MIAMI, USA – Criminals are increasingly using different types of vessels to facilitate a variety of crimes, from illegal fishing and drug trafficking to maritime piracy and people smuggling. Digital information contained in shipborne equipment can therefore be a critical piece in the investigative puzzle.
The 2nd INTERPOL Digital Forensics on Shipborne Equipment Forum brought together 20 participants from law enforcement in 10 countries and the private sector to understand the equipment which can be found on ships and how to extract usable data to support criminal investigations.
Organized by INTERPOL’s Innovation Centre and Environmental Security Programme and hosted by the US Coast Guard Investigative Services, the five-day (4 – 8 November) event at the US Coast Guard base in Miami Beach focused on digital forensic tools and techniques for collecting data from shipborne equipment.
Hands-on exercises by experts from INTERPOL and the private sector allowed the participants to gain practical experience. In addition, the meeting also looked at digital forensics best practices and chain of custody matters, and countries shared real-life case examples.
Participants also visited various ships at the Miami port to see first-hand the different types of equipment which could be encountered during investigations.
Based on the needs expressed by INTERPOL’s member countries for a better understanding of how to identify and gather relevant digital data from shipborne equipment, the participants also began to develop guidelines, a manual and training module for first responders and digital forensics officers.
The meeting built upon the outcomes of the first INTERPOL Digital Forensics on Shipborne Equipment Forum held in Singapore in late 2018.
