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12 PNP officers trained on anti-terrorism cyber course

05/01/2010

The Philippine National Police is now more capable to deal with terrorists employing high-tech gadgets and computers, as 12 selected police officers recently completed a cyber course on dealing with digital evidence in a crime scene conducted by computer experts from the United States.

In a report to Secretary Ronaldo Puno of the Department of Interior of Local Government (DILG), Philippine Public Safety College (PPSC) president Margarita Cojuangco said the course on Identification and Seizure of Digital Evidence (ISDE) equipped the police officers with proper knowledge and skills to handle vital evidence related to computers and electronics storage devices in a crime scene.

Cojuangco said the training covered identification, proper procedures and techniques in capturing important volatile data stored in random access memory or an operating computer and other digital media that could possibly be mishandled, altered or totally ignored during the processing of a crime scene.

“Proper seizure of extremely fragile electronic data will enable police investigators to secure valuable information on terrorist activities including recruitment, financing, locations and communications, which hopefully will help ensure that criminals who utilize computers and digital devices are prosecuted to the full extent of the law,” she said.

According to Cojuangco, the course was also designed to train the participants to teach the cyber course using the ISDE curriculum without the need for the United States’ Anti-Terrorism Assistance’s (ATA) involvement and to promote a self-sustaining program to be facilitated by local instructors.

The one-week training, which was held at the PPSC headquarters in Taguig City, was conducted by computer forensic experts from the US State Department ATA Program. It was facilitated by Thomas Bureau, Joseph Church and Nathan Teighland, ATA cyber course subject matter experts.

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