When someone's devices, accounts, and online presence are turned against them, the impact is profound, and addressing it demands expertise that is rare and specialised. When forced labour is hidden inside a supply chain, the workers at risk need safe, confidential ways to be heard, and the organisations responsible need world-class tools to surface, investigate, and address it.
The Digital Safeguard Centre brings forensic expertise, purpose-built AI, and survivor-informed practice to both. For victim-survivors of technology-facilitated abuse, that means our Acorn platform, expert digital forensic services, and trusted Digital Safety Audit program used by frontline agencies across the globe. For organisations navigating modern slavery obligations, that means compliance tools, confidential worker reporting, and AI-assisted risk assessment solutions built to the same uncompromising standard, as our award-winning technology Chain-FS.
If you're experiencing this directly — Acorn is built for you.
Acorn covers most situations. Our Digital Safety Audit service is there when a case needs a forensic expert alongside it. And if you're an agency, researcher, or sector partner — there's a door for that too.
The digital safety platform purpose-built for technology-facilitated abuse. If you're affected directly, you can use it yourself — no referral needed, no waitlist. If you're a caseworker, refer clients straight to acorn.tools or use it alongside them. Detection, evidence, secure communications, and risk assessment — in 12 languages.
Visit acorn.tools → For complex or high-risk casesWhen a case needs a forensic expert alongside it. A 90–120 minute session with a trauma-informed practitioner — examining devices, accounts, and digital footprint, with a written report for police, legal aid, or the client's records.
Book an audit → Agencies · Researchers · Sector partnersIf you're a frontline service, peak body, researcher, or organisation exploring how DSC's tools and methodology can support your work — we'd like to hear from you.
Talk to the Centre →The Digital Safeguard Centre is the specialist technology and research backbone for the domestic and family violence sector. Acorn is our flagship platform. The Digital Safety Audit is our expert-led, trauma-informed assessment service. And our research, AI capability, and methodology extend to wherever technology enables harm that goes unaddressed.
Our flagship platform, developed with victim survivors and domestic violence caseworkers. A private place to document abuse, protect communications, and detect what shouldn't be there. Launching early June 2026.
acorn.tools → ii.An active research partnership with the University of Canberra, including a sponsored industry PhD student studying technology-facilitated abuse. We study how technology becomes a weapon and how to take it apart. Findings published openly for the sector.
Our publications → iii.We develop AI systems for problems the market doesn't solve: detecting stalkerware patterns, surfacing coercive control in communications, and helping under-resourced services do more with less.
Our AI work → iv.Some harm is buried by design: in supply chains, inside institutions, in places where speaking up carries too high a cost. We build AI systems and secure reporting tools that surface what has been hidden and give people the means to be heard.
Our work →Frontline domestic and family violence services, refuges, policing, legal aid, universities, and peak bodies — across Australia, the UK, and beyond. The specialists we equip, so they can protect the people they serve.
NFP & Community Sector.
NFP & Community Sector.
iAwards Inspiration Award.
InnovationAUS Awards.
Embracing Innovation.
Here For Good Foundation.
Australian Government — Prime Minister's Prizes for Science.
The Blockies Awards.
Andrew was patient, thorough, and genuinely considerate throughout. A few serious issues were found and resolved. I'd recommend Nansen without hesitation.WRISC
I honestly thought I was doomed to live like this. I often lay awake thinking about what might happen. This really makes a huge difference to me and my family.Private client
The report was essential, not just for her safety, but to reinforce her sense of security and reduce the constant feeling of being monitored. Thank you for turning it around so quickly.GenWest
The solution Rose suggested for the client with no mobile coverage has worked amazingly. She was at serious risk and couldn't even call 000 from her home. That's now resolved.Berry Street
Thank you for showing genuine concern for her safety and for validating her throughout the process. She's now at ease using her devices; that shift in confidence is everything.CAV
Your support and recommendations have already made a huge difference; she is feeling so much more reassured. I really appreciated the way you took the time to explain things in a way she could process.Uniting Care
It was a long session, but it confirmed suspicions that the client and other services had raised. Your patience and attentive care throughout were very much appreciated.SAFV
I set up the phones: they're brilliant! My son said 'Mum, did you do something to the modem? I'm not laggy!' Simple, effective, and exactly what we needed.Private client
Feedback from our Specialist Family Violence Advocates has been overwhelmingly positive. The process is informative, the knowledge extensive, and the manner during the audit professional and empathetic.Good Shepherd
She now feels so much safer having her mobile phone with her. Rose was considerate and the appointment was really empowering for her.WRISC
Quotes are used with permission and identify the referring service, not the client.
Technology is the most common tool of coercive control, used to monitor accounts, intercept messages, and track location. Most platforms treat security as a setting buried in menus. Acorn treats it as a foundation: every tool, every default, every decision designed around the safety of the person at risk.
Methodology-backed and trauma-informed by design, Acorn standardises digital safety across accounts, devices, and communications, preventing account compromise, removing surveillance risk, and protecting communications from the techniques perpetrators rely on most. Built with survivors and caseworkers, grounded in our own research and in the experience of helping thousands of people take back control.
When acornDetect surfaces something complex, an audit is the next step: a 90 to 120 minute conversation with someone trained in digital forensics, and trained to listen. We go through what you're worried about, explain what we find in plain language, and leave you with secured devices and accounts where it is safe to do so, and a written report for police, legal aid, or your own records.
Trusted by more than 65 domestic and family violence agencies in Australia, and by the thousands of victim survivors it has helped free from technology abuse.
Reserved for the most serious matters, where the highest standard of preservation and analysis is required.
Unlike a standard audit, digital forensics demands that no changes be made to the original state of a device or account. Analysis is conducted exclusively on a forensically acquired copy, ensuring the integrity of evidence is maintained throughout. These standards align with those required for criminal investigations and formal legal proceedings.
If you are unsure whether this level of service applies to your situation, contact the team before taking any action. Early advice can be critical to preserving the integrity of your matter.
Contact the team about this service →This service is offered in Australia only.
The forensic discipline and AI capability built for technology-facilitated abuse extends to other domains where technology enables hidden harm. Our modern slavery and forced labour detection methodology surfaces what standard supply chain audits miss. Our anonymous reporting infrastructure gives workers and communities safe ways to be heard. And our AI systems — purpose-built, trauma-informed, peer-reviewed — are available for organisations navigating problems the market doesn't serve.
Talk to the Centre →
Led by our industry PhD and research partnership with the University of Canberra, we actively study the methodologies and techniques perpetrators use to weaponise technology. We publish our findings openly, provide free security advisories to caseworkers as new threats emerge, and deliver training for frontline workers in technology abuse detection and management.
Nansen shares perpetrator methodologies and techniques directly with the domestic and family violence support community. We do not publish them openly: we believe doing so serves only to educate perpetrators and risks re-traumatising the people we exist to protect.
A scoping review of IS literature from 2010 to 2025 uncovered only a handful of relevant publications on technology-facilitated domestic and family abuse, a striking disciplinary neglect in a field uniquely positioned to help. ANROWS data makes the stakes plain: one in two Australian adults report victimisation, one in four admit perpetration. This panel paper, combining perspectives from academia, law, and protective security, argues for an IS research agenda that confronts technology's dual capacity to empower and to harm, putting the experiences of vulnerable people at its centre.
Panel discussion at the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women, New York, on the utilisation of AI tools to disrupt and detect violence against women.
Presented at the three-day international Tech Abuse Conference, opened by the Mayor of London. AI systems for detecting stalkerware, coercive patterns, and technology-facilitated harm at scale.
Active participation in the bodies shaping how technology is built and governed: Standards Australia and ISO blockchain standards working groups, the Australian Computer Society's Ethical Use of AI advisory panel, and international expert group memberships in technology standards and digital governance.
Panel discussion at the AIIA Manager Forum on technology's role in disrupting and preventing abuse of women. International Women's Day special event.
Expert panel discussion on the evolution of perpetrator techniques and the barriers to effectively addressing technology abuse.
Presentation on the tools and techniques used by perpetrators of technology-facilitated abuse.
Hands-on session on technology-facilitated abuse detection and prevention.
Panel and presentation on how frictionless platform design enables and facilitates technology-facilitated abuse.
Three-day international event for researchers, technologists and advocates. Opened by the Mayor of London.
United Nations Commission on the Status of Women, New York. Panel on the utilisation of AI tools to disrupt and detect violence against women.
Panel on practical approaches to technology abuse detection and management for frontline practitioners.
Panel discussion on technology's role in disrupting and preventing abuse of women. International Women's Day special event.
One of 78 organisations awarded an Industry PhD grant by the Australian Government to fund a researcher in technology-facilitated abuse.
Contributing to national policy on risk, technology, and institutional governance.
Panel member across both the blockchain technology and ethical use of AI advisory groups.
Subject matter expert in Standards Australia and ISO blockchain standards working groups.
Whether you're a survivor, a frontline service, a researcher, or a procurement leader who refuses to accept forced labour in your supply chain: there's a door here for you.
Free briefings for caseworkers, researchers, and frontline services. Sent when new perpetrator methodologies emerge — not on a schedule.
These advisories are available to professionals at recognised domestic and family violence services, law enforcement agencies, and partner organisations. We verify all subscribers before adding them to the list.
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