Ninh Binh, July 20-21, 2023, Wildlife Conservation Society - Viet Nam Program (WCS Viet Nam) collaborated with the investigating agency of the Supreme People's Procuracy (SPP) to organize a training on “Skills in collecting and using open-source intelligence and digital data in the criminal investigation".
Data recovery delivered by HTI trainer, Ninh Binh, July 2023
Thirty participants who are investigators, prosecutors from the investigating agency, and the Division of Criminal Technical Examination, Department of Administration and General Affairs, SPP joined the two-day training together with representatives of the leadership of the investigating agency, the Department of the International Cooperation and Mutual Legal Assistance in Criminal Matters, SPP, WCS Viet Nam, and HTI Digital Services Co., Ltd.
In his opening remarks, Mr. Le Hong Thanh, Senior Investigator, Deputy Head of the investigating agency, SPP emphasized the importance of improving investigator's skills in collecting, assessing, and using digital data to meet the requirements of investigating criminal cases in the context of the fourth industrial revolution.
Ms. Hoang Bich Thuy, Country Director of WCS Viet Nam added “although the SPP’s investigating agency does not conduct the investigation of wildlife-related cases as they are mandated to investigate crimes of infringing upon judicial activities, and corruption crimes committed by officials from the law enforcement and judicial agencies, but strengthening their investigative capacity will contribute to ensuring objectivity, transparency and accountability of the judicial proceedings in handling criminal cases, including wildlife-related cases”.
Practice exercise guided by the HTI trainer, Ninh Binh, July 2023
This training course was designed to introduce and equip participants with tools for searching, tracing, and exploiting publicly available information from open sources, as well as collecting and recovery of digital data. During the training course, participants practiced a variety of open-source intelligence investigation techniques applied in the investigation of social networks, emails, dark webs and crypto-currency. Especially, participants were guided to extract and recover digital data by experts from HTI Digital Services Co., Ltd., a leading company in digital forensics and data recovery in Viet Nam. This training course was also the opportunity for participants to discuss the methods to ensure the integrity, objectivity, and probative value of digital data to be used as evidence in criminal cases.
The training was conducted within the framework of the project “Scaling up efforts to counter wildlife trafficking in Viet Nam” funded by the Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (INL), United States Department of State, and the project “Improving the effectiveness of multi-sectoral collaboration in combating illegal wildlife trade from Africa to and within Viet Nam” implemented by GIZ on behalf of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and the German Federal Ministry for Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (BMU), combines the expertise and resources of five German ministries, international organizations and NGOs.