Press Release  AG Campbell Hosts Thirteenth Annual National Cyber Crime Conference With Focus on Artificial Intelligence

Boston — This week, Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell hosted the thirteenth annual National Cyber Crime Conference, the largest conference of its kind in the country. The conference is aimed at helping equip law enforcement and prosecutors with the tools and skills to effectively detect and combat cyber crime. The conference this year focused on Artificial Intelligence, and the benefits and drawbacks of this technology as an investigative tool.  

During her opening remarks to kick off the conference on Tuesday, AG Campbell spoke about the importance of how staying up to date on the tools and skills required to tackle cyber crime is critical. AG Campbell also stressed the vital importance of ensuring that young people must be protected as technology continues to rapidly evolve.

AG Campbell recently issued an advisory on AI to provide guidance to developers, suppliers, and users of AI regarding their obligations under state consumer protection, anti-discrimination, and data security laws. The advisory clarifies that existing state consumer protection, anti-discrimination, and data security laws apply to emerging technology, including AI systems, just as they would in any other context. 

Approximately 1,000 law enforcement officers, prosecutors, and investigators from across the country are expected to attend the three-day conference both virtually and in-person. 

“This conference is a unique opportunity for law enforcement officials, prosecutors, investigators, and other forensic personnel to come together and share the most cutting-edge skills and emerging trends in an ever-growing digital world including artificial intelligence,” said AG Campbell. “I’m proud of my office’s national leadership as a convener in the cyber crime space which gives us a chance to share our expertise and learn from others.”

David Rausch, Director of the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation and Second Vice President of the International Association of Chiefs of Police served as the Keynote Speaker to open the event. Dir. Rausch was born in Louisville, Kentucky. He earned his Bachelor of Arts in Political Science in 1986 and his Master of Science in Justice Administration in 2001, both from the University of Louisville. He has over 33 years of law enforcement experience. He was enlisted and served in the United States Army Military Police Corps from 1986 to 1990 where he attained the rank of Sergeant. He served for 25 years in the Knoxville Police Department (“KPD”) from 1993 to 2018, his last 7 years as Chief of Police and served 10 years on the KPD SWAT team.  He retired from KPD when he was appointed as the 9th Director for the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation by Governor Bill Haslam in 2018.  He was re-appointed by Governor Bill Lee in 2022. 

This year’s NCCC features 225 total classroom sessions. Attendees will be trained on a wide range of topics including artificial intelligence, geolocation data, online child exploitation, risks to cyber infrastructure, social media investigations, missing child recovery, and myriad legal issues for navigating criminal cases in the digital world. 

The conference was hosted by the AG’s Office in partnership with the National Association of Attorneys General (NAAG), the National White Collar Crime Center (NW3C), the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center (FLETC), the National Criminal Justice Training Center (NCJTC), and SEARCH, the National Consortium for Justice Information and Statistics.  Conference supporters included the FBI’s National Domestic Communications Assistance Center and the National Child Protection Task Force. 

The conference’s sponsors and exhibitors were Cellebrite, Magnet Forensics, Medex Forensics, Black Rainbow, FileOnQ, Hexordia/Cyber5W, NICE, ScanWriter, Teel Technologies, PenLink, Vespereye, ADF Solutions, Amped Software, Atola, BERLA, Compass IT Compliance, Forensic Analytics, LeadsOnline, LexisNexis Risk Solutions, MOS Equipment, MSAB, Sumuri LLC, Vector & Scalar Products, the Scientific Working Group on Digital Evidence, and the University of New Haven. 

Attendees at this week’s event represented 41 states, as well as the United Kingdom, Canada, Puerto Rico, and India. Law enforcement, prosecutors, and investigators from federal, state, and local agencies across the country attend training taught by 120 of the world’s top experts in cyber.   

The AG’s Office has long made the prevention and prosecution of cyber crime a top priority and has a state-of-the-art Digital Evidence Lab in Boston, which has statewide capacity to deal with cyber crime and more efficiently process the digital evidence that is used in essentially every investigation in the AG’s Office. Since 2008, the AG’s Office has provided cyber training for more than 30,000 state and local law enforcement personnel from across the state and the nation. 

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