Degree of foresight as police forces learn to tackle cybercrime

UCD’s GROWING reputation as a centre of excellence in cybersecurity was boosted this week as 28 police officers from 16 different countries received an MSc in forensic computing and cybercrime investigation from the university.

It’s believed to be the first qualification of its kind in the world specifically aimed at law enforcement. The graduates included officers from forces in Germany, Italy, the UK, Malta, Bulgaria, Latvia and Spain, as well as three from An Garda Síochána.

The choice of Dublin as venue for the graduation ceremony reflected Ireland’s central role in developing the course. The Computer Crime Investigation Unit at An Garda Síochána was the project manager for the course and the idea is the culmination of 14 years of work by the head of the unit, Det Insp Paul Gillen.

At the conferring ceremony in Dublin, Garda Commissioner Martin Callinan said it is now standard practice to seize computer media to search for vital evidence in investigations. That increases the need for law enforcement to be trained in forensic computing and cybercrime investigation strategies and tactics, he added.

The 28 officers were trained in the basics of computer science, to understand where evidence is typically found on hardware or in a software program. The course also covered the process of digital forensics so that evidence is legally valid in court.

In total, the master’s course covered 10 modules ranging from mobile phone forensics to using internet phone systems to track suspects. The training also involved simulated crime scenarios using real-life examples from law enforcement such as money laundering, malware and hacking attacks.

Most of the classes were delivered remotely, in addition to eight weeks of on-site training at UCD, as well as two weeks each in universities in France, Spain, Greece and Denmark. Some 50 international lecturers were involved, primarily from law enforcement and academia with some input from the private sector.

One of the graduates, an officer who asked to be identified as AG, primarily works undercover and said this allows him to gain the trust of criminals online.

“Internet investigations are becoming more and more popular all the time because criminal groups move through the internet and through the social networks,” he said. He was involved in a recent operation which led to the arrest last month of a man who had been gathering information about poisoning the water supply in Spain.

Victor Voelzow, a digital forensics analyst at the police academy in the state of Hesse in Germany, won the commissioner’s award medal for achieving the highest grade in the class. He said the course was very practical. Now qualified, he plans to teach 90 officers in digital forensics units in Hesse. Voelzow also consults on cases involving complex computer crimes where specialist knowledge is required. “Where we have to keep the focus on is the underground economy. If they build up botnets and use them for malicious reasons, that’s a big challenge for us. Another challenge will be mobile devices and another is cloud forensics,” he said.

With cloud computing, all of the software and storage is located at a data centre and users access them via the internet on their PCs or smartphones. Voelzow said this will make it harder for police to gather evidence than now, when most data is physically stored on a person’s computer.

“Whenever you have a cloud service or a cloud provider, that can be in a totally different country. There can be an international factor where you have to know the legislation of this country and you have to know if a crime in your country is a crime in the country where the provider is based,” he said.

That puts the emphasis on co-operation between police forces which was one of the spin-off benefits of the course, said Insp Gillen.

“No one party is in a position to fight cybercrime on its own. If you’re to have seamless cross-border co-operation in this type of crime, it’s important to train together.

“You form bonds with people and then you’re in a position to work together,” he said.

Voelzow said the informal network that had built up between the officers would help to speed up official requests for assistance. He said some of the group have already worked together on cybercrime cases.

Another benefit of the course has been to bolster Ireland’s standing in the cybersecurity sector, said Prof Joe Carthy, head of UCD’s centre for cybercrime investigation. “We’ve now an established reputation with major forces like Interpol, Europol, the UN Office on Drugs and Crime and the Organisation for Security and Co-Operation in Europe . . . We are now the go-to people for cybercrime training for law enforcement,” he said.

Earlier this year UCD was chosen to lead the 2Centre project, a €4 million initiative backed by the European Commission to combat cybercrime by providing training, research and digital forensics tools to police forces.