Innovative Solutions Canada | AI decryption service

The RCMP, along with all Canadian law enforcement, is currently facing the dilemma of criminals using sophisticated encryption to circumvent and otherwise prevent investigators from lawfully accessing data seized during the course of criminal investigations.

This is a universal problem faced in Canada and internationally by allies, for legal access to encrypted data. All federal, provincial and municipal law enforcement and regulatory agencies in Canada consistently attempt to brute force encrypted data to gain lawful access to its contents.

The current method of utilizing massive decryption systems and attempting to brute force a password is both very inefficient and overall, rarely successful. The standard practice of individuals using encryption is increasing worldwide, as such is becoming the single most effective method to stymie criminal investigations. This challenge aims to leverage public sector innovation to help address this issue as it may help other federal agencies such as Canada Border Services Agency, the Department of Defense, Department of Fisheries and Oceans, Canada Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission and the Canada Revenue Agency.

Problem statement

The use of these encryption techniques by individuals engaging in illegal behaviour greatly diminishes their risk of prosecution. It is public knowledge that police can obtain judicial authority to search a device, but they cannot compel an individual to provide a password. This scenario greatly incentivizes individuals to use some form of encryption on all their data as a secondary insurance against legal prosecution.

The RCMP is looking to develop an AI system that can ingest material seized during an investigation and generate case specific word lists which will be utilized in an attempt to decrypt the seized data. This AI should be able to ingest and process forensic data files as the source material.

Desired outcomes and considerations

Essential (mandatory) outcomes

Proposed solutions must:

1. Accept and process material of any size from common forensic file types. e.g. e01, ad1, dd, ex01.
2. Generate subject-specific password word lists based on a user's data activity, a user's interests and passwords discovered on ingested forensic images.
3. Process web history from common web browsers. e.g. Chrome, Edge, Firefox, Safari.
4. Process common documents. e.g. MS Word, MS Excel, text files, Adobe.
5. Export password derivatives in text format for use in decryption software.

Additional outcomes

Proposed solutions should:

1. Identify common encrypted files from the device images. e.g. luks, bitlocker, truecrypt etc.
2. Ingest known passwords into a database, and utilize said database to generate password derivatives.
3. Provide a user-friendly Graphical User Interface (GUI).
4. Initiate decryption jobs using generated password lists using common decryption software. e.g. Elcomsoft, Passware, Hashcat etc.

Multiple contracts could result from this Challenge.

Phase 1:

• The maximum funding available for any Phase 1 contract resulting from this Challenge is : $150,000.00 CAD excluding applicable taxes, shipping, travel and living expenses, as required.
• The maximum duration for any Phase 1 contract resulting from this Challenge is up to 6 months (excluding submission of the final report).
• Estimated number of Phase 1 contracts: 2

Phase 2:

Note: Only eligible businesses that have successfully completed Phase 1 will be invited to submit a proposal for Phase 2.

• The maximum funding available for any Phase 2 contract resulting from this Challenge is : $1,000,000 CAD excluding applicable taxes, shipping, travel and living expenses, as required.
• The maximum duration for any Phase 2 contract resulting from this Challenge is up to 24 months (excluding submission of the final report).
• Estimated number of Phase 2 contracts: 1

This disclosure is made in good faith and does not commit Canada to award any contract for the total approximate funding. Final decisions on the number of Phase 1 and Phase 2 awards will be made by Canada on the basis of factors such as evaluation results, departmental priorities and availability of funds. Canada reserves the right to make partial awards and to negotiate project scope changes.

Note: Selected companies are eligible to receive one contract per phase per challenge.

Travel

Due to Covid-19 restrictions, the kick-off meeting and final review meeting will have the flexibility of being a video or teleconference.

Kick-off meeting

Teleconference/videoconference

Progress review meeting(s)

Teleconference/videoconference

Final review meeting

Teleconference/videoconference

All other communication can take place by telephone, videoconference, and WebEx.

Log in with Google

OR

Get Started to Apply