Zonal heads of Internet crime units in training

A second regional Interpol training kicked off yesterday at the Rwanda National Police headquarters in Kacyiru, as countries continue charting ways to strengthen measures against cross-border crimes. The two-day course brings together 20 heads of cyber crime units from 18 African countries and Interpol staff to share knowledge and best practices in cyber crime investigation and digital forensic procedures and tools. It will also provide executive level training in judicial issues such as evidential standards, admissibility of evidence and proving guilt. The Deputy Inspector General of Police (operations), Dan Munyuza, who opened the course, said criminals use technology to “execute their evil plans,” which requires Police forces to work together to foil their illegal plans . “Information technology is an important tool in Policing and development in general. Unfortunately, it has also been used by criminals in their illegal acts, which affects individuals and countries,” Munyuza said. “No single country can fight cyber crime alone; cooperation is vital to combat such crimes,” he added. The course was organised by Rwanda National Police in partnership with Interpol. Sanjay Virmani, the Interpol director of Digital Crime Centre, said cyber crime has become endemic, making the sharing of information, expertise and working together paramount. Vision of training The training will facilitate collaboration between national cyber crime units and their national Interpol bureaus. Meanwhile, another four-day cyber crime investigation course of 31 Interpol officers from Zone V countries ended Wednesday with a call on the officers to make good use of skills acquired to investigate cyber-related crimes. “Cyber crime is one of the most sophisticated crimes and related acts pose great threat to the world, which necessitates cooperation to share timely information and expertise to deal with it effectively,” IGP Emmanuel Gasana said while closing the course. The officers were also taught social media investigation, as well as how to preserve and report online data. Cyber crimes include fraudulent sales, hacking, and selling of personal and private online information. Interpol Zone V countries are Malawi, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Ghana, Seychelles, Swaziland, Zambia, Sudan, Botswana, Namibia, Zimbabwe and Nigeria. Others are Tanzania, Uganda, Kenya, Burundi, Mauritius, Djibouti, Lesotho, Mozambique and Rwanda.