Simulated environment training for cyber crime cops

Training cyber crime investigators will now turn more sophisticated with the security establishment planning a programme to coach them under simulated environments, where they will have to excavate digital evidences as they would in the case of a real crime.

This is part of establishing a standardised nationally-recognised certification for cyber crime investigations, which is also aimed at helping a large majority of the digital forensics specialists and cyber-crime investigators, who testify in courts but are constantly being challenged on the basis of their certifications and professional knowledge.

The training programme is planned as there is a feeling that there is a "strong need for more training based on simulated environments" and for this, cyber crime scenarios, including digital exhibits, will be created and the trainees will have to extract evidence using forensic tools.

The National Cyber-crime Training Centre (NCTC) under the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) is now looking for a firm that can develop a curriculum for police personnel of ranks ranging from constable to Director General of Police.

The NCTC is entrusted to establish a Massive Open Online Platform (MOOC) for facilitating training and certification on cyber crime investigations and digital forensics.

An NCRB note said, "there has been a strong need to set-up a standardized certification that can be nationally accepted, recognized and which can be presented in courts to further testify for the strong cyber-crime investigations, or digital forensics knowledge of the holder."

The training programme is envisaged for several levels of officers — from first responder officer who can be a PCR van to his monitoring officer to those dealing with judicial side.

Another aspect of the training is the importance it has given to digital forensic teams and investigation teams. The digital forensic teams will be trained in areas like live data forensics, malware analysis, forensic scripting, cloud forensics and cypto-currency forensics among others.

For investigators of crimes, the curriculum will include internet and network investigations, deep web and virtual currencies simulation training and social media and open source intelligence.

The course for cyber crime intelligence officers will have portions on identifying and producing intelligence on cyber crime from raw information, assembling and analysing multi-source operational intelligence and preparing planning materials for photographic reconnaissance missions.

The NCRB note said the course is also designed for officers in top leadership positions. Specifically mentioning the DGPs, it said the course will help top cops increase the efficiency of policing activities while dealing with obstacles such as legislation changes or staff turnover.