Third edition of Europol’s training course on Open Source IT Forensics

Following the success of the past two editions, Europol has organised, for the third consecutive year, a training course on Open Source IT Forensics, hosted by the Spanish Police Academy in Ávila, Spain. Over a two-week period, 55 cybercrime experts and 8 specialised trainers participated from law enforcement agencies in 30 different countries - the highest number of participants to date. The course was aimed at enhancing law enforcement's knowledge in using Linux as an investigative platform and employing a variety of open source tools within the area of digital forensics.

The practical course in Ávila is the finalisation of a 10-week online training programme which uses material developed by the European Cybercrime Training and Education Group (E.C.T.E.G.) and is accredited by University College Dublin. For the first time, this year the course also included representatives from private industry as keynote speakers and workshop facilitators.

The National Commissioner of the Spanish Police, José Santiago Sánchez Aparicio, and the Head of the Implementation team of Europol's European Cybercrime Centre (EC3), Manuel Álvarez, both participated on 29 June in the opening session of this course.

Europol Deputy Director, Wil van Gemert, visited the course participants in Avila and said: "The increase in cybercrime requires a coordinated response to be based on several elements, one of them is the investment in capacity building at EU level. We need to ensure our cybercrime experts' skills and common forensic procedures are in place and recognised between countries to allow for effective and efficient cross-border investigations."

José Santiago Sánchez Aparicio, National Commissioner of the Spanish Judiciary Police, said: "International police cooperation and capacity-building are key elements in preventing and combating cybercrime. The Spanish National Police will continue the successful collaboration with Europol's EC3, both at the strategic and operational level."

This training is one of the three annual courses offered by Europol's EC3 in the area of cybercrime. EC3 also offers a similar advanced course every year on Combating Online Sexual Exploitation of Children, held in Selm, Germany, and this year has just launched a new training course on Payment Card Fraud Forensics.