Skolkovo resident cybercrime company Group-IB has joined forces with Russia’s police academy to train police officers in the field of cybersecurity.
Group-IB CEO Ilya Sachkov (left) shakes hands on the agreement with Andrei Konev, head of the Interior Ministry's Management Academy, in Moscow on Tuesday. Photo: MVD.
Group-IB, which specialises in helping companies to prevent cyberattacks, will work together with the Interior Ministry’s Management Academy to train highly qualified specialists for the police under an agreement signed in Moscow on Tuesday. The two sides will carry out joint research into the prevention, detection and investigation of cybercrime, and exchange information including statistics, methods and analysis, they said in a press release.
“We believe it’s necessary to completely change the approach to computer crime: to not try to adapt old systems to the new reality, but create a fundamentally new system of fighting cybercrime,” said Ilya Sachkov, CEO of Group-IB, which regularly helps the police to catch hackers.
“Military science holds that to devise the right defence strategy, you have to know who your potential enemy is. Information security begins with knowledge. This is why we pay so much attention to educational work and cooperation with Russia’s leading universities,” said Sachkov, whose company also works with the Moscow and St. Petersburg state universities, Bauman Moscow State Technical University, Moscow Engineering Physics Institute and many others.
Andrei Konev, head of the Interior Ministry’s Management Academy, said he expected the partnership to be enduring and effective.
“The Management Academy of the Interior Ministry of Russia is gaining a reliable partner in Group-IB in combatting contemporary challenges and threats in cyberspace,” said Konev.
Group-IB and the Management Academy have been working together for several years, since the academy’s leadership invited experts from Group-IB’s digital forensics laboratory to give lectures and master classes on computer forensics and investigating malware. The academy’s management has also taken part in Group-IB’s annual international cybersecurity conference, CyberCrimeCon.
At this year’s CyberCrimeCon earlier this month, Group-IB announced the launch of its CyberSchool: a centre of excellence in cybersecurity. The company’s specialists have devised original educational programmes and learning formats for a range of audiences, from schoolchildren and students to information security experts.
As a resident of the Skolkovo Technopark, Group-IB also organises regular lessons on cyber hygiene for the pupils of the Skolkovo International Gymnasium.