Cross-border co-operation and education in digital investigations: A European perspective

Co-operation and education are fundamental issues when dealing with national and international organizations involved in digital forensic investigations. Although these two aspects are often separately handled, they are strictly connected. On the one hand, different agencies can leverage on co-operation for the training of their investigators while, on the other hand, co-operation is possible only if an adequate level of education on digital forensic matters is reached. In this paper, the concrete outcome of a complete training program that involved several European antitrust agencies is reported (named EAT-FIT, European Antitrust Training in Forensic IT). We sum up the activities and the techniques that are generally used in antitrust investigations, and we outline the rationales used to set up such a training course. Assessment data collected both during and after the training highlight the needs and the difficulties faced by the digital forensic practitioners working in the field. © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.