Category: EN Bigosint

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EN Bigosint EN Unchained Projects

The Euro-Arab and the Murcia Police hold a training on Human Trafficking in the framework of the European projects UNCHAINED and BIGOSINT

The UNCHAINED project held yesterday 11 July a ‘Training of Trainers’ at the Artillery Barracks in the city of Murcia, organised by the Euro-Arab Foundation and the Murcia Police, where judicial, technological and investigative knowledge was imparted to Law enforcement agencies, especially the police corps.

Today, 12 July, the same venue is hosting a training session on BIGOSINT, a similar project to UNCHAINED, which aims to investigate human trafficking chain. The UNCHAINED project focuses on tracking the economic footprint of this highly lucrative crime, while BIGOSINT focuses on investigating human trafficking through Big Data analysis and Open Source Intelligence (OSINT).

These trainings aim to improve the capacity of public authorities, law enforcement agencies and technology companies to identify suspicious financial activities and to achieve close public-private cooperation. Members of law enforcement agencies from countries such as Israel, Italy, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom are taking part, along with agents from different parts of the Murcia region in Spain.

Spanish press media interviewing the Euro-Arab Foundation researcher Jose María González Riera.

The BIGOSINT training taking place today focuses, among other topics, on a police approach to Trafficking in Human Beings (THB), what are the different indicators and indications of a possible human trafficking crime and offers an operational approach to the verification of human trafficking documentation, as well as a practical analysis workshop for these documents.

Yesterday’s UNCHAINED training addressed European judicial cooperation in the fight against THB, led by the Prosecutor for Aliens and Human Trafficking Silvia Benito Reques together with Karen Latricia Hough, researcher at the Euro-Arab Foundation. There was also a practical training in which attendees learned how to use the OSINT and FAST platforms for data analysis and monitoring of human trafficking. The day ended with a Virtual Reality training. The technological block was given by FALKOR, MBS Engineering and AGENFOR.

The trainings follow on from the ‘Train the Trainers’ trainings’ held in the framework of the UNCHAINED project in the previous months in the cities of Padua and Venice in Italy and in Athens, Greece, with the next training next week in Bremen, Germany.

Presentation on the police approach to human trafficking in the BIGOSINT training, given by Victoriano Martínez, Commissioner General of Foreigners and Borders of the National Police.

The UNCHAINED project, led by the Padova Public Prosecutor’s Office, is funded by the European Commission’s Internal Security Fund. Its Consortium is made up of the Euro-Arab Foundation, the AGENFOR Agency of Italy, the KEMEA Centre for Security Studies of Greece and the Bremen School of Public Administration, Germany.

The BIGOSINT project, led by the Public Prosecutor’s Office of Trento, shares the same European funding as the UNCHAINED project. Consortium members are the AGENFOR Agency, the Bremen School of Public Administration and the Euro-Arab Foundation.

UNCHAINED training session on European judicial cooperation against trafficking in human beings by researcher Karen L. Hough.

Photos: Communication – Local Police Murcia City Council.

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EN Bigosint News Projects

Steering Committee Meeting of BIGOSINT project against Human Trafficking

The partners of BIGOSINT, a project dedicated to the fight against Human Trafficking through Big Data and Open Source Intelligence (OSINT) analysis, met on 22 June in Bremen, Germany, for a regular session where they updated on the progress of the different work packages and future activities.

The project, which started in January 2022 and will end in January next year, aims to improve investigations into human trafficking on the internet by analysing how the characteristics of the cyber environment affect the Human Trafficking chain. For that purpose, BIGOSINT combines technological tools such as OSINT and cryptocurrency analysis with the FAST platform to detect existing online markets and networks, collect human-rights compliant digital evidence, share information and develop enforcement countermeasures by leveraging on public-private partnership.

BIGOSINT Consortium members at the steering meeting in Bremen, Germany.

During the meeting there was a review of the project management and coordination carried out by the Public Prosecutor’s Office of Trento, coordinator of the project. Each member updated the status of the different work packages, such as the sustained service delivery led by HFÖV, the dissemination strategy, sustainability and transferability of BIGOSINT as well as the integrated FAST platform for cybercrime investigation, management and coordination, led by AGENFOR, or the work package led by the Euro-Arab Foundation, dedicated to understanding the investigation cycle of Human Trafficking. The session will end with an open debate and final conclusions.

Currently, training sessions are being jointly prepared in the framework of the BIGOSINT and UNCHAINED projects, which will take place on 11 and 12 of July in the city of Murcia, Spain, and on 19 July in Bremen, Germany, for law enforcement and judicial officers. The training consists of practical sessions where participants will be trained in the use of the technological tools OSINT and the FAST platform. In addition, a Virtual Reality immersion will be carried out to combat the chain of human trafficking in cyberspace.

After these trainings, the tools involved will be tested for 5 months by the security forces in order to implement them on a daily basis and thus improve their skills in the fight against trafficking in human beings.

For more information about BIGOSINT, visit the official website: https://www.bigosintproject.eu/
And follow the project on Twitter: https://twitter.com/bigosint

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EN Bigosint EN Standup News

Virtual reality sessions and coordination of the BIGOSINT and STAND-UP European projects at the Euro-Arab

An important work agenda begins this morning at the headquarters of the Euro-Arab Foundation today and tomorrow, May 10 and 11, developed by the consortium of two European projects in which the Euro-Arab participates, the BIGOSINT project and STAND -UP.

The objective of this conference is to work on the training and coordination of the pilot tests that will be carried out, sharing the tools and platforms of these two projects financed by the European Commission, the BIGOSINT project, whose objective is to counteract Trafficking in Human Beings through the analysis of Big Data and Open Source Intelligence (OSINT) and the STAND-UP project that focuses its work on the fight against hate in the European Union.

In this sense, training in Virtual Reality will be held tomorrow in Granada. With it, it will be possible to support the understanding of the training methodology that both projects will apply in a later phase. This, in turn, will allow them to contribute to the development of the training content and its implementation in a more meaningful way.

This joint activity is expected to open the way to new collaborations with other projects financed by the European Union, those that share a similar research approach and training methodologies, as well as beneficiaries and the use of open source intelligence.

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EN Bigosint News

BIGOSINT Project Kick Off Meeting

On Thursday, January 27, is the first meeting of the new BIGOSINT European project “Countering THB through big data and OSINT analysis” Funded by the European Commission under the Internal Security Fund – Police.

This project brings together four organizations including the Euro-Arab Foundation, the Prosecutor of the Ordinary Court of Trento (Italy) who will coordinate the project, Agenfor International (Italy) and the Faculty of Public Administration of Bremen (Germany) to face the new challenges and new forms of exploitation of Human Trafficking. As emphasised in the UNODC 2020 GLOTIP Report, the web facilitates highly targeted victim recruitment, access to an infinite number of victims, anonymity for offenders and profiteers, covering the traces of financial transactions, and new, devastating forms of exploitation.

As an extension of the EU-funded project UNCHAINED, BIGOSINT will develop and pilot advanced, intelligence-led tools to enhance investigations into internet-abetted trafficking in human beings (THB), directly targeting the diverse roles that the cyber-environment plays in the THB chain.

BIGOSINT matches Open Source Intelligence (OSINT) and cryptocurrency analysis with the FAST Platform, a solid investigative software within an intelligence-led policing approach aimed at bringing perpetrators to justice and differentiating victims from traffickers in a proportionate, legal, accountable and necessary manner.

Through specialized software gathering and untumbling blockchain data and cryptowallets, and profiling-oriented OSINT solutions, anti-trafficking multiagency teams with judicial oversight are able to proactively detect existing online markets and networks, collect human-rights compliant digital forensic evidence, share information and develop enforcement countermeasures by leveraging on public-private partnership.

The BIGOSINT investigative techniques will be piloted for a period of 20 weeks, supported by innovative LEA training on implementation of the tools, the dynamics of internet-facilitated THB, and models for cross-border and inter-agency cooperation. Training will reach 100 LEAs from three pilot countries using the training of the trainer methodology, incorporating innovative virtual reality training, immersing participants in simulated scenarios based on real-life cases.

National inter-agency teams will be established in 3 Member States and a Communication Toolkit will be deployed to support the protection of potential victims, and vulnerable groups in particular.

In that project, FUNDEA will be in charge of the Work Package 2 ‘Understanging the THB investigative cycle’ which aims to deepen relevant practitioners understanding of investigations on the THB cycle in the cyber environment.

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EN Bigosint EN Sat-Law EN Unchained News

Event on “Judicial and Police Cooperation: Best Practices”

The Euro-Arab Foundation participates to the Joint Event “Judicial and Police Cooperation: Best Practices” organized by Agenfor International Foundation in collaboration with the Italian Ministry of Justice, which will see the presence of several European partners that work with the two organisers in the implementation of European projects on judicial and police cooperation.

The event will take place on 22/23 September 2021 in San Servolo Venice island.

Conferences and Roundtable

Public conferences on “New investigative models for THB in the Framework of Public-Private Cooperation (Fairness, Unchained and Big Osint)” and “Navigating the Complexities of Judicial Cooperation Instruments (Sat-Law, Treio, Pre-triad and pre rights)”

Round table on: “Threats from east and south: oil & gas smuggling as serious polycrimes”

Three European Projects in which the Euro-Arab Foundation participates are involved in this event:

UNCHAINED – Untangling the Trafficking Chain. Disrupting the Financial Business Model of Traffickin Technological partners
BIG OSINT (COUNTERING THB THROUGH BIG DATA & OSINT ANALYSIS)
SAT-LAW – Strategic Assessment for Law and Police Cooperation

The event will be enriched by the presence of technological companies with cutting-edge expertise in the security field. They will provide both a crucial technical perspective to the topics treated in the conferences and roundtables, and will give the participants the chance to learn about the latest technological developments in the sector.

To participate online to the event, register here: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZIkd-2trDwrG9D6vMTE19yguMW8l4pKJ-OC