Advanced investigative systems linked for rescuing child abuse victims - Microsoft CETS and LTU Image-Seeker join forces at European police agency
Paris and Washington, D.C. - January 16, 2007 - In a significant technology advance in the field of child abuse investigations, two leading investigative technologies have been linked together to provide enhanced resources for victim identification and rescue. In a worldwide first requested by the Italian Police, the Microsoft Child Exploitation Tracking System (CETS) and the LTU Technologies Image-Seeker have been integrated to expand and accelerate evidence research.
Thanks to the integration of the two systems, authorized agents of the Italian Police (Polizia delle Comunicazioni) are able to check if suspect images - captured on a website or seized from perpetrators - have already been seen in previous or ongoing investigations. By connecting to the LTU Image-Seeker, agents (CETS users) may also know if there are similar images in the database of known images (such as images taken at the same time or in the same location). This ability enables agents to share multimedia information through all the Italian territory and assemble clues to help identify the location and identity of victims - all necessary in trying to rescue these children.
The CETS deployment at the special unit of the "Polizia delle Comunicazioni", announced jointly in October by Microsoft and the Italian Ministry of the Internal Affairs, was the first European installation of CETS (following the original CETS installation for the Canadian police and subsequently for the Indonesian National Police). CETS tracks information on known offenders, traffickers of abusive images, financial transactions, messaging identities, chatroom discussions - all which may be useful in determining the identity of victims and perpetrators.
Images of abuse are often the primary evidence that abuse has taken place, and the LTU Image-Seeker is used by the child abuse investigative units of several leading national police agencies for the analysis and comparison of these evidence repositories. And both CETS and LTU Image-Seeker allow agencies securely to exchange information to determine if case elements are already under investigation in another agency.
Due to the sensitivity of images in this field of investigation, a separate and secure image database system like Image-Seeker is always required. The "Polizia delle Comunicazioni", which manages the national database of known images, delivers authorized access to the Image-Seeker database to authorized CETS users. For those qualified to access both systems, Microsoft assisted the agency's technical officers in establishing automatic links between individual case images and the LTU image database system. LTU Technologies has agreed with police agencies as well as with Microsoft to participate in additional integrations.
"We stand ready to work with any other law enforcement organization that wishes to integrate its CETS system with LTU's image technology, for images as well as video content-based search capability" said Pascal GELAC, VP Sales Europe of LTU Technologies.
"The focus of CETS is the tracking and exchanging of information among specialized officers; LTU concentrates on the visual - providing advanced image technologies for finding evidence in these horrendously high volumes of images. The combination of the two technologies is powerful in the important fight against these tragic crimes." said Chahab Nastar, CEO of LTU Technologies
About LTU Technologies
A sustainable company with unique technology, LTU Technologies is established as the standard software for content-based search, retrieval and classification of images -- a technology referred to as "Image Mining". LTU's technology has found mission-critical applications within the Government sector, namely in child exploitation and stolen art investigations, as well as computer forensics, intelligence and counter-terrorism. LTU also operates in various commercial markets such as brand & copyright protection, enterprise security, digital asset management, e-commerce and mobile image filtering. LTU customers include the US DHS-ICE, DOD, the French Police, the Italian Police, as well as Meredith Corporation and the PPR group. LTU is backed by JASTEC a major Japanese corporation (TSE:9717); with offices in Paris & Washington D.C. For more information, please visit www.LTUtech.com
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