Learn about Grayshift’s commitment to progressive technology and why we believe in listening closely to the wants, needs, and asks of law enforcement professionals across the world.
Solutions Evangelist
Grayshift
When I was still an active law enforcement officer, I craved brilliant people working for amazing and progressive technology companies to come to us and ask us what we needed to do our jobs better. We had so many complicated, serious challenges that affected people’s lives. I knew that these brainy, nerdy, wonderful people who were already creating innovative tools could help us!
Before retirement from law enforcement, I managed a work unit that investigated online sexual exploitation of children and housed the digital forensics lab for the state of Georgia. We had so many different yet interrelated challenges. With the overwhelming and constant increase in our workload, children who needed our help, viewing horrific images and videos daily, the endless growth in the number of mobile devices in use, and the ever-increasing storage capacity of those mobile devices, we were well beyond our limits with no end in sight. We NEEDED help. Honestly, they still do! While an increase in manpower certainly was and is desperately needed, technology solutions were also on the table and are likely more realistic.
As we searched for available technological solutions to help us with our challenges, several criteria helped us as we analyzed the choices available. We would consider:
- What problems a tool solved for us
- The cost of the tool including training involved
- Ease of use
- Speed of the tool
- Collaboration potential
- And future innovation, updates, and addition of new features
The Origin of GrayKey
Now that I am in the private sector working for one of those companies with brilliant, brainy people, I am so proud and encouraged that here at Grayshift they do just what I always wanted and needed. The origin of GrayKey illustrates that the founders of this company saw a challenge law enforcement had and built a solution. They are not from a law enforcement background, so they didn’t know access to data on mobile phones was a challenge until 2015. When the San Bernadino terrorist attack occurred, and the FBI had the terrorist’s mobile phone, it was locked, and there was no available help to unlock it. The founders of GrayKey, vulnerability researchers at the time, saw that and said – we can build a solution for that! And when they did, Grayshift was founded in 2016.
Now on the inside at Grayshift, I am captivated and impressed by the constant push to keep GrayKey updated with the latest iOS software or the most recent Android models. Grayshift is a company of researchers, software developers, and engineers. While we have a sales team, marketing team, customer success staff, and support personnel, most Grayshift employees are nerdy, brilliant product engineers working to improve GrayKey daily. They are interested in determining what your challenges are and then creating additional solutions for those challenges. Daily, and nightly with coffee many times, Grayshifters are passionately working to make GrayKey faster, access more devices, and add features that our customers have requested. If you are a GrayKey customer already, you know Grayshift truly cares about being the best access and extraction tool. You also know we constantly release updates – often as they are available and sometimes on the same day.
The Birth of ArtifactIQ by Grayshift
This commitment to maintaining progressive technology is how ArtifactIQ by Grayshift came to be. When developing ArtifactIQ, the Grayshift product development team:
- Visited multiple agencies
- Spoke with an excessive number of examiners, investigators, and executives
- Asked countless questions
- Recognized the needs of the examiners, investigators, and executives with whom they spoke and brainstormed solutions
Ultimately, they developed a solution that is cost-effective and will now get evidence and data from mobile phones into the hands of investigators faster – a lot faster. Our Digital Forensics Specialists also tested each feature repeatedly. They provided feedback to the developers to make ArtifactIQ a robust, helpful tool for examiners and investigators.
In the future, ArtifactIQ will release updates and new features quickly as they are developed. Customers will be able to see these updates in the user interface. Additionally, you will see monthly Innovation Weeks at Grayshift, where the ability to access and analyze data inside a new application is added to ArtifactIQ daily during that week. In fact, we recently held our first Innovation week, and the next one is just around the corner. It’s exciting to think about what all lies ahead!
Progressive Technology For Law Enforcement Depends On You
Moving forward you can let us know proactively what you want to see from Grayshift. Do you have ideas about features you would like to see in our GrayKey tool or in ArtifactIQ? Do you have a brand new digital forensic challenge you would like Grayshift to help you solve? What do you want us to develop and build next? We consider you our partner and truly want to help you with your mission. Let the nerdy people at Grayshift know what you need, and we will try to solve that challenge for you. Login credentials are required, but you can visit the following available idea portals to submit your requests and ideas:
There is no holding back – only moving forward and creating robust, thoughtful, real solutions for law enforcement. Grayshift is a company of people who will build you what you need. Technology is the future of policing and I firmly believe that. At Grayshift, I am reassured that inventive, skilled people are stepping up to help intelligent, dedicated law enforcement officers help their communities.
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