[War on Deepfake] Digital Forensics Catching 'Evidence Destruction'... "Need to Expand Due to Staff Shortage"

Digital Evidence Analysis Cases Up 40.7% in 5 Years
About 200 Officers... Each Must Handle 400 Cases
"Need to Increase Staff Considering Demand and Importance"

Deepfake sex crimes are occurring simultaneously across the country, spreading to the extent that the scale of both perpetrators and victims is not properly understood. Some teenage male students suspected of being perpetrators are reportedly attempting to 'erase evidence,' highlighting the growing importance of digital evidence analysis (forensics) to secure crime evidence.

The Korean Teachers and Education Workers Union (KTU) held a press conference on the 29th in front of the Government Seoul Office in Jongno, Seoul, to announce the results of an investigation into illegal synthetic substances and sexual crimes in schools, strongly condemning the government for aiding and abetting sexual crimes. Photo by Jo Yongjun jun21@

Recently, 'deepfake' videos that synthesize pornographic content onto women's faces have rapidly spread among teenagers and people in their twenties through Telegram chat rooms, becoming a serious social issue. Although the exact number of perpetrators is currently unknown, the number of users in some 'Telegram bot' rooms alone reaches around 220,000. In response, the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency's Cyber Investigation Unit organized a task force (TF) on the 28th, operating six teams including digital forensics and cyber profiling.

Telegram is known for its non-cooperation with investigations, making digital forensics a crucial key to obtaining evidence. Digital forensics is an investigative technique that analyzes messenger and call records from electronic devices such as mobile phones and computers to secure evidence. It can recover deleted videos or encrypted data intended to destroy evidence. In fact, during the 'Nth Room sexual exploitation' case, digital forensics enabled the collection of evidence against perpetrators, leading to their prosecution.

Online crimes surged from about 180,000 cases in 2019 to 240,000 cases last year, increasing the demand for digital forensics year by year. According to the National Police Agency, the number of digital evidence analyses last year was 79,433, a 40.7% increase from 56,440 cases in 2019 over five years.

However, the personnel responsible for digital forensics are critically insufficient, leading to increased workloads. According to the police, there are currently about 200 digital evidence analysts, each handling approximately 400 analyses per year as of last year. A police official explained, "In the past, methods like bloodstain and DNA analysis were mainly used, but now everything is digitalized, so that part is heavily used as evidence. Therefore, the demand for forensics is growing significantly, but the workforce is insufficient, causing increased workload."

Consequently, there are calls to increase the number of digital forensics officers or to cultivate specialized personnel. Although digital forensics is actively utilized not only by national institutions such as the police and prosecution but also in the private sector, there are currently no significant moves to expand related personnel. The Information Security Human Resources Development Committee (ISC) pointed out in a report released on July 24 that digital forensics plays a decisive role in solving crimes, but there is a shortage of domestic experts. There are no universities operating dedicated digital forensics departments yet; only three universities?Gunsan University, Dongseo University, and Hallym University?offer it as a major. Graduate programs are available at only six institutions, including the Police University, Korea University, and Dongguk University.

Experts analyze that considering the demand and importance of digital forensics, cultivating specialized personnel at higher education institutions is necessary. An ISC official emphasized, "The scope of digital forensics as a job is expanding, and due to the field's specificity, demand will continue to grow. The nation must take the lead in creating an environment to nurture experts in this field."