OSCE supports training on cybercrime and digital evidence in Kyrgyzstan

From 6 to 8 December, the OSCE Transnational Threats Department (TNTD) and the OSCE Programme Office in Bishkek supported the State Committee of National Security of the Kyrgyz Republic in delivering an introductory course on cybercrime and digital evidence to 20 representatives from the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Office of the Prosecutor General of the Kyrgyz Republic.

While this was the fourth national training activity in Kyrgyzstan under the project, it was the first time when national experts from one of the project’s beneficiary institutions were leading the course delivery.

“With the growing scope of both cyber-dependent and cyber-enabled crime and the importance of digital evidence in all types of investigations, it is becoming crucial to provide introductory-level training on this subject to a wide range of criminal justice practitioners.  While international organizations like the OSCE can help countries to start such a process, in the end the only sustainable way to do this is through using national capacities,” said Ion Gaina, Head of the Moldovan Police General Inspectorate IT Forensic Department, who supported local lecturers during the event.

The participants learned about the cybercrime and digital evidence, sources of digital evidence, approaches for searching and seizure of digital evidence at a crime scene, and basics of conducting online investigations.

The course was supported through the extra-budgetary project “Capacity Building on Combating Cybercrime in Central Asia” funded by the United States, Germany and the Republic of Korea. It took place in a new computer classroom, donated to the State Committee of National Security of the Kyrgyz Republic through the project.