UCD Centre for Cybersecurity & Cybercrime Investigation Centre of Excellence Case Study

Philosophy To assist Law Enforcement in the fight against cybercrime through the delivery of real solutions to real problems Our main relationship is with LE, and this began in 1998 with a request from the Irish Police to develop training for their new hi-tech crime investigators. Our mission drives what we do. In finding solutions, we may have to develop training, software, find hardware solution, or undertake research.

Partnerships LE Government Industry Our relationship is built on partnership. We never work on projects in isolation, we consult on needs, and we bring LE to work into the projects.. We also have a strong relationship with the Irish Government, and we have had researcher working in the Department of Communications for two years. He has set up the network infrastructure for the Government CERT and is training the staff on incident response. We work with industry in a small way. The Irish Banking Federation sponsors a researcher to work on online financial crime. We run cyber attack exercises for the banks and provide research briefings on topics, such as Bitcoin and KVM devices. Last September, the UK police arrested over an alleged plot to steal millions of pounds by taking control of a bank branch's computers. It is claimed that one of the men posed as an engineer to fit a computer into a branch of Santander with a "keyboard video mouse" device. This then allowed them to remotely gain control of its desktop contents from another computer.

Mechanisms European Cybercrime Training & Education Group - ECTEG EU Funding – DG HOME Research Services Training/Education There are a number of ways in which we deliver solutions: ECTEG – Since 2006, when the group was formed, we have been special advisors to ECTEG, developing training material, providing academic oversight, acting as secretariat for the group. Apply to DGHOME for projects to develop training materials, software, hardware, research, conferences. To date have we have been involved in 11 different projects, and have a further 3 upcoming. Provide research services. Currently working with Irish Banking Federation Hi Tech Crime Forum on online financial crime and the Irish Government on cybersecurity issues. Deliver training to LE around the world. Have trained over 2000 police officers. Training can be delivered as part of project funding, such as with the Lithuanian project; with another agency, such as with INTERPOL in Syria and India, and the OSCE in the Balkan States; or to individual agencies on request, such as with the Saudi police. Have a online Masters degree programme in Forensic Computing & Cybercrime Investigation.

Self Funded Unit Funding & Partnership How Self Funded Unit Funding & Partnership We are a self-funded unit, with most of our funding coming from EC projects. We know that it can be difficult for LE themselves to apply for funding. There is a lot of paperwork, the proposals have to be written in a particular form, they have to meet the objectives of the EU so you need to have current knowledge of what the priorities are, and they are very time-consuming both to prepare and to manage afterwards. We put proposals together and manage the projects if we are awarded a grant. However, we don’t decide what projects to do, our LE partners decide what the project requirements are. In every project, we partner with Law Enforcement from across Europe and beyond. We have a network of over 500 police officers, and these have been built up through the development and delivery of training, and working on projects.

Example – Centre of Excellence 3 year project €3.9 million Over 30 activities – training, software development, research Here are two examples of how we cooperate with our LE partners. In 2010 we were invited by the European Commission to submit a proposal to develop a model for a network of Centres of Excellence based upon our Centre. The project lasted for 3 years during which we undertook a range of activities to promote building of capacity and capability. We ran training programmes, developed eLearning material, software and undertook research into themes such as Cloud Forensics and Cybersecurity of Critical national infrastructure. As part of the 2Centre project, we actually employed two Law Enforcement agents to work full time in the university. A Latvian police officer worked for two years on the development of a forensic tool, and a Dutch police officer worked for 12 months on a surveillance device. We also seconded one of our researchers to work with the Irish police for six months to assist in finding a solution for increasing computer backlogs

Example - FREETOOL Funded by DGHOME 2 Years Develop Free or Low Cost Forensic Tools for LE LE partners from Germany, UK, Netherlands, Belgium, Estonia, Spain, Romania, Finland, Norway, Luxembourg, Greece, Switzerland Project managed by UCD The FREETOOL project is a two project funded by the European Commission. The aim of the project is to develop free or low-cost forensic tools for the LE community. The tools are developed in partnership with LE and developers from UCD, and are validated by UCD. The final results will be available to any LE agency that requests them. Themes: Forensic Process Management Artifact Analysis Live Data Forensics Enhanced Previewing for Forensics

Questions Cheryl Baker UCD Centre for Cybersecurity & Cybercrime Investigation cheryl.baker@ucd.ie