Magnet User Summit 2026: Here’s your presentation catalog!
Magnet User Summit 2026 is getting closer, and we’re excited to share this year’s presentation catalog!
We’ve got an incredible collection of presenters lined up ready to deliver sessions that will educate, empower, and inspire everyone joining us in Nashville on April 20-22. That includes insights from both the private sector and law enforcement about AI-driven solutions, navigating the latest mobile forensics challenges, cybersecurity, media authentication, reducing the demands of your investigations in the lab and so much more.
We’ll also have an exclusive look at how Magnet Forensics is driving innovation from our leadership team in our executive keynote presentation, kicking off Magnet User Summit 2026. Plus, we’re proud to feature a special track designed for prosecutors featuring our resident legal expert, Justin Fitzsimmons.
That’s all in addition to the special hands-on training that we’re offering with our solutions, including Magnet Axiom, Magnet Nexus, Magnet Graykey, Magnet Review, special workflows, and so much more that will help you discover new ways to help you in your role day in and day out. You’ll also have the opportunity to earn CPE/CLE credits in these workshops.
Check out a few highlights from the presentation catalog below. Find the complete catalog here and be sure to register early to take advantage of early bird pricing!
Keynote presentation
Driving innovation forward and transforming digital investigations
Magnet Forensics executive leadership
The pace of change in digital investigations isn’t slowing down—and neither are we. Join Magnet Forensics leaders David Miles, Braden Thomas, and Jad Saliba as they reveal how Magnet Forensics is pushing boundaries to help investigative teams stay ahead. They’ll also take this opportunity to showcase the incredible work happening within the community by presenting the Magnet Forensics Agency Impact Award and naming the winners of the 2026 Scholarship Awards.
From groundbreaking advancements in Magnet One to powerful new capabilities for enterprise investigations, this keynote will be an exclusive look at what’s next for Magnet Forensics in 2026 and how that will help you stay ahead in your digital investigations.
Join us for special presentations of our various Unpacked series
AI Unpacked S2 Ep. 3: A tale of two outputs—man vs. machine
Brandon Epstein, Forensic Consultant, Magnet Forensics
It is a head-to-head battle of man vs machine… This special live AI Unpacked episode will discuss the outcomes of a groundbreaking research study, looking at the ability of human examiners and AI to understand and interpret complex digital forensics results. Who will come out on top? What can be learned for the future use of AI in digital forensic examinations? Will AI ever replace human examiners? Join Brandon Epstein to discuss these topics and have a look into the future of AI within digital forensics.
Mobile Unpacked: Talking about translations: Demystifying translation features of iOS & Android
Christopher Vance, Staff Technical Forensics Specialist, Magnet Forensics
When Star Trek gave us a glimpse of the future with the Universal Translator it seemed like a far-off science-fiction. However, newer features of mobile operating systems have made this more science-fact! By passing our auditory and textual speech through new processing and AI models we are reaching the point of being able to real-time translate multiple languages. However, how reliable is this data and where can it be found in a forensic context? This presentation will explore where and how to find this data and look at just how much of it can be used in forensic investigations today.
Cyber Unpacked: IR beyond malware: Investigating business email compromise and fraud
Doug Metz, Senior Security Forensics Specialist, Magnet Forensics
While ransomware grabs headlines, business email compromise (BEC) quietly causes billions in losses every year. For private sector responders, these cases present unique investigative hurdles: social engineering, subtle logins, wire transfers, and abuse of legitimate SaaS features. This presentation dives into the forensic artifacts and investigative playbooks for BEC cases, including Office 365 sign-in logs, forwarding rules, OAuth abuse, and transaction metadata. We’ll explore how to triage compromised accounts, correlate access patterns with financial events, and present findings in a way that supports both containment and legal/regulatory needs. Whether you work in corporate IR, legal, or compliance, this session will equip you with the tools to tackle one of the most common—and costly—forms of corporate compromise.
Private sector highlights
Unmasking North Korean remote IT workers through digital forensics
Dave Shaver, Senior Digital Forensic Examiner, Capital One; David Brown, Staff Cybersecurity Analyst, The Home Depot; Ryan Coughlan, Cybersecurity Staff Analyst, The Home Depot
As sanctions tighten and cyber pressure mounts, North Korea has adopted a stealthier approach to cyber operations—embedding remote IT workers into foreign organizations under false identities. These operatives, often well-trained and technically proficient, exploit freelance platforms, stolen or borrowed identities, and anonymizing infrastructure to secure legitimate work that serves illicit ends—from income generation to privileged access. This session will equip digital forensic professionals with the tools and indicators necessary to identify and investigate these covert actors.
Needle in an abyss: A cybertip’s journey to the middle of the ocean
CJ Whiteside, Forensics Operations Lead, Chevron
In a global enterprise, an externally facing IP address almost never maps to a single person. A recent cybertip tasked corporate investigators with identifying activity behind one public address—only to discover it terminated at a perimeter firewall handling millions of hits per hour. What began as a routine lookup evolved into a high-stakes attribution puzzle spanning NAT, guest networks, and sparse case metadata. Using a log-first approach—pivoting across firewall, proxy, DHCP, and wireless telemetry, and correlating service-specific patterns—the investigation resolved to a single device in the most unlikely place: the middle of the ocean. This session reverse-engineers the triage logic, demonstrates how network evidence can outshine endpoints at scale, and shares a practical playbook for law enforcement and corporate teams to collaborate without compromising investigative integrity or business operations.
Using and preserving prompts in digital investigations
Julie Lewis, President, CEO and Founder, Digital Mountain
We are in an era in which search engines are being augmented or replaced by prompts using ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, Llama or equivalent. These technologies can be used in digital investigations to find relevant information as well as evidence on what a user was querying. This session will walk through what the most optimal LLMs and applications are for global investigations as well as where you can find relevant digital evidence. We will walk through where prompts are stored and what the optimal starting point is for the cloud, laptops, or smartphones. We will also discuss how to address this new data source in digital investigations or legal matters, including proper preservations, processing, and productions.
Tales from the trenches: Public sector incident response
Joseph Spero, Principal Incident Response Consultant, Public Sector, Google
Dive into the intricacies of a real-world incident response against a sophisticated Chinese nation-state actor targeting a critical defense industrial base (DIB) client. This session dissects a multi-year intrusion, guiding attendees through each stage of the attack lifecycle. We will illuminate the specific TTPs observed–from initial compromise to data exfiltration–and delve into the complex incident response and forensic analysis methodologies utilized to meticulously uncover the actions of this advanced adversary.
Attendees will gain a granular, step-by-step understanding of how a persistent nation-state actor operates within a DIB environment, practical insights into effective IR and forensic strategies, and a deeper appreciation for the strategic impact such intrusions have on both private industry and national security. This detailed narrative offers a rare look into the sustained efforts required to combat sophisticated, long-term threats.
Public sector highlights
From evidence to foresight: Wisdom from the front lines of high-profile cyber incidents
Miguel Clarke, Special Agent (retired), FBI
In most organizations, digital forensics is treated as a post-incident service—called in after the damage is done. Yet the same expertise that reconstructs what happened can also help prevent it, limit its impact, and accelerate recovery.
Drawing on 24 years with the FBI, including the 9/11 digital forensics investigation and the United States v. Pok Seong Kwong insider threat case cited in the third edition of Digital Evidence and Computer Crime, this keynote examines how seasoned examiners can apply their investigative insight to strengthen cybersecurity posture before the breach ever occurs. This session will present real world case analysis and operational lessons, showing how forensics professionals can move from being responders to being strategic partners in resilience—making their organizations safer, faster to recover, and better prepared for the next incident.
The digital path to justice: Supporting survivors, strengthening cases
Ed O’Carroll, Major (retired), Fairfax County, VA Police Dept; Julie Weil, Victim/survivor
Julie Weil’s story is one of resilience, justice, and transformation. Abducted with her children and brutally assaulted in the Florida Everglades, Julie survived multiple rapes and torture. Against all odds, she navigated a four-year criminal justice process that led to her attacker’s capture and conviction. From her tragedy, she became a global activist, founding the Not Just Me Foundation to advance legislation addressing rape kit backlogs, mandate forensic testing, and support survivor-centered initiatives like Palm Beach County’s Butterfly House. Nationally, she advocated for the SAFER Act, now part of VAWA.
Joining Julie is Major (Ret.) Ed O’Carroll, a 34-year Fairfax County veteran and Magnet Forensics consultant. Ed championed digital advancements and forensic examiners’ work to solve violent crime. Together, they highlight how survivor advocacy and technology can increase solve rates, deliver justice, and prevent future violence —all in an effort to solve today’s cases and prevent tomorrow’s victims.
A Music City Magnet Talk: Unplugged (Part I)
Chad Gish, Forensic Consultant, Magnet Forensics; Chris Dickerson, Lieutenant, Nashville Police Department; Madison Meiss, Sergeant with Dignitary Protection/Office of the Mayor, MNPD
What if investigators could have critical evidence in their hands almost immediately after a device is seized? This Music City Magnet Talk will showcase how Magnet Forensics’ industry-leading solutions, from Magnet Graykey and Graykey Fastrak for rapid intake, to Magnet Automate for streamlined processing, and Magnet Review for collaborative reporting and case analysis, work together to revolutionize lab efficiency. Attendees will see how these tools eliminate bottlenecks, shrink turnaround times from months to days, and empower even small labs to operate at scale.
Focuses on Graykey and Axiom will feature decorated homicide investigators Lt. Chris Dickerson and Sgt. Madison Meiss. Gain firsthand insights into how these tools empower investigators to rapidly extract and analyze evidence, enabling quicker case breakthroughs and more effective casework.
Special Prosecutor track
From report to verdict: Navigating a case built on digital evidence
Justin Fitzsimmons, Technical Prosecutions Lead, Magnet Forensics
This session provides prosecutors with a clear, start-to-finish understanding of how digital evidence informs and drives a modern criminal case. Beginning with the initial report and investigative steps, participants will examine how digital artifacts are identified, preserved, analyzed, and ultimately used to build a compelling legal narrative. The session introduces core terminology used in digital evidence extractions and forensic examinations, explains how those processes affect what evidence is available, and demonstrates how to review and interpret results using Magnet Portable Case. By the end of this session, participants will be prepared to collaborate effectively with investigators, recognize the evidentiary value of key artifacts, and lay the groundwork for a legally sound and persuasive prosecution.
Using electronic evidence to strengthen your case
Monica Morrison, Assistant United States Attorney, U.S. Attorney’s Office
With so much electronic evidence available to investigators and prosecutors, it is critical to identify what sources and types of electronic evidence will aid in prosecution. This session will be a case study of a case abuse case and the critical role that electronic evidence played in the successful prosecution of the case, including establishing a timeline of the initial injury and addressing potential defenses.
The critical role of pretrial preparation with digital evidence
Chad Gish, Forensic Consultant, Magnet Forensics; Janice Norman, Assistant District Attorney, Davidson County DA’s Office
The courtroom success of a digital investigation doesn’t just depend on what was found, it depends on how well it is prepared and presented before trial. This session will examine the importance of pretrial preparation with digital evidence, from ensuring data integrity and clear reporting to collaborating with prosecutors. We’ll also discuss the role of the digital forensic expert: anticipating challenges, simplifying complex technical findings for juries, and strengthening case strategy. Attendees will leave with practical approaches for turning digital evidence into courtroom-ready testimony that withstands scrutiny and maximizes impact.
The intersection of tech and trafficking: A multi-disciplinary response
David Weiss, Chief | Human Trafficking Unit, Brooklyn DA’s Office; Melissa Kaiser, Trainer and Consultant, MelKai Consulting, LLC
Traffickers increasingly exploit technology to groom, recruit, and control victims. This session highlights how multidisciplinary teams, analysts, prosecutors, and social workers, collaborate throughout investigations to improve outcomes. Using a real case, we’ll explore identifying online platforms used in human trafficking, detailed steps for building a strong digital prosecution, and how integrating trauma-informed, person-centered social service support throughout the process builds victim trust and significantly increases the likelihood of successful case resolution.
Join us in Nashville for Magnet User Summit 2026!
Need a little help in making the case to attend Magnet User Summit 2026? Download this justification letter to provide to your superior, letting them know why you should join us.
Save your spot today for Magnet User Summit 2026—a perfect opportunity to not only learn about the latest in Magnet Forensics products but also the newest trends in digital investigations. Be sure to keep checking back for new additions to the presentation catalog before the event—including some exciting guest keynote presenters!
Learn more and register at https://magnetusersummit.com/.