Highlights from Magnet Virtual Summit 2026
Thank you to everyone who joined us for Magnet Virtual Summit 2026—our biggest and best Virtual Summit yet!
This year’s event brought together thousands of investigators, examiners, prosecutors, and industry experts from around the world for four days of community learning, practical insights, and an in depth look at the innovations shaping the future of digital investigations.
With more than 50 presentations, hands on learning opportunities, special regional programming, and the return of our Capture the Flag competition, MVS 2026 offered an inspiring exploration of where digital forensics is headed and how Magnet Forensics is helping investigators stay ahead.
What’s next in digital investigations
Magnet Virtual Summit 2026 focused on how investigators are navigating the realities of AI-generated content, expanding cloud data sources, and increasingly complex digital investigation.
This was prevalent throughout the event with expert driven content on key areas across the field, including artificial intelligence–enabled workflows, mobile forensics advancements, cloud based investigative practices, deepfake identification and media authentication, eDiscovery, incident response, and modern approaches to digital evidence review and collaboration.
Attendees also explored the latest capabilities across the Magnet Forensics ecosystem, including major updates to Magnet One and Magnet Review, which continue to unify and accelerate investigative processes across teams, data sources, and workflows.
Welcome Address from Jad Saliba & David Miles
The summit opened with a compelling Welcome Address from Magnet Forensics CoFounder and Board Member Jad Saliba and Magnet Forensics Co-Founder and President, National Security Programs, David Miles, who highlighted how rapidly the field is evolving and why scalable, AI enabled tools are becoming essential for today’s investigative landscape. They also spoke with different members of Magnet Forensics leadership to learn more about what they’re excited for in 2026.
Standout sessions across the event
With more than 50 speakers sharing case driven learnings, technical walkthroughs, and future focused insights, MVS 2026 delivered a wide range of valuable content.
Presentations spanned topics such as AI in investigations, mobile acquisition workflows, cloud-native analysis, deepfake detection, evidence verification, and collaboration strategies that help reduce backlogs and improve lab efficiency.
Most sessions are now available to watch on demand, making it easy to revisit the material or explore what you may have missed.
Here are five of the most popular sessions to get you started:
1. AI in the physical and virtual worlds
MVS keynote presenter: David Bray, PhD, Chair of the Accelerator & Distinguished Fellow, Stimson Center
A nationally recognized leader at the intersection of emerging technology, national security, and digital evidence, David Bray brought his years of experience to Magnet Virtual Summit 2026 to talk about the technology that’s changing everything, including AI, the cloud, and quantum computing.
2. Mobile Unpacked // Harping on health data
Chris Vance, Staff Technical Forensics Specialist, Magnet Forensics
In this talk, Chris explores the different levels of protection on health data stored in iOS and Android and how you might be able to obtain it through varying levels of extractions.
3. Just gimme some kind of Signal
Mike McGowan, Principal, Metafor LLC
With more than 70 million monthly active users, Signal Messenger is no longer a niche messaging app. Signal data may provide vital evidence in criminal, civil, regulatory, and investigatory matters. Yet Signal also presents challenges to digital forensic examiners both for collecting and analyzing the data—check out this talk for several practical approaches.
4. Magnet One: Unifying digital forensics w/ Connected Apps
Dean Carlson, Product Management Lead
Discover how the Magnet One platform is transforming investigations through a fully connected ecosystem of Connected Apps, scalable storage, and the game-changing power of Case Streams.
5. Cyber Unpacked // Are you DF, IR, or both?
Doug Metz, Senior Security Forensics Specialist, Magnet Forensics
Brett Shavers, DFIR Training, Digital Forensics Consultant, Author, and Instructor
This session examines the ongoing tension between rapid response and evidentiary integrity, illustrating how gaps in preservation can affect investigative outcomes, compliance obligations, and post-incident accountability.
Another incredible Capture the Flag competition
Our annual Capture the Flag (CTF) event once again brought energy and friendly competition to Magnet Virtual Summit. Participants from around the world tackled challenging, multi‑layered DFIR scenarios inspired by real casework, including puzzles rooted in mobile forensics, cloud investigations, and structured data reconstruction.
The event continues to be a highlight each year. Expect a deeper recap of the 2026 CTF from Jessica Hyde soon but in the meantime, we’re proud to announce the winners:
- First place: Lee Wei Yeong
- Second Place: Mathias Kluser
- Third Place: Rich Novelli
- First to Finish: Faisal Alhumaid
Congratulations to everyone who participated and demonstrated their DFIR skills!
LATAM Day: A dedicated experience for Latin America
We were proud to once again host LATAM Day, offering a full day of presentations delivered in Spanish and Portuguese for DFIR professionals across Latin America. These sessions explored trends emerging across the region, local investigative considerations, and practical workflows for mobile and cloud investigations—providing attendees with content directly relevant to their day-to-day challenges.
Catch up on MVS 2026 through our on-demand recordings
Whether you missed sessions, or want to rewatch the ones you’ve already seen, head over the MVS 2026 on-demand library to find recordings of nearly all of the presentations offered at the event.
Thank you for an outstanding summit
Thank you to everyone who attended, presented, partnered, and contributed to making MVS 2026 our most impactful virtual summit yet. We can’t wait to bring everyone together again for Magnet Virtual Summit 2027—stay tuned for details.