Cybercrime Capacity Building in the Americas Phase II

Summary

Phase II project aims to enhance the capacity of 35 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean to tackle cybercrime. The project combines assessment, mentoring and training activities with operations and public awareness efforts, to prevent, detect, and investigate cybercrime in a comprehensive manner.

Details

Context

The Project builds on the achievements of Phase I, completed between 2015 and 2017, which conducted assessments to understand the levels of preparedness of beneficiary countries to combat cybercrime, and started addressing disparities through the delivery of trainings, donation of equipment and software licenses, and coordination of a regional operation.

Outcomes

The project will increase beneficiary states’ cybercrime investigative knowledge and capacity; enhance their digital forensic capability through the delivery of certifying training initiatives; enhance cybercrime enforcement and prevention capacity through targeted awareness-raising mechanisms; and increase sustainability of cyber capacity building efforts throughout the region.

Activities

Within the project, some activities are worth being highlighted:

• Missions to selected countries with emerging capacity and/or recently established cybercrime units, to assess and monitor capability levels and help target initiatives effectively;
• Regional mentoring programmes, where law enforcement officers from beneficiary countries with emerging cybercrime capabilities spent time working alongside colleagues in a country with well-established capabilities, learning from their experience and gaining the ability to implement relevant best practices in their home country;
• Training courses on a range of areas, including INTERPOL policing capabilities, digital forensics, open-source intelligence, cryptocurrencies and dark web investigations, as well as the human rights and gender dimensions of cybercrime;
• E-evidence boot camp: an eight-week interactive online course on the basics of digital forensics and using digital evidence in prosecutions;
• Cybercrime operations to enhance regional cooperation on cybercrime investigations, including cases of illegal crypto-jacking activities, compromised credit card information and online child sexual exploitation; and
• Public awareness campaign to improve digital hygiene.