SOLVE-IT Origins
An article from Eoghan Casey discussing the origins and potential of the SOLVE-IT knowledge base.
# SOLVE-IT Origins
SOLVE-IT provides a navigable map of the rapidly evolving terrain of digital forensics to help people find knowledge and solutions they need faster, and identify gaps they can fill with R\&D. SOLVE-IT bridges the gap between research and practice — making academic findings visible and directly linked to the specific techniques practitioners actually use. Practitioners use SOLVE-IT to find relevant work they can use in case work and reference in expert reports. Researchers use SOLVE-IT to make it easier for people to apply their solutions in practice.
Another motivation for SOLVE-IT was a recognition that digital forensics faces a growing quality crisis. Missed, mishandled, and misinterpreted digital evidence can lead to evidence being dismissed in court, scarce investigative resources being wasted, and broader erosion of trust in digital forensic results. To address this problem, SOLVE-IT formalizes systematic approaches to error mitigation, bolstering quality assurance programs and setting requirements for independent verification and validation of tools. Use of, and outputs from, SOLVE-IT supports compliance with ISO/IEC 17025 accreditation and regional requirements for performing digital forensics.
Learning from the successes and failures of past efforts, SOLVE-IT is:
- Open to all, overcoming the limitation of past digital forensic knowledge based which were restricted to certain members of the community, which stifled knowledge sharing.
- Community-based merit, giving people credit for their contributions, rather than one organization producing and controlling the content.
- Solution oriented, whereas past efforts described what happens in an investigation at a high level, not how to do it or what can go wrong.
- Machine readable, rather than storing knowledge in documents, which cannot be integrated into other systems and tools.
- Ontology enabled, supporting knowledge graphs rather than loosely structured information.
Solutions built on SOLVE-IT include:
| Knowledge Map | Quality Assurance | Education & Research | AI Applicability |
|---|---|---|---|
| Explore digital forensic knowledge | Systematic error mitigation analysis | Course content maps and class exercises | Applications of AI in digital forensics |
Future growth and success depends on funding to support development and adoption. SOLVE-IT is currently unfunded and is seeking donations and grants.
Join the community by contributing to the knowledge base and bringing your questions to the SOLVE-IT discussion forum.