Open-source intelligence and online investigations in focus at OSCE training course for law enforcement in Uzbekistan

How to effectively use open-source intelligence and online investigations in law enforcement was the focus of an introductory training course in Tashkent organized by the OSCE Transnational Threats Department and the OSCE Project Co-ordinator in Uzbekistan from 22 to 26 April 2024.

“Having the skills to effectively and efficiently search for, collect and analyse data and information from open sources online is becoming an indispensable part of every police officer’s and criminal justice practitioner’s toolkit today,” said Antti Karttunen, Head of the OSCE Project Co-ordinator in Uzbekistan, during his opening remarks.

Seventeen representatives from Uzbekistan’s Ministry of Internal Affairs, Academy of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and Law Enforcement Academy took part in the course, which was held at the Law Enforcement Academy and delivered by two international experts from Georgia and Lithuania.

The course’s ten modules covered topics such as relevant open-source intelligence process and information theory; web and internet fundamentals; operational security in online investigations; analysis of websites, emails, social networks, images and other open sources; preservation of online evidence; and human rights in the context of open-source intelligence. The training materials were based on a new e-learning course developed by the OSCE in 2023.

“Almost everyone uses the internet to search for information, but to do so in a structured, systematic, secure and lawful way is a competence that needs to be learned. Our Academy is very happy to have hosted a course on such an important topic,” said Yevgeniy Kolenko, First Deputy Head of Uzbekistan’s Law Enforcement Academy.

The training course was part of the OSCE’s extra-budgetary project, Capacity Building on Combating Cybercrime in Central Asia, funded by the United States, Finland, Germany and the Republic of Korea.