OSCE Project Co-ordinator trains and equips Ukrainian cyber police

The OSCE Project Co-ordinator in Ukraine (PCU) handed over around 200 ICT items, including notebooks, desktop computers, monitors, printers,  network switches and routers, to the cyber police department on 19 July 2017 in Kyiv, as part of its project to support the Ukrainian police in improving its response to emerging cyber threats as part of the country-wide police reform.

The donation of equipment was made at the conclusion of a series of two-week re-training courses which the OSCE PCU has delivered to 184 cyber police officers and inspectors since October 2016, in co-operation with the Ukrainian Interior Ministry, the National Police and the Kharkiv National University of Internal Affairs.

The equipment will enable the police officers to apply the knowledge gained during the training in their daily work, thereby increasing its sustainability. This donation follows a first donation of 130 ICT items made in March 2017.

Arsen Avakov, Ukraine’s Minister of Internal Affairs said: “We are grateful to our foreign partners for their support. Certainly, it is very important in current circumstances that our officers work with the newest equipment. As has been shown in practice, cyber threats have neither limits, nor borders. I am convinced that we need to improve co-operation with our foreign partners and consolidate efforts in order to overcome threats in this field.”

Jeffrey A. Erlich, Senior Project Officer, OSCE Project Co-ordinator in Ukraine stressed that “Due to the current cyber threats it is very important that the cyber police department has modern specialized equipment and the police officers are able to apply their knowledge in everyday work.”

In May and June 2017, the PCU also facilitated two one-week advanced training courses for cyber police officers, which focused on open source intelligence and investigation of mobile devices. International experts from the United Kingdom National Crime Agency (NCA) and their national counterparts delivered the courses using the training room of the headquarters of the cyber police department in Kyiv, established in 2012 with the PCU support.

The activities were conducted within the project, “Building Capacity of Cyber Police”, implemented with the financial support of the United Kingdom government and facilitated by the National Crime Agency (NCA).

To learn more about the re-training courses and the PCU’s support to cyber police officers visit:

//www.osce.org/ukraine/254761

//www.osce.org/ukraine/271166