Richard Matthews

Dr Richard Matthews is an expert in digital forensics. He holds a PhD in image forensics and a Bachelor of Engineering (Electrical and Electronic) from the University of Adelaide, Australia. Dr Matthews also holds several certificates in cybersecurity from Taltech, Estonia. He is a member of the INTERPOL Digital Forensic Experts Group and the UK Forensic Capability Network's 3D Printing Experts Group. His research interests lie at the intersection of digital forensic science (DFS) (as opposed to digital forensic incident response DFIR), systems engineering and intelligence. He enjoys teaching professional practice to engineering students and emphasises the importance of emotional intelligence to build strong, capable leaders.

He has worked in diverse fields including the military, governance, manufacturing and academia. His adaptive leadership style brings diverse, dissenting views together on problems that have no well-defined solutions. In private practice, Dr Matthews is the Managing Director of RHEM Labs, a forensic consultancy specialising in eDiscovery, OSINT, Media Provenance, technology and digital forensics. He provides expert witness testimony on most topics related to technology.

Dr Matthews is an award-winning public speaker. In his TEDx “How safe is the Internet?” Dr Matthews sets a bleak look at our use of technology and how businesses must consider what they post online. He integrates his research focuses on the previously disjointed interdisciplinary fields of electronic engineering, computer science and forensic science to convey the message about internet safety from the perspective of risk.

In 2020 he was inducted into the Netflix Security Researcher Hall of fame and received a bug bounty from the technology company Snap for his intelligence exploit enabling the extraction and preservation of digital media from Snapchat’s Snap Map. He is the current Technology Chair for DFRWS APAC and is now working on projects to address the prevalence of pseudo-science with media forensics and pattern matching disciplines. He currently serves on the Advisory Board for Forensic Science International: Digital Investigation as an Editor and remains an active peer reviewer for IEEE Access. Dr Matthews holds professional memberships with the Australian Institute of Company Directors, the Institute of Electrical & Electronics Engineers, the Australian & New Zealand Forensic Science Society & the Institute of Engineers Australia.

In his spare time he is currently completing a Masters of Business Administration at the University of Adelaide under a Community Engagement scholarship and enjoys being a father to his , and .