Cybercrime

The Cybercrime Programme Office of the Council of Europe (C-PROC), through the CyberEast+, a joint project of the European Union and of the Council of Europe, and in partnership with Expertise France, organised a comprehensive cybercrime training exercise on elections interference, in light of the upcoming elections in the Republic of Armenia.

Around 30 participants from the National Security Service, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Central Electoral Commission, the Prosecutor General’s Office, and the Information Systems Agency actively engaged in this four-day exercise. Representatives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Armenia, the EU Delegation and the DG ENEST acknowledge the importance of this exercise for enhancing cooperation between cybercrime and cybersecurity experts and for addressing cyber threats and criminal disinformation within the context of elections.

Based on a realistic scenario, participants, under the guidance of Council of Europe experts, handled simulated attacks on the electoral infrastructure and investigated links to criminal groups interfering with elections through disinformation operations. This hands-on activity relied on the applicability of real-life skills for forensic analysis and online investigations, which led to the identification of potential perpetrators and the collection of intelligence and evidence. In a coordinated approach, the participants applied OSINT and malware analysis in order to recover data necessary for the investigation, prosecution and prevention of further incidents.

The CyberEast+ project will continue to increase the capacities of Armenian project stakeholders in the area of cybercrime and electronic evidence, through further technical cooperation exercises on incident handling and cyberattack investigations.

CyberEast+ project

Cybercrime Programme Office of the Council of Europe (C-PROC)

Expertise France