EU regional conference on crime goes online, focuses on virtual currencies and dark web

The Regional Meeting on Crime Proceeds Online, organized by the joint CyberEast project of the European Union and Council of Europe, took place as an online event during 4-5 October 2021. The meeting gave start to the series of in-country activities for the region that explore deeper into the aspects of cooperation between the cybercrime investigations and financial investigations/intelligence, with particular focus on certain types of ICT-facilitated fraud, virtual currencies and Darknet.

CyberEast is a joint project of the European Union and the Council of Europe, implemented in the Eastern Partnership (EAP) region by the Council of Europe under the European Neighbourhood East Instrument (ENI).

Participating countries: Moldova, Armenia, Belarus, Georgia, Azerbaijan and Ukraine.

The project aims at adopting legislative and policy frameworks compliant to the Budapest Convention on Cybercrime and related instruments, reinforcing the capacities of judicial and law enforcement authorities and interagency cooperation, and increasing efficient international cooperation and trust on criminal justice, cybercrime and electronic evidence, including between service providers and law enforcement.

The event was attended by close to 100 cybercrime investigators and prosecutors, financial investigations and financial intelligence officers, security experts (CSIRTs, state security services), as well as private sector entities (banking organisations and Internet service providers) from the Eastern Partnership region.

In addition to in-depth discussions on these themes with international experts and inputs from the Eastern Partnership countries collected during the event, the Regional Meeting also introduced the Training Course on Financial Investigations, Virtual Currencies and Darknet, which will be rolled out to Eastern Partnership countries in October and November 2021 as series of national trainings.

All materials of the meeting, including live online polls run during the event, can be accessed at the link below.

 CyberEast project

 Crime Proceeds Online materials

The project carries out the following activities:

Legislative and policy frameworks and compliance with the Budapest Convention, including through:
– Assessment of compliance with Budapest Convention on Cybercrime through country assessments
– Contribution to the development/update of cybercrime strategies and action plans
– Preparation of country and regional reports on cybercrime and cybersecurity trends and threats
– High-level regional and national meetings of criminal justice authorities and policy makers to assess key issues

Reinforcement of the capacities of judicial and law enforcement authorities and interagency cooperation, including through:
– Assessment of the institutional setup, capacities, competencies, training needs as well as interagency cooperation gaps and opportunities for cybercrime units in region
– Contribution to update and/or development of training plans for cybercrime units
– Training sessions, case simulation exercises and mock trials on cybercrime investigations and digital forensics
– Development of agreed procedures for cybercrime/incident reporting and sharing of data by Computer Security Incidents Response Teams (CSIRTs) with criminal justice authorities

To increase efficient international cooperation and trust on criminal justice, cybercrime and electronic evidence, including between service providers and law enforcement, including through:
– Development of guidelines for mutual legal assistance requests for criminal cases involving cybercrime and electronic evidence
– Workshops, trainings and simulations for improvement of skills, set-up and competencies of 24/7 points of contact
– Training sessions for cybercrime units and prosecutors on use of templates for international requests for data preservation and subscriber information
– Case simulation exercises developing skills for international cooperation on cybercrime
– Support for cooperation agreements between law enforcement and criminal justice authorities
– Workshops for development of standard templates and procedures for access to data held by private sector entities
– Support to public-private dialogue on cooperation