As a result of the good cooperation between SELEC and the Cybercrime Programme Office of the Council of Europe, a 4 days training on online undercover investigations took place during 17-20 September 2019, in Bucharest/ Romania, with the participation of cybercrime investigators from 11 countries from Southeastern Europe and Turkey.
The Director General of SELEC, Mrs. Snejana Maleeva addressed opening remarks to the participants, mentioning that “the Internet and the technology have changed the way criminals commit crime, as the organized criminal groups are increasingly incorporating technology and Internet into their criminal activities, either by committing cybercrimes or by using them to commit other crimes”. Mrs. Maleeva informed about SELEC’s 20th anniversary, as during the years SELEC became a key player in the fight against trans-border crime and a successful example of regional cooperation. Mrs. Maleeva also referred to the increasing number of exchanges of information and joint investigations recorded through the years, and encouraged the representative of the SELEC Member States to use SELEC channel in their work.
SELEC supported the training also by providing a trainer that managed one of the training sessions.
The aim of the training course was to strengthen international cooperation in investigation of transnational criminal activity using special investigative techniques and to provide the cybercrime investigators with effective instruments in undercover online operations.
The training tackled, among others, topics such as communication platforms, use of Darknet and virtual currencies in undercover online operations, online underground investigations, principles and preparation of an undercover operation, a/o.
SELEC has Observer status to the Cybercrime Convention Committee (T-CY) of Council of Europe.