Police and border officers fight with illegal immigrants in cyberspace

The second decade of the 21st century has seen an unprecedented influx of migrants never seen since World War II, posing a great challenge for law enforcement agencies responsible for border and internal security of the European Union. Organised crime groups use diverse communication means and social networks to communicate with more ease and discretion than ever before and facilitate illegal immigration. Therefore, we should be ready to use open source intelligence in our investigations.

Hence, on 12-16 September 2022, the Main Border Guard Training Centre in Koszalin (Poland) hosted 26 participants representing 15 European countries engaged in fighting against illegal immigration in cyberspace.

For five days, experts from the European Commission, Europol, CEPOL as well as Polish specialists working in law enforcement agencies trained participants in collection and analysis of data gathered from open sources. During the training sessions, the experts discussed areas such as cryptocurrencies, dark web, OSINT tools, and social media.

The participants were active during the training sessions and shared their experience with one another. They acknowledged that such courses are a great opportunity to expand their knowledge, as well as they form a platform that enables to exchange information on their tasks.

The Main Border Guard Training Centre in Koszalin is one of the organisations that regularly holds courses co-financed by the CEPOL. This onsite training activity on "OSINT In Facilitated Illegal Immigration" has been the fourth course but not the last one.

Contributions are directly provided by CEPOL partners and published on this page “as is”. As a result, CEPOL shall hold no responsibility in the accuracy of content provided by the partner. Opinions reflected in these blogspots shall not be deemed to represent CEPOL’s Management or staff’s opinion.