Skills gaps analysis reveals the need to reinforce law enforcement competences to combat cyber-attacks

CEPOL has released a new Operational Training Needs Analysis (OTNA) providing a detailed overview of the competency requirements at EU level for different profiles of law enforcement officials dealing with Cyber-attacks.

Why this OTNA?

The EU Strategic Training Needs assessment (EU-STNA 2022-2025) placed cyber-attacks as the top EU training priority. It also recognised digital skills and the use of new technologies as one of eight core capability gaps in which law enforcement officials need capacity-building through training. 

Targeting the criminal offenders orchestrating cyber-attacks, particularly those offering specialised criminal services online, is also one of the EU priorities for the fight against serious and organised crime, as part of the European Multidisciplinary Platform Against Criminal Threats (EMPACT) cycle 2022-2025. Recognising the importance of improving cybersecurity capacity, within the context of the European Skills Agenda, in April 2023, the European Commission launched the Cybersecurity Skills Academy, intending to fill in the recognised cybersecurity skills gap and develop the EU’s cyber resilience.

Focus of the analysis

Following up on the strategic training priorities, in December 2022, CEPOL launched this Operational Training Needs Analysis (OTNA) on Cyber-attacks. This analysis has been performed in line with the Training Competency Framework (TCF)* on cybercrime, defining key competencies and establishing the expected level of skills and knowledge for key roles involved in combatting cybercrime at EU level. The Cybercrime TCF is aligned with the EU-STNA training priorities for cyber-attacks.

In this Training Needs Analysis, the survey focused on mapping competency development needs for each cybercrime profile, rather than the number of law enforcement officials needing training. The outcomes of this research will be used to define CEPOL’s training portfolio in the field of cyber-attacks, in order to respond to the required law enforcement training needs at EU level. Based on the findings, law enforcement officials dealing with Cyber-attacks would need training to enhance skills, such as programming, scripting, SQL; reporting and presenting cybercrime investigative data; network management and tracing; specific cybercrime knowledge, as well as crime scene management and electronic evidence handling.

Read the full OTNA report on Cyber-attacks here. 

Visit our online learning platform LEEd for EU law enforcement officials for more information on our currently available resources covering the topic of cyber-attacks.

What is behind the OTNA approach?

The CEPOL Regulation mandates the Agency to incorporate training needs assessments and analyses in its planning. CEPOL completed the second EU Strategic Training Needs Assessment (EU-STNA) in 2021, identifying strategic level training priorities for law enforcement officials across Europe for the next 4-year cycle 2022-2025 of the European Multidisciplinary Platform Against Criminal Threats (EMPACT). In order to analyse the particular training needs in more details, CEPOL is conducting the OTNAs.

The OTNA methodology is a structured training needs analysis procedure, which takes into consideration the deliverables of the EU-STNA process. CEPOL designs its multiannual training portfolio building on the outcomes of the OTNAs.

 

(*) The TCF on cybercrime was created following a multi-stakeholder approach to identify the key roles and the required skill-sets for practitioners in those roles. EUROPOL led the process, supported by the European Cybercrime Training and Education Group (ECTEG), Eurojust, the European Judicial Cybercrime Network (EJCN), law enforcement representatives nominated by the European Union Cybercrime Task Force (EUCTF) and by the European Union Agency for Law Enforcement Training (CEPOL).