Building and maintaining large-scale data leak databases (DS2025)

Technical and organizational insights into building and operating large-scale leak databases, using reveng.ee as a case study. Reveng.ee is a private database indexing extensive leaks of personal data from Russian sources, used by investigative journalists, military analysts, and law enforcement. Possible formats: - Workshop: guided exploration of how to search and work with leak data using the real interface — but this format has limited value because reveng.ee is a closed, paid service and will not be accessible to all participants; - Talk: an in-depth overview of where such data comes from, how it is processed and stored, search indexing for messy heterogeneous datasets, and operational considerations (security, legal, ethical). This would emphasize methodology and infrastructure rather than promoting or granting access to the actual platform. Either case will take about 20–25 minutes, followed by Q&A. Licensed to the public under https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/de/ about this event: https://talks.datenspuren.de/ds25/talk/SG7CRZ/