ED to enhance cyber operations with Gujarat forensic university's help

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) is to take help of Gujarat Forensic Science University (GFSU) to strengthen its cyber and digital forensic operations while dealing with money laundering cases, an agency statement said on Monday.

ED Director Karnal Singh last week signed an MoU with Dr J.M. Vyas, DG, GFSU at the university office in Ahmedabad for this purpose, it said.

"As per the MoU, both ED and GFSU have decided to contribute to exchange of information on research and educational programmes, organise seminars, conferences and workshops on topics of mutual interest, use the expertise, facilities and resources available with each other.

"Both the institutes will also strengthen the capabilities of each other in cyber and digital forensics in developing state of the art infrastructural facilities at various centres of ED. They will offer their infrastructural facilities and expertise in pursuit of professionalism in cyber and digital forensics and design courses in the field of cyber forensics specifically tailored for ED officials," said the statement.

The collaboration would be a big step for ED in effective money laundering investigation as it will result in trained manpower in the field of digital and cyber forensics, faster analysis of seized digital data during investigation and development of advanced infrastructure facilities.

"Although, the field of operation of both the organisations are different yet it can prove complimentary by synergising the efforts in the field of cyber and digital forensics. Therefore, these two agencies have collaborated to exploit and extract best in them. This collaboration aims at providing regular exchange of information, innovation, knowledge, technological developments and skills development which contribute to mutual benefits of the institutions," said the statement.

The GFSU is an international standard learning resource centre which provides excellent theoretical knowledge and advanced technical training in the real-time investigation scenario with high level ethical practices.

To deal with cyber challenges, the ED has set up cyber labs in five regional offices in Delhi, Chandigarh, Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata along with a central cyber lab in Delhi, the statement said.

"As cyber forensics is a relatively new field, it is an utmost necessity that ED officials are well versed with digital evidences and their extraction," it added.

--IANS

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