Benchmark testing shows evidence preparation dropping from up to 6 hours to as little as 5 minutes, with manual review shrinking from days or weeks to hours.
PORTLAND, Ore. and COIMBATORE, India, July 17, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Exterro today introduced ARMOURop, a new on-premises AI solution that enables digital forensic labs to use AI without sending sensitive case evidence to a public cloud service. Unlike general-purpose AI tools that summarize information or generate responses, ARMOURop combines AI reasoning with governed forensic execution. AI interprets the investigative objective and coordinates supported forensic workflows, while Exterro’s proprietary forensic technology performs the authorized work against locally loaded evidence. Sensitive evidence remains within the agency’s controlled environment throughout the investigation.
The result is faster, more scalable forensic work while designed to preserve chain of custody, evidentiary integrity, and examiner accountability. Representative benchmark testing demonstrates the impact: preparing a one-terabyte evidence set can be reduced from four to six hours to as little as one to five minutes, while CSAM grading that previously consumed a full week can be completed in one to three hours, enabling investigators to reach examiner-validated findings significantly faster.
Results reflect representative benchmark workloads and may vary based on hardware, evidence composition, configuration, data volume, and investigative workflow.
“The first generation of AI helped professionals search faster and summarize more information. Digital forensics demands something far more rigorous. Every finding must be supported by evidence, validated by an examiner, and capable of withstanding legal scrutiny. ARMOURop connects AI reasoning directly to Exterro’s proprietary forensic technology, enabling AI to coordinate supported forensic workflows while experienced investigators remain responsible for every finding, decision, and conclusion,” said Harsh Behl, VP of DFIR Product Management at Exterro.
Built for the Digital Evidence Backlog Overwhelming Forensic Labs
Digital evidence is expanding faster than forensic examiners can examine it. Around 85% of criminal investigations now rely on electronic evidence, and requests for data from service providers have tripled since 2017. The FBI notes that a single modern phone can hold up to half a terabyte of data. The backlog is not theoretical. In 2025, Indiana State Police’s 15-person Digital Forensic Unit examined 1,769 devices and still ended the year with 639 pending; South Wales Police reported 722 devices awaiting examination, with nearly 300 already waiting three to six months. Forensic examiners spend too much of their day on repetitive first-pass reviews rather than on interpretation, validation, reporting, and complex case decisions.
ARMOURop changes the starting point entirely. Instead of manually selecting, sequencing, and operating forensic functions across every evidence source, forensic examiners describe what the investigation must establish. ARMOURop interprets the objective, coordinates the supported forensic workflow, and Exterro’s technology performs the work — media analysis, known-hash comparison, transcription, facial detection, communications review, artifact analysis, and evidence correlation — returning organized findings for examiner review and validation.
The examiner remains in control throughout: defining scope, reviewing evidence, excluding false leads, validating findings, and determining what the evidence supports before any conclusion is used in the case.
The impact across the digital investigations that matter most:
- CSAM and ICAC investigations – Hash matching, image classification, and known-content comparison across 10,000 images is reduced from a full week to one to three hours, reducing both case backlog and examiner exposure time to harmful content.
- Homicide and criminal investigations – Facial detection across 10,000 images drops from three days to one hour; image and video classification drops from three days to six to eight hours, giving detectives investigative direction while evidence remains actionable.
- Evidence processing at scale – A one-terabyte evidence set prepared for investigation in one to five minutes instead of four to six hours, with a broad range of forensic artifact types—including mobile, communications, memory, drone, and application data—unified in a single console.
“The challenge facing digital forensics today isn’t simply processing more evidence; it’s helping experienced forensic examiners accomplish dramatically more with the time they have. AI shouldn’t simply make individual forensic tasks faster; it should help forensic laboratories complete more investigations by coordinating supported forensic work while keeping every investigative decision under examiner control. That is exactly what ARMOURop delivers,” said Ajith Samuel, Chief Product Officer at Exterro.
Advancing Exterro’s Vision for Governed AI
ARMOURop advances Exterro’s ARMOUR (Autonomous Risk Management, Orchestration, and Unified Response) framework, the company’s architecture for moving organizations beyond question-answering AI to governed, auditable, and defensible AI-coordinated execution through Exterro technology, with investigators in control where expertise and judgment are required. For digital forensic laboratories, that means investigating more cases, reducing growing evidence backlogs, and delivering examiner-validated findings faster, while keeping sensitive evidence under agency control and investigators at the center of every consequential decision. To learn more about Exterro’s AI strategy and the ARMOUR framework, visit www.exterro.com/armour.
Availability
ARMOURop is now available, with a 14-day trial offered upon request. To learn more, visit www.exterro.com.
(Sources: Council of Europe / UNODC, Electronic Evidence Report; FBI Digital Evidence Documentation; Indiana State Police 2025 Annual Report; South Wales Police disclosure)
About Exterro
Exterro empowers organizations to manage data risks with a complete platform for e-discovery, data privacy, cybersecurity and governance, and digital forensics. Unlike any other software provider, Exterro makes it easy for organizations to understand their data and take swift action. Exterro’s AI-driven solutions provide accurate, actionable insights, enabling businesses to support compliance efforts, reduce risks, and streamline operations while lowering costs. With Exterro, organizations gain the clarity and confidence needed to address their most critical data challenges.
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