It will allow law enforcement officers to get hands-on training tracing cryptocurrencies in criminal investigations. Cryptocurrencies are a form of digital money that use encryption to secure transactions using cryptography, a form of secret coding originating from the Second World War, to process transactions securely. The most well-known – bitcoin – can be moved quickly and easily across borders, making it attractive to cybercriminals. Terror groups and the shadowy extremists who sponsor them often use cryptocurrency because it is incredibly hard to trace.
The law enforcement agency demonstrated the state-of-the-art tech at the sixth Cryptocurrency Conference hosted at Europol’s headquarters in The Hague, Holland.
The ‘serious’ game was developed and co-created in close cooperation with Sheffield Hallam-based CENTRIC (Centre of Excellence in Terrorism, Resilience, Intelligence and Organised Crime Research).
The game, planned to be launched in October, will be the first law enforcement training opportunity on cryptocurrency and investigation using game technology.
CENTRIC developed AUGGMED, a serious games platform which utilises innovations in modern technology including virtual reality, augmented reality, and artificial intelligence to provide a training platform.
It allows police, security forces, counter-terrorist units and other emergency services to train their staff in various VR environments.
The software allows different scenarios and can apply this training using augmented reality.
Serious games simulate real world events and processes with the purpose of providing unique challenges to improve a user’s problem-solving capabilities.