Within the ongoing support to enhance the effectiveness of Slovakia’s anti-money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) system, the Council of Europe organised a three-day training course on “Using Open-Source Intelligence against Money Laundering and Terrorism Financing” in Bratislava. The training course responded to a specific  request by the Slovak authorities, following two previous training activities delivered on financial investigations (in May 2023) and on asset recovery and confiscation (in June 2023), where the practitioners trained expressed additional interest for further technical capacity building in the area of open-source intelligence (OSINT).

The advantages of OSINT in the fight against economic crime have become increasingly understood within Law enforcement agencies in Europe and worldwide. OSINT can help investigators gather a wide range of useful information from multiple national and international sources at relatively low cost, build a more complete picture of suspects and their activities, identify red flags to detect financial crimes, provide valuable insights into the operations of international companies in various countries and identify potential illicit activities. However, specific knowledge and skills are required in order to conduct a productive open-source investigation and ensure the use of its results as legal evidence against economic crime.  

The objective of this training course was to develop the capacity of selected members of Slovak investigative and supervisory authorities to use OSINT effectively in the context of AML/CFT – from a preventive, investigative as well as a judicial perspective. Participants comprised 24 national practitioners dealing with financial intelligence, investigation and prosecution of proceeds-generating crimes, from the Slovak Financial Intelligence Unit, the National Crime Agency, the National Headquarters for Specific Types of Crimes and the National Intelligence Agency.

The training approach used was interactive, with a combination of dynamic lectures and real exercises to “learn by doing”. Through active engagement in the course’s sessions, participants learned the practical application of the OSINT cycle, enabling them to conduct investigations in a forensically sound manner, allowing electronic evidence gathered by the process to be used in Courts of Law. The hands-on training approach, including setting up of participants’ computers to prepare them for safe and effective OSINT searches, allowed for an immediate application of the technical advice provided. It facilitated a concrete improvement of the participating authorities’ processes and use of OSINT in their daily work.

By reflecting on the application of these OSINT techniques in their national framework, participants could also determine where specific weaknesses in their systems may exist. The exercises showed them an unsuspected number of tools available to cyber criminals and money launderers, as well as techniques for authorities to search and use them in an investigative context. The third training day focused on the “dark web”, including the conduction of investigations in the dark web, but also the legal and ethical limitations to be balanced against the advantages of certain techniques in the fight against crime. 

The feedback from participants was very positive, some saying this was “eye-opening” and “one of the most useful training events attended”. The majority of them indicated that it would impact their way of conducting investigations and prosecutions using open-source intelligence in the immediate and near future. This confirmed the growing need for supporting a professionalisation of the conduction of open-source investigations and the use of OSINT by Law enforcement, considering its complex implications in terms of security, effectiveness as well as legal and human rights issues.  

This training activity was implemented in the framework of the joint TSI Project on “Enhancing the effectiveness of the AML Framework in Slovakia” funded by the European Union and the Council of Europe and implemented by the Council of Europe.