Between 14 and 16 February 2023, the Regional training on Joint Investigative Teams and improved co-operation with foreign service providers under the Second Additional Protocol to the Convention on Cybercrime (Budapest Convention) brought together participants from over 34 countries. This activity was organised by the joint European Union and Council of Europe projects CyberEast, CyberSouth, GLACY+ and iPROCEEDS-2, in collaboration with the Council of Europe Octopus Project, and in partnership with the Prosecutor General’s Office of Portugal.
For 3 days, members of the 24/7 points of contact and mutual legal assistance authorities of participating project countries engaged in a series of tabletop and technical exercise sessions to establish working conditions for joint, cross-border investigations, and access to data by use of international co-operation tools provided by the Second Additional Protocol to the Budapest Convention.
The scenario was close to reality (concerning an ongoing ransomware investigation), exposing participants to complex technical and investigative challenges, some of which proved difficult to overcome in the limited time assigned to the exercise. International cooperation between law enforcement and prosecution services could still be enhanced. Moreover, the time of response to cross-border requests needs to be expedited. Perhaps all these challenges are not far from reality, after all.
Participants had high expectations to understand and learn how to apply the Second Additional Protocol in practice. The majority of participants agreed that doing a practical, tabletop/technical exercise was the right approach and they would also highly recommend the same training to their colleagues.
In light of these observations, the format of the tabletop/technical exercise has correctly reflected both the challenges of international cooperation as well as allowed the participants to test solutions to overcome those challenges.
More than two-thirds of participants intend to transfer to their daily work the “use of joint investigative teams with other states”, the “exchange of spontaneous information (Art 26 Budapest Convention)” and the “reliance on points of contact network (Art 35 Budapest Convention)”. 75% of those surveyed are ready to use new skills and knowledge in their work immediately.
Participants also noted that: “The greatest benefit has been discovering the importance and advantages of the Second [Additional] Protocol; “The Second Protocol is a new tool to all of us; during this exercise we understood its importance as well as potential obstacles”; “Learning [by] doing, sharing opinions and fun moments”.
The Cybercrime Programme Office is dedicated to assisting countries in adopting legislative and policy frameworks compliant to the Convention on Cybercrime (Budapest Convention) and its related instruments. We would also like to express our gratitude to the Prosecutor General’s Office of Portugal for their assistance in organising this event.
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Convention on Cybercrime (Budapest Convention)