[27.10.2006 first posted on silicon republic]
Ireland will play host to international cyber crime training events for European law enforcement officers at the Garda College in Templemore, siliconrepublic.com has learned.

According to Detective Inspector Paul Gillen, who is project manager of the programme, the training courses will mean that police in smaller countries will have access to the same levels of cyber crime training as forces in larger countries. “Obviously, high-tech crime is a global phenomenon: evidence might be in one jurisdiction and the crime in another,” said Gillen. “All investigators should have access to high-quality training and work on a level playing field.”
Two training courses will be held in Ireland, from next Monday, 30 October to Friday 3 November and again from Monday 20 to Friday 24 November.
Gillen, who heads up the Computer Crime Investigation Unit at the Garda Bureau of Fraud Investigation in Dublin, said that Ireland was playing a prominent role in tackling the problem of computer crime. The Garda Síochána are members of Interpol’s European working party on IT crime, in addition to participating in Europo’s cyber crime expert group. “While we’re a small country and a small unit, we’re seen to be leading lights in researching and developing initiatives to tackle computer crime,” Gillen told siliconrepublic.com.
Speaking at the Irish Cybercrime Forum in UCD yesterday, Bernhard Otupal, head of Interpol’s High Tech Crime Unit, paid tribute to the work of the Gardai in this area: “Ireland has got a very good unit; a very innovative one with good ideas,” he said.
Otupal also spoke of the need for more structured training in technology and crime across all levels of the police force. “Nowadays, any crime could have some IT evidence involved,” he said. “We need much more training for police: every officer on the street should have a basic knowledge of cyber crime and know who to contact. Criminal investigators should of course have more background.”
The training courses, which are at intermediate level, are co-funded by the applicant countries, the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform and the European Commission. They came about through the Falcone Programme of 2002, which recommended a model for accrediting training that would be consistent across all EU member states, as well as the accession countries. Ireland will also host these training courses again next year.
By Gordon Smith