Part of a photo showing an NCIS ESD K-9 dog training to search for a digital device hidden under a car © Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Olivia Banmally Nichols, US Navy, May 2025 (as published in: https://www.ncis.navy.mil/Media/News/Article/4272479/ncis-adds-three-new-noses-to-the-esd-k9-program/)
Today, digital technology is everywhere, and growing exponentially, which poses new types of security risks within our societies. Of course, we think of the risk of cyberattacks, but there is another risk that is less talked about: that of physically finding digital media that constitute a danger or evidence in a criminal investigation.
In this era of hybrid warfare and crime that is now almost systematically “cyber-augmented” (1), where most evidence is stored on a phone, USB stick, or memory card measuring just a few millimeters, investigative services face a very practical difficulty: how to find something that is deliberately designed to be invisible?
The explosion of digital storage media, combined with miniaturization that facilitates increasingly sophisticated concealment, makes the work of security forces and, in some cases, armed forces, particularly complex, whether in legal cases, the protection of critical or sensitive infrastructure, counter-espionage, or the fight against terrorism.
In this era of hybrid warfare and crime that is now almost systematically “cyber-augmented” (1), where most evidence is stored on a phone, USB stick, or memory card measuring just a few millimeters, investigative services face a very practical challenge: how to find something that is deliberately designed to be invisible?
Born in the United States in 2013 (2), a solution is gradually developing in the field, namely the training and use of dogs to detect electronic media: known across the Atlantic by the acronym ESD K-9 for “Electronic Storage Detection K-9 “ (K-9 is the phonetic abbreviation for canine in English), TDD dogs (for ”Technological Detection Dogs”) in Australia, “Digital Storage Device Dogs” in the Netherlands, ICT dogs for “Information & Communications technology” in Belgium, or “e-dogs” or cyber dogs in France (3), they are able to sniff out the chemical components present in most digital storage media.
Since the early 2020s, the use of these “digital” dogs has begun to expand not only geographically, but also in terms of possible fields of application.
Meeting the challenge of physical detection in the digital age: complementary international methodologies
Still relatively marginal, this practice is found in the United States, where there are currently more than 110 police establishments equipped (4) and 130 ESD dogs, while a growing number of countries have been adopting it in recent years.
In Australia, the Australian government announced in May 2021 that it would provide $5.7 million in funding to develop the Australian Federal Police’s (AFP) technology detection dog (TDD) program, enabling the training and deployment of eight additional dogs over three years. The AFP has pioneered TDD capability in Australia, with 13 technology detection dogs deployed across the country. Between January 2021 and November 2022, the AFP’s TDDs conducted 160 searches, successfully locating 691 electronic storage devices (5).
In Canada, the Peel Regional Police in Ontario welcomed Harley, the first electronic storage device (ESD) detection dog, to its Internet Child Exploitation (ICE) unit in 2021. Then in 2023, the Correctional Service of Canada implemented a pilot program using electronic device detection dogs: some of the available lessons learned show that more than 348 cell phones and several hundred other storage devices were found in this way in 15 months (6).
In Europe, the Netherlands, Belgium, Switzerland, and France are among the pioneering countries, and while approaches differ significantly from country to country, the feedback is consistent and particularly promising.
The main difference lies in the reference substance used to train dogs to detect digital media: in the United States, they are impregnated with the scent of an organic molecule, TPPO (Triphenylphosphine Oxide), while France—which began experiments in 2023 in conjunction with Switzerland—uses a metallic element, tantalum, as an olfactory marker.
TPPO is found in printed circuit boards, but also in the glues and resins used to assemble the cards. The advantage is that it is a stable, low-volatility and widely used molecule. This allows dogs to detect a wide range of media, such as USB keys, hard drives, phones, etc.
Tantalum is a “material commonly found in all printed circuit boards and contained in all processors (…) just 3 mg of tantalum is enough for Snatch [editor’s note: one of France’s first digital police dogs] to identify the object and stop,” explained a dog handler in a television report broadcast in France on May 31 (7).
The advantage of tantalum is that it is a very common marker in modern storage circuits and is less sensitive to variations in temperature and humidity. Feedback reports excellent detection rates of “up to 70%” (8), particularly for modern miniaturized media (crypto ledgers, micro-SD cards, etc.).
Tantalum was identified by research teams in the Netherlands, pioneers in Europe since 2021. The Netherlands has developed a well-documented scientific method, which could facilitate a possible standardization process at the European level.
Methods also vary from country to country when it comes to training dogs: in Australia, a highly operational approach is favored, with the best detection dogs being selected first and real objects being used for scent impregnation earlier than in European protocols.
As for the selection of dog breeds in different countries, this obviously depends on cultural factors, but must meet different criteria than in other canine specialties (drug trafficking; searching for explosives or people, etc.): good stress resistance and a strong ability to concentrate are particularly required for dogs working in enclosed environments, hence the frequent choice of Labradors in the United States (which also uses Golden Retrievers, Springer Spaniels, and Beagles), Australia, and the Netherlands. However, the traditional choice of the Belgian Malinois is still found in France and Belgium.
These multi-purpose dogs are particularly well suited to the expanding field of digital detection.
A cross-functional skill to match the exponential digitization of society
While the very first case successfully solved using dogs trained to detect digital media was a child sex crime case in the United States, and while this field continues to see numerous cases, their missions are constantly expanding in line with the inventiveness of crime. They can now be found in the following sectors:
Financial investigations:
As criminals increasingly use encrypted USB drives, physical cryptocurrency wallets, and microSD cards, evidence can be secured before it disappears in cases of bank fraud, digital scams, money laundering, or crypto-crime thanks to the intervention of a dog trained to find it in the most hidden places. According to certain US statistics, notably from the Seattle Police Department’s ESD unit, dogs find hidden digital media in 25 to 30% of interventions where human searches fail (9).
Counter-espionage and industrial protection:
Also in the United States, a number of documented cases show that ESD K9s have participated in searches of secure meeting rooms, classified areas, and sensitive companies involved in intellectual property disputes.
Trained to find even a dismantled phone hidden in a ceiling or an electronic card embedded in an everyday object, in these cases the dogs must search for listening devices, hard drives, micro-transmitters or micro-transmission modules, or even USB keys known as “drop devices,” i.e., booby-trapped USB devices used to infiltrate a network or install clandestine access.
The Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS) now deploys its electronic media detection dogs not only in criminal investigations, but also for counter-interference and cybersecurity missions.
The ESD K-9 program, part of the Operational Technology and Cyber Innovation Directorate, is considered an asset in detecting hidden storage devices that could affect the security of sensitive facilities, personnel, or operations. The NCIS has also set up the K-9 PAWS program to systematically track deployments, the types of devices found, and the overall performance of these teams, and to standardize, in particular, the success rate in relation to the number of deployments, the percentage of false positives, and the impact of ambient temperature (10).
Strengthening the security of the defense industrial base and any strategic enterprise can be greatly facilitated by the intervention of digital canine units that can participate in security audits, detect clandestine devices, or secure sensitive meeting places.
In the private sector, some security and investigation companies are beginning to use these dogs in industrial protection and internal investigations. American service providers such as Legal Eye Investigations and Paragon Service Group (11) promote the use of ESD dogs to find electronic devices hidden in offices, meeting rooms, or homes in order to document cases of suspected espionage, illegal surveillance, or human trafficking.
Drug trafficking:
Dismantling the physical digital infrastructure of a drug trafficking network can lead to its downfall, as it will no longer be able to coordinate its operations. This infrastructure includes, for example, hidden disposable phones, SIM cards, modified GPS devices, electronic devices used to control drones, and micro-cameras used to monitor drug dealing locations.
The fight against terrorism:
The fight against terrorism and radicalization involves searching for computers used to produce manifestos and media containing videos of allegiance or technical instructions (manufacturing IEDs, armed drones, etc.). Finding a burned microSD card or locating an encrypted hard drive are tasks carried out by these specialized canine units.
Infrastructure protection:
Controlling sensitive areas (data centers, server rooms, etc.), detecting clandestine electronic devices in restricted areas, and checking crisis rooms, command posts, and media centers are crucial and require various missions (such as locating GPS boxes hidden under vehicles or clandestine transmission boxes on installations).
This skill can also be useful in helping to recover missing device in the event of cybersecurity incidents, fraud, or sensitive internal investigations.
Airport security:
The same applies to ensure safety and security in transit areas and at borders: digital dogs could become valuable allies.
In terms of risk prevention, these specialized teams can be particularly useful in reinforcing pre-event searches and securing sensitive areas in advance. Thwarting cyberattacks sometimes begins with denying physical access to a device, which a digital detection dog can do, whether it is a USB key, a micro-module inserted into a router, or any equipment designed to listen, film, extract, or even falsify data. The same applies to the security of individuals (VIPs) in convoys and hotel rooms (12).
In the field of crisis management, these relatively new skills can be used to support operations to recover any digital media, damaged servers, or memory cards from surveillance systems, enabling investigators to understand the origins of a disaster or anticipate secondary risks, whether it be a fire, industrial accident, or other incident. This type of intervention has already taken place in the case of a fire, and the recovery of melted phones, surviving microSD cards, and surveillance camera housings has helped speed up the process of reconstructing the facts.
Although comparative effectiveness data remains largely protected for operational reasons, the strengthening of security is already palpable through very concrete actions, such as controlling the illegal circulation of phones in prisons, enabling remote operations to be carried out (13).
While digital detection dogs are currently an emerging niche, results in the field show that these teams can substantially reduce blind spots in a world saturated with data and miniaturized devices and defeat even the most sophisticated hiding places: a kind of “digital flashlight—or olfactory ,” to borrow an analogy from an NCIS agent comparing the search for forensic evidence in the dark with or without a flashlight (14).
Bridging the gap between traditional physical search and digital data exploitation, this capability also transforms the logic of search and seizure: “cold” devices can now be identified very early in an intervention, which reorganizes the chain of preservation, forensic analysis, and, potentially, control mechanisms related to migration or border crossings, where digital caches play an increasing role.
While the legal issue is not dealt with in a uniform manner in all countries currently using this technology, the development of an appropriate doctrine is gradually accompanying its deployment in the field as feedback is refined.
At a time when nations are restructuring their digital resilience, these capabilities could become a key element in the chain of evidence, operational interoperability, and the control of sensitive flows, while integrating with future AI-based supervision systems.
By Murielle Delaporte
Sources
(1) “Almost all forms of crime have a ‘cyber’ component,” according to an article published on June 4, 2024, on the Belgian federal police website presenting the latter’s first ICT dog. See: https://www.police.be/5998/fr/actualites/luna-le-premier-chien-ict-de-la-police-federale
(2) https://time.com/3431530/police-dogs-sniff-laptops-usb-flash-drives-child-porn/
(3) https://iacis.org/iis/2023/4_iis_2023_40-50.pdf ;
https://minister.homeaffairs.gov.au/KarenAndrews/Pages/expansion-of-australian-first-technology-detection-dog-program-18-05-2021.aspx
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/357075793_Dogs_as_Detectors_for_Hidden_Digital_Storage_Devices_A_Pilot_Study_from_the_National_Police_of_The_Netherlands ;
https://www.police.be/5998/fr/actualites/luna-le-premier-chien-ict-de-la-police-federale ;
https://www.lecho.be/economie-politique/belgique/general/luna-le-premier-chien-ict-de-belgique-forme-pour-detecter-les-traces-numeriques/10537877.html ;
https://www.ouest-france.fr/politique/defense/gendarmerie/les-e-dogs-ces-chiens-gendarmes-qui-detectent-lelectronique-ab27adbc-4239-11f0-adfe-9f9958012b6a
(4) https://ourrescue.org/operations
(5) https://www.afp.gov.au/news-centre/media-release/afp-showcases-frontline-crime-fighting-canines-keeping-australians-safe
(6) From April 2023—the date the program came into effect—to the publication of this figure in August 2024 in the Canadian press. See: https://www.canada.ca/en/correctional-service/lets-talk/read/2024/08-02-detectordogs.html
See also: https://www.peelpolice.ca/Modules/News/index.aspx?newsId=71b923c1-253e-4809-8e06-923a60ba3896
(7) https://www.tf1info.fr/justice-faits-divers/video-reportage-tf1-nous-on-ne-sent-rien-comment-les-chiens-renifleurs-2-0-de-la-gendarmerie-detectent-les-objets-numeriques-2374116.html
(8) https://www.20minutes.fr/high-tech/by-the-web/4157449-20250607-cartes-sim-cles-usb-disques-durs-e-dogs-chiens-gendarmes-capables-detecter-electronique
(9) https://www.criminallegalnews.org/news/2024/aug/1/dogs-are-sniffing-out-electronics/
https://www.pumphreylawfirm.com/blog/what-is-an-electronic-detection-dog/
(10) https://www.ncis.navy.mil/Media/News/Article/4272479/ncis-adds-three-new-noses-to-the-esd-k9-program/
(11) https://www.legaleyeinvestigations.com/k9-radar-with-legal-eye-investigations ; https://paragonservicegroup.net/
(12) The US Secret Service has recently introduced a training program: https://www.secretservice.gov/newsroom/behind-the-shades/2025/06/electronic-detection-dogs-equip-agencies-high-tech-tracking
(13) See, for example, the study conducted by the Urban Institute in 2024: https://www.urban.org/sites/default/files/2024-04/Cell_Phone_Detection_Canines_for_Contraband_Interdiction_in_Correctional_Settings.pdf
(14) (14) The exact quote from Special Agent Tristy Terwilliger, head of the Death, Cold Case, and Violent Crimes Division at NCIS, is as follows: “Devices located during the secondary search are the items that would have been left behind had the K-9 not been utilized, (…). When we look at the success of the program, it will be primarily focused on those secondary searches where we say that these are the things we might not have collected without the K-9. (…) If you think about searching for bloodstains in the dark, you might find 50% of them,” she said. “But if I give you a flashlight, you’re going to find 100%.” She is quoted from the above-mentioned source: https://www.ncis.navy.mil/Media/News/Article/4272479/ncis-adds-three-new-noses-to-the-esd-k9-program/