07 Dec Results of the second run of the NOTIONES Innovation Monitoring activity
We are proud to announce that the second run of the NOTIONES Innovation Monitoring, which started in September, was very successful in discovering new material to feed the NOTIONES Working Groups.
The monitoring of EU research discovered twenty-nine highly relevant EU-funded projects, such as INSPECTr, which aims at developing a shared intelligence platform that will improve digital and forensic capabilities, and reduce the complexity and cost of cross-border collaboration, and LAW-GAME, whose objective is to train police officers on the development of core competencies required to perform intelligence analysis, through a series of AI-assisted procedures for crime analysis and the prediction of illegal acts.
i-LEAD project was highlighted as very relevant, because it represents a similar project with respect to NOTIONES: they both aim at building a pan-European network of practitioners that can express requirements and priorities on innovative technologies. I-LEAD is dedicated to Law Enforcement practitioners, while NOTIONES is dedicated to Intelligence and Security practitioners. It is not clear whether these two categories share the same perspective.
i-LEAD started in 2017 and is now approaching its conclusion – it will end in 2023 – and in the past years it has delivered many reports and documents stating the perspective of law Enforcement on digital investigations, crime scene recording and documentation, vehicle mitigation, crime as a service and others.
NOTIONES practitioners should carefully read these documents and provide feedback on the recommendations on standardisation and procurement provided there, highlighting existing convergences or divergences of opinions, needs and expectations and delivering specific recommendations from the perspective of Security and Intelligence practitioners.
On the Horizon Scanning side, several interesting and promising technologies and innovation were found about ethical digital forensics, mobile forensics (FORMOBILE, LOCARD projects), and training platforms (CEPOL, EMPACT platform).
Among the technologies investigated, Cyber ranges raised special attention. Cyber ranges are platforms for the development, delivery and use of interactive simulation environments representing organisation’s ICT, OT, mobile and physical systems, applications and infrastructures. The cyber ranges allow the simulation of attacks, users and their activities and of any other Internet, public or third-party services which the simulated environment may depend upon. Cyber ranges can be federated into a larger cluster with more capacity and unique services. The technology is already at TRL 9 for certain applications and many EU-funded research projects and initiatives are developing it in different fields (ECHO, CYCLOPES, CyberSec4Europe).
The innovation monitoring task also reported on the following topics: the EU framework on Artificial Intelligence, the relationship between LEAs and commercial actors, the trustworthiness of the AI, the Artificial Intelligence as a Service, and the P300 technology.
Finally, NOTIONES also explored and analysed the risks associated with potential terrorist use of crypto currencies. The research highlighted the need for a deeper understanding of the nature of this threat as well as the limitations on terrorist use of crypto currencies. Law enforcement agencies and intelligence services should be more aware of these risks and better understand the characteristics and vulnerabilities of crypto currencies when used by terrorists. Regulatory instruments over crypto assets are also very much needed, both on a European and on the national levels, to take into account potential terrorist use of crypto currencies and include those threats within the mechanisms of oversight and reporting of irregularities. Finally, it was noted that Law-enforcement agencies in the EU should strive for closer cooperation in the development and use of technological tools and the sharing of best practices in crypto currency terror investigations.
Links
https://www.notiones.eu/2022/10/06/the-second-run-of-notiones-innovation-monitoring-has-started/
https://www.cepol.europa.eu/education-training/what-we-teach/law-enforcement-cooperation-information
https://www.europol.europa.eu/crime-areas-and-statistics/empact
https://www.cyclopes-project.eu/
https://www.notiones.eu/2022/09/13/cryptocurrencies-as-a-vehicle-for-financial-crime/