Bridging the Gap: Supporting Cross-Border Access to Electronic Evidence

08 November 2024|NEWS

The SIRIUS Conference 2024 took place from 5-7 November, bringing together law enforcement, judicial authorities, policy makers, and service providers to discuss the evolving challenges in cross-border access to electronic evidence. This annual event serves as a platform for updates on legal developments, data disclosure procedures, and the latest investigative tools, with hands-on training from industry experts.

conference room

In a rapidly changing online environment, law enforcement and judicial authorities need support to cope with the complexity and volume of information and to develop their knowledge when obtaining electronic data from service providers based in other jurisdictions. The SIRIUS project, co-implemented by Europol and Eurojust, supports investigators with a variety of services, such as guidelines, trainings and tools, to help with accessing data held by the industry. These services are available to law enforcement and judicial authorities via the SIRIUS restricted platform and mobile application.

This year’s conference included a 3-day programme, with the third day reserved for law enforcement and judicial authorities. Attendees benefited from interactive workshops, networking opportunities, and presentations on pressing topics in the field.

Presentations included an update on the state of play of the EU Electronic Evidence Regulation from the European Commission followed by insights from government judiciary and service provider representatives. The SIRIUS team gave an overview into the upcoming ‘SIRIUS EU Electronic Evidence Situation Report 2024’, the upcoming UN and Budapest Conventions on Cybercrime was presented offering future opportunities for international cooperation. Workshops explored topics such as audio deep fakes, lawful access to data, the EU AI Act and future AI-related challenges, and digital asset seizures for evidentiary purposes.

The SIRIUS project is a central reference point in the EU for knowledge sharing on cross-border access to electronic evidence. To this day, SIRIUS serves a community of competent authorities from over 50 countries, representing all EU Member States and a growing number of third countries. Building on its existing expertise and resources on the legal instruments currently in force, SIRIUS will assist law enforcement, judicial authorities and service providers in navigating the increasingly complex legal framework during the third phase of the project, starting next year.

The SIRIUS project has received funding from the European Commission’s Service for Foreign Policy Instruments (FPI) under contribution agreement No PI/2020/417-500. For more information, visit SIRIUS.