In October, 48 police officers began their studies in digital forensics at the CyberCampus NRW (CCNRW). NRW Minister of the Interior Herbert Reul has now seen for himself and visited the students in Mönchengladbach at The Hochschule Niederrhein on Tuesday. The Hochschule Niederrhein and Bonn-Rhein-Sieg University of Applied Sciences are collaborating on the CCNRW project.
The Minister of the Interior took a look at the lessons on site and talked to the students about the first few weeks of their studies. Whether hacker attacks or child pornography: the budding cyber investigators are the North Rhine-Westphalian police's response to crimes in the digital space.
Interior Minister Herbert Reul: "The cyberspace needs capable cyber investigators like a smartphone needs a battery. After all, cybercrime is no longer a distant threat of the future, but the criminal field of the present. This means that we need to ensure security in cyberspace just as much as on the streets and we need police officers with the necessary IT know-how who can type commands into their keyboards in their sleep when the need arises. I am happy and grateful that our people here at the Cyber Campus in Mönchengladbach are being equipped with the necessary tools to fight cyber criminals."
"The academic apprenticeship of police officers to become cyber specialists is a social obligation of great importance for the lecturers at both universities. As a state university, roughly equal numbers of first-year students who are interested in digital forensics as part of their first degree or already experienced digital experts are registered on this degree program alongside police officers. This mix once again demonstrates the relevance of the subject and ensures that current discussions, trends and technologies are taken into account in the learning concepts of so-called "problem-based learning". The studies provide the necessary methodological tools to combat cybercrime in order to master new technical challenges in the future," says Professor Dr. René Treibert on behalf of the CCNRW management team at The Hochschule Niederrhein, which also includes Professor Dr. Thomas Meuser and Professor Dr. Gudrun Stockmanns.
In May, Minister of the Interior Reul, Dr. Thomas Grünwald (President of The Hochschule Niederrhein) and Professor Dr. Hartmut Ihne (President of Bonn-Rhein-Sieg University of Applied Sciences) signed the cooperation agreement on academic qualification measures for cybercriminals.
The Digital Forensics degree programme is offered as part of the CCNRW programmes. The Hochschule Niederrhein and Hochschule Bonn-Rhein-Sieg have joined forces to form the CCNRW. The Hochschule Niederrhein's Mönchengladbach campus offers the Cyber Security Management (Bachelor's and Master's) and Digital Forensics (Bachelor's) degree programmes. The Sankt Augustin campus of Bonn-Rhein-Sieg University of Applied Sciences offers the Cyber Security & Privacy (Bachelor's & Master's) degree programme.
