First INTERPOL fully online training focused on digital evidence

SINGAPORE – INTERPOL has concluded its first-ever training course held entirely online for police and judicial authorities, which focused on understanding digital evidence and how it can be used in prosecutions.

The INTERPOL E-Evidence Boot Camp ran from 17 June to 9 September. The course provided an introduction to digital investigations and forensics for law enforcement officers, judges and prosecutors.

With more and more investigations relying on digital forms of evidence, there is a growing need for police to understand how to identify, collect and authenticate this type of ‘virtual’ evidence. In addition, judicial systems must also ensure their rules and procedures take digital evidence into account.

Some 65 participants from 30 countries took part in the online course, which offered different modules each week taught by subject matter experts. Topics covered included Dark Web investigation fundamentals, e-mail investigations, and an introduction to digital forensics.

Each week the participants logged in from their home countries to attend webinars, take part in an online discussion forum and complete regular assignments. By the end of the course, they had developed their knowledge of information technology, digital forensics and how to evaluate digital evidence with a view to presenting it in court. 

“Online training has many benefits for our member countries, as attending classroom training can require significant time and resources,” said Jorge Fainstein Day Gastrell, INTERPOL’s Acting Director of Capacity Building and Training.

“For INTERPOL’s first training course of this nature, it was only fitting that it was on a technology-focused topic like digital evidence, which will play an ever-increasing role in police investigations worldwide,” he added.

The course was delivered jointly by two INTERPOL capacity building projects funded by the Government of Canada – Project Scorpius to counter terrorism and transnational crime in South and Southeast Asia, and the Cybercrime Capacity Building Project in the Americas II – in collaboration with the INTERPOL Global Learning Centre and the University College Dublin Digital Forensic Investigation Research Laboratory (DigitalFIRE).

Experts from INTERPOL’s Innovation Centre and Cybercrime unit, Austrian Federal Police, Trinidad and Tobago Police Service, Public Prosecution Service of Canada and the Forensic and Investigation Service of the Grant Thornton network of financial advisory firms also participated in the delivery of the training session.

Countries participating in the course were Australia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Costa Rica, Curaçao, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, India, Jamaica, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Maldives, Mexico, Nepal, New Zealand, Pakistan, Palestine, Paraguay, Philippines, Romania, Spain, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname, Timor-Leste, Trinidad and Tobago, and Zimbabwe.