OSCE’s training on open-source intelligence and online investigations delivered in Kyrgyzstan

How to conduct online investigations, as well as effectively identifying and collecting data and information from online open sources was the focus of a training course organized by the OSCE Transnational Threats Department and the OSCE Programme Office in Bishkek from 24 to 28 June 2024.

Fifteen law enforcement representatives from the Office of the Prosecutor General and the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Kyrgyz Republic took part in the course, which was held at the Academy of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in Bishkek and delivered by two experts from Georgia and Lithuania.

“Online open sources contain a wide range of data and information that can be helpful in any type of investigation. The skill to search for such data and information on the Internet has thus become one of key competencies for all law enforcement practitioners,” said Konstantin Bedarev, Head of the Politico-Military Department at the OSCE Programme Office in Bishkek, during his opening remarks.

The course’s ten modules covered topics such as the 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 online investigations. The training materials were based on a new e-learning course developed by the OSCE in 2023.

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.