PR83382

TYSONS CORNER, Virginia, Mar. 24, 2020 /PRNewswire=KYODO JBN/--

-- 2020 Annual Digital Intelligence Industry Benchmark Report Reveals Law

Enforcement Agencies Have a Growing Reliance on Data Analysis with 90 Percent

of Cases Involving Digital Devices & Cloud Applications

Cellebrite, the global leader in Digital Intelligence (DI) solutions for public

and private sectors, today published its Annual Digital Intelligence Industry

Benchmark Report (https://c212.net/c/link/?t=0&l=en&o=2757684-1&h=2046527185&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.cellebrite.com%2Fen%2Finsights%2Findustry-report&a=Annual+Industry+Benchmark+Report ) for 2020.

Revealing insights were collected from over 2,000 law enforcement

agency personnel, in over 110 countries to compile a report benchmarking the

industry's day-to-day challenges for agency management and investigative teams.

The report revealed seven major trends in digital intelligence, spotlighting

where law enforcement agencies have room to drive operational efficiencies and

standards for lawfully handling and securing digital data that is defensible in

the court of law.

"We are seeing an increasing trend with law enforcement, who are now leveraging

digital evidence to expedite case conclusions," said Yossi Carmil, Co-CEO of

Cellebrite. "Agency managers are focused on transforming their organizations by

implementing Digital Intelligence solutions. There is a need to empower

frontline responders in the field to access information that is critical to

reduce time to evidence."

The benchmark survey supports this fact. Seventy-five percent of investigators

report that gathering digital evidence at the scene of the crime is critical for investigations.

Carmil continued, "Additionally, managing the data to drive collaboration for

investigators and prosecution is pivotal to identify defensible data and for

justice to be fairly served."

The survey revealed valuable statistics and shared a road map for the future of

policing by highlighting the technologies that will decrease the data deluge as

well as the solutions that will expedite time-to-evidence. The seven key trends

Cellebrite's 2020 Annual DI Industry Benchmark Report spotlights are:

- Agencies Recognize the Growing Role of Digital Data but are Slow to Adapt

Digital data is proving to be more informative and crucial when solving

law enforcement cases than physical evidence. Cellebrite's survey shows

that 43 percent of agencies report either a poor or mediocre strategy

or no digital intelligence strategy at all. Yet, 64 percent of agency

management see digital investigations playing "a very high role" in

keeping communities safe. With more than 82 percent growth in the role

of digital data from devices compared to three years ago, the need for

a highly trained staff to be able to navigate and leverage vast

amounts of data has increased dramatically.

- Lack of Comfort Highlights Need for Faster Extraction in the Field

Digital evidence captured at the scene of a crime from witnesses and

victims with consent-based authorization often contains valuable

insights. However, the current means of capturing this digital

evidence presents a problem to investigative teams. The survey

revealed that over 70 percent of officers are still asking witnesses

and victims to surrender their devices so evidence can be extracted

at the station or in a lab. However, most people do not want to have

their primary communication device taken away for an indefinite period.

To combat this issue, 67 percent of agency management believe that

mobility technology is important or very important to the agency's

long-term digital evidence strategy and 72 percent of investigators

believe it is important to conduct in-the-field extractions of this data.

- Agency Managers Are Looking at Modernization Initiatives to Help

Attract A New Generation of Digital Savvy Officers

Eighty-four percent of agency management rate mobility technology

(i.e. Mobile First) as being important to their long-term digital

intelligence strategy. As the next generation of tech-savvy frontline

officers begins to leverage technology at crime scenes, a new level

of investigative effectiveness is becoming possible. Most agency

managers believe police forces that embrace mobile tech to collect

digital evidence in the field will help reduce turnover and be significantly

more prepared to meet the digital evidence challenges of 2020.

- Lab Examiners Are Drowning in Data & Device Overload

Cellebrite research shows the number of data sources continues to

grow for examiners. On average, each case has 2-4 mobile devices

that need to be examined, while 45 percent of cases will also involve

a computer examination. This means examiners typically conduct 26

mobile device examinations monthly, translating to 300+ annually per

agency. Smartphones continue to top the list of most frequent evidence

sources, but the variety of digital sources used in investigations is

increasing. Source such as CCTV, wearables, smart home technology, IoT

devices, drones, cars and even gaming systems, are being used by

criminals more frequently to mask illegal activity.

- Storing and Sharing Digital Evidence is A Key Concern of Agency Managers

Sixty-four percent say that governance and management of data are very

important. This is particularly important due to the large amounts of

data that need to be maintained. If the data is mismanaged, it can

quickly be misplaced in various locations like a thumb drive or

improper place on the server. Additionally, the data could be stored

in an employee's personal cloud account or storage device which

presents a serious issue if the staff is no longer employed.

- Budget and Overtime Constraints Limit Digital Investigation Efficiency

With the deluge of digital devices and cloud data sources, examiners

face an average 3-month backlog and an average backlog of 89 devices

per station. In order to address these backlogs, examiners

increasingly need to prioritize and only examine time-sensitive data,

or data from certain cases. Budget constraints mean working overtime

is no longer an option, as seen in the nearly 20 percent decrease in

overtime hour allowances in the last year. For this reason, the need

to prioritize digital intelligence analysis and management has risen

to 40 percent this year, in comparison to 25 percent last year. The

biggest challenges labs face continues to be locked devices and

encrypted apps; 6 out of 10 devices that reach the lab are locked.

- High Demand for Digital Data Analytics for Investigations

Investigators and examiners are facing challenges in managing the

explosion of digital data when paired with budget cuts and the

shortage of overtime allowances. Only 25 percent have adopted

digital analytic tools. While in the past mobile device storage was

limited to a few gigabytes, the new generation of devices has storage

reaching as high as 1TB. Despite the variety of digital sources and

the amount of digital data that typically need to be reviewed in an

investigation, most Law Enforcement agencies are using manual reviews

instead of applying AI-based solutions. This means, on average,

investigators spend 43 hours per week reviewing evidence and reporting

on it – up from 37 hours in the prior year.

In 2020 and beyond, investigations will need to utilize artificial intelligence

to sort through the mountains of incoming data, to automatically find and

filter specific objects in images, find keywords in text conversations and

create relationship analysis. Over 70 percent of survey respondents said that

these AI-enabled features will be very important.

Furthermore, with the various evidence sources, investigators will need the

ability to unify disparate data and view it easily and logically. In fact, 80

percent of investigators believe data unification is important, and 87 percent

believe viewing activities visually on a map is important.

For more information about Cellebrite and the 2020 Annual Industry Benchmark

Report, visit Benchmark results site (https://c212.net/c/link/?t=0&l=en&o=2757684-1&h=3582550349&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.cellebrite.com%2Fen%2Finsights%2Findustry-report&a=Benchmark+results+site ).

To learn more about how Cellebrite's Digital Intelligence solutions are helping

agencies transform, read the company's Digital Intelligence for Agency

Management (https://c212.net/c/link/?t=0&l=en&o=2757684-1&h=1812902544&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.cellebrite.com%2Fnewsroom&a=Digital+Intelligence+for+Agency+Management ).

About Cellebrite

Cellebrite is the global leader of Digital Intelligence solutions for the law

enforcement, government and enterprise organizations. Cellebrite delivers an

extensive suite of innovative software solutions, analytic tools, and training

designed to accelerate digital investigations and address the growing

complexity of handling crime and security challenges in the digital era.

Trusted by thousands of leading agencies and companies in more than 150

countries, Cellebrite is helping fulfill the joint mission of creating a safer

world. To learn more visit us at: www.cellebrite.com

Contact:

Olga Shmuklyer

SVP

Fusion PR

Mobile:+1-(917)-715-0329

Cellebrite@FusionPR.com;

Adam Jaffe

VP of Global Communications

Cellebrite

Mobile: +1-609-502-6889

Adam.Jaffe@cellebrite.com

SOURCE: Cellebrite