanded upon this application. Digital forensics is traditionally interpreted as an ‘after the fact’ response measure that can assist the law enforcement in solving cases. On the contrary, my perception had slightly changed after being introduced to the practice of ‘proactive policing’. With the rising number cases over time, identifying particular pieces of evidence among multiple suspects has become more difficult. It was explained that artificial intelligence can assist investigations with not only having a faster method of narrowing down suspects and inculpatory evidence, but also be used to predict crimes before they actually happen – using open-source intelligence and other data like hot topic tweets and crime rates of geographic locations.
It was also suggested that this is being used today in automated operations, such as fraud detection. This was demonstrated using Opentext’s new AI analytics platform – Magellan. It is memorizing to see their live demonstration, inputting a lengthy line of text from a news article into the platform and reducing it to a calculated actionable insight that could be understood. Without having to read the article, Magellan had helped interpret the case.
Source: https://www.opentext.com/file_source/OpenText/en_US/PDF/opentext-magellan-solution-overview.pdf
Conclusion
The EnFuse conference has been a great opportunity for me to network, learn and grow in my education. It has acted as a means to answer my individual questions, as well as reassure a bright future. I believe this conference is an invaluable experience to anybody interested in the field of technology. A single attendance can enlighten students, reinforcing their knowledge from college with holistic insights, inspired by a gathering of experts with vision. I hope that more upcoming students look forward to attending this conference in the future.
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