From October 14, Europol is training law enforcement officers from Europe and beyond in the complex field of online investigations by using a game created specifically for the task.
The SIRIUS game, developed between Europol’s SIRIUS Project and the Centre of Excellence in Terrorism, Resilience, Intelligence and Organised Crime Research (CENTRIC), has been designed for investigators to gain hands-on experience in requesting data from online service providers, such as internet providers and social media platforms.
This is a complex issue to navigate, as online service providers can be located outside of Europe and all have specific ways of receiving such requests from law enforcement. As electronic evidence is present in most investigations, this is a very relevant issue. Law enforcement and judicial authorities need to know which type of data they can request and how to request it.
The SIRIUS game takes the investigator through an immersive scenario where the user will attempt to make such requests following a terrorist attack.
Europol created the SIRIUS project in 2017 to respond to the need of law enforcement and judicial authorities to improve access to electronic evidence during an investigation. SIRIUS is a secure web platform for law enforcement professionals, offering a variety of services to its users, such as guidelines, trainings and tools, to help with accessing data from online service providers. In three years, the SIRIUS platform has grown to 4500 users from 44 countries, representing all EU Member States.
The SIRIUS Project has received funding from the European Commission’s Service for Foreign Policy Instruments under grant agreement No PI/2017/391-896. Europol is the sole beneficiary of this grant.
