The driving mission of the Institute is to advance Security for the Common Good. Researchers and educators that are a part of the Institute lead projects and courses that help society, including increasing privacy, protecting personal information, thwarting exploitation of the vulnerable, and increasing access to the Internet. 

UMass Rescue Lab

For more than a decade, the UMass Rescue Lab has been the premier computer science research group working to thwart Internet-based crimes against children.

Our mission is to rescue every victimized child. 

We havs several goals.

  • To research novel forensic methods and to build advanced tools for rescuing children that are sexually exploited;
  • To characterize empirically the extent of this crime, which evolves as the Internet changes, to inform strategy and policy;
  • And to collaborate with partners to ensure tools we build and trainings we create are available to investigators world wide and see wide deployment.

Thousands of children have been rescued from sexual abuse by investigators using our tools in every US state and over 40 countries. We have never charged for our tools or trainings. 

Learn more about our work.

LEND US YOUR SUPPORT - DONATE NOW

Our work is strictly non-profit and in direct cooperation with law enforcement that use our tools daily. Our work is a force multiplier: every research advance we make and every tool we deploy makes it easier and more efficient for investigators to rescue children world wide. We can use your support; please donate to UMass Rescue Lab via a gift to the Cybersecurity Institute. All funds will be dedicated to supporting our staff for working on this problem.