As mentioned in yesterday’s post I’ll be presenting at the SANS DFIR Summit in Austin in July. My main presentation is entitled “The Human Cost”. It is a non-technical presentation discussing 1) how our mistakes potentially affect other people’s lives, and 2) how working with images of child sexual abuse affect the examiner. The latter is a somewhat difficult subject to tackle. I’ve done a lot of reading about this over the last year and have had several discussions both with those that have experience doing this kind of work, and those that deal with psychological issues relating to handling such data. It is fascinating and it has helped me to see things in my own life that may still exist as a result of my time doing investigations into downloading and distributing images of child sexual abuse.

I gave this presentation for a SANS @night talk back in August but felt that I needed more input from those working with this material on a regular basis. As such I’ve prepared a questionnaire. If you have current or previous experience working with images of child sexual abuse please take the time to review and complete the answers. It will help to gain a greater understanding of how others can be helped in developing coping mechanisms and give a greater understanding of the effects of working with such material.

While some data is recorded about you (gender and age range) nothing else is recorded that may be used to identify you. Your answers will be used for statistical analysis but no single set of answers will be given or shared with anyone else. Also, some of the questions may seem to be very personal in nature. If, at any point, you feel uncomfortable answering a question, do not feel obligated to do so. Having done a lot of soul searching on this topic I completely understand.

If you are willing to participate please visit the link below and complete the questionnaire.

http://goo.gl/forms/S4pAh0Zt1P