Cybercrime today is driven mostly by financial gain and thus rapid detection and action on illegal money flows on the Internet is often a necessity to identify and minimize damages from the criminal activity. The growing threat of cybercrime is further exacerbated by difficulties of access to and securing of electronic evidence, especially if information vital for criminal investigations is in the hands of private companies and is found beyond national borders. However, even where realisation of these threats and challenges by policy makers and professional communities is as strong as ever, successful response to these is often hampered by lack of coordination and common approach of these communities to what should be the ultimate common goal – ensuring safer cyberspace for all.

In order to address the problems of coordination and cooperation in the most practical way, the Cybercrime Simulation Exercise brought together more than 40 prosecutors, cybercrime investigators, financial investigation/intelligence and digital forensics specialists from Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Romania, Serbia, “the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia”, Turkey and Kosovo*¹ who will need to work together, share information and evidence in order to conduct cybercrime and parallel financial investigation of online crime proceeds involving Dark Web and cryptocurrencies.

The participants are be managed by a team of experts, as a command and control center, assisted by the National Crime Agency (NCA), UK.

By the end of the exercise, participants will be able to establish closer links between professional communities of prosecutors, cybercrime investigators and financial intelligence/investigation officers in a real-time environment at both national and international levels in investigation of cybercrime and its financial gains.

• Agenda
• Media gallery
• iPROCEEDS project website

^{*This designation is without prejudice to positions on status, and is in line with UNSC 1244 and the ICJ Opinion on the Kosovo Declaration of Independence.}