Events

This week, a group of Western Balkan practitioners completed a training journey that has taken them from basic, through advanced, to Training of Trainers level.

Delivered as a series of regional activities in cooperation with WB3C, the programme covered practical areas including OSINT, Dark Web investigations, cryptocurrency tracing and other investigative tools relevant to cyber-enabled crime.
The final Training of Trainers stage adds an important multiplier effect: participants are now better equipped not only to apply this knowledge in their own work, but also to transfer it further within their institutions.
The completion of the series therefore marks more than the end of a training cycle. It contributes to stronger and more sustainable national capacity across the Western Balkans.
Thank you to EU4FAST, CIVIPOL, the trainers and all participants who contributed to the full programme.
 

That question is at the heart of this week’s training at the WB3C, organised in cooperation with the Council of Europe and opened by H.E. Cécile Humbert-Bouvier, Ambassador of France to Montenegro, Liliana Trofim, Senior Project Office at the Council of Europe and Lejla Dervisagic, Head of CoE Office in Podgorica.
Participants from law enforcement, prosecution services and other relevant institutions are working with trainers Ronan Mouchoux and Jean-Pierre Bonnet on situations that public authorities increasingly face both online and offline: How to recognize when offensive or disturbing speech escalates into incitement to hatred, public disorder or criminal activity.
One point made by our Council of Europe colleague set the tone particularly well: the purpose is not to censor information or restrict legitimate expression. The challenge is to recognise when content and its context create consequences that may require institutions to act.
And when law enforcement intervention is required, the threshold matters just as much as the response itself. Any action must have a clear legal basis, be necessary in the circumstances and remain proportionate to the risk being addressed.
This makes the subject much more complex than simply identifying “harmful content”. It requires legal judgement, an understanding of context and potential impact, and close cooperation between investigators, prosecutors and other institutions responsible for protecting both public safety and fundamental rights.
For WB3C, this is where capacity building can make a difference by working through realistic scenarios, discussing difficult thresholds and helping practitioners make sound decisions when the answer is not immediately obvious.

At the Human In in the Loop conference at Infofest in Budva, this week, WB3C’s Director of Programmes joined the panel “Cyber Resilience in Practice: NIS2, DORA and the New Legislative Framework.”
He highlighted how WB3C combines academic programmes and practical training to help critical entities meet their obligations.
He also stressed the value of regional cyber exercises in testing decisions, coordination and the continuity of essential services.
Through its EU-funded work, WB3C is developing training tailored to the needs of each country and critical sector in the Western Balkans.

This week, WB3C is hosting a Training of Trainers on cybercrime, organised in cooperation with EU4FAST and CIVIPOL.
Eleven police representatives and prosecutors from the Western Balkans are taking part, with a goal to strengthen their ability to pass the knowledge on through national-level training.
The programme is delivered by Cyril CORRIAS and Caterina Baglivi and covers the fundamentals and evolving landscape of cybercrime, cyber-related offences, OSINT, the Dark Web and cryptocurrencies.
The focus is not only on learning the subject matter, but on helping participants turn that knowledge into training they can use with colleagues in their own institutions.

Yesterday, we had the pleasure of meeting a delegation of EU Member State representatives visiting Montenegro in the context of its EU accession process.
The visit, organised by the Embassy of Ireland and led by Kevin Colgan, Ambassador to Serbia and Montenegro, provided an opportunity for the delegation to learn more about the Western Balkans Cyber Capacity Centre, its regional mandate and the role it plays in strengthening cybersecurity capacities across the Western Balkans, presented by Gilles Schwoerer, our Director of Studies.
The discussion focused on how WB3C works with institutions and partners across the region, the Centre’s main areas of activity and the importance of sustained regional cooperation as the Western Balkans move closer to the European Union.
The meeting was intentionally informal and open, allowing for a useful exchange on the region’s cybersecurity needs, capacity-building priorities and the contribution that initiatives such as WB3C can make to wider resilience and EU integration.
Our thanks to the Embassy of Ireland for initiating the visit and to the members of the delegation for their interest, questions and thoughtful discussion.

When a cyber incident disrupts operations, the real test is not only how quickly it can be contained — but whether essential services can continue.

That was the focus of this week’s three-day Business Continuity Management (BCM) for Critical Entities training in WB3C. 

Led by Mladen Bukilic, SOC Manager and CISO at Čikom, the programme took participants through the practical building blocks of business continuity: ISO 22301 principles, Business Impact Analysis, cyber risk assessment, continuity strategies, crisis management, incident response, and the development and testing of Business Continuity Plans. 
A strong emphasis was placed on identifying critical functions and dependencies, understanding the operational impact of disruption, and translating risk assessments into realistic continuity and recovery arrangements. The training also explored how BCM connects with cyber incident response and crisis management — an increasingly important issue for entities providing essential services. 
Participants came from sectors including energy, water, healthcare, transport, telecommunications, finance, public administration and digital infrastructure, which made the exchange of practical experience particularly valuable. 
Many thanks to the trainer and the participants for an engaging three days.

Over the past two days, WB3C hosted the Global Cyber Policy Dialogue: Western Balkans Next Gen, gathering young professionals and experienced experts from across the region to exchange perspectives on some of the issues shaping the region’s cyber future. 
Discussions ranged from AI and cybersecurity and AI governance, to the evolving UN cyber processes, regional cooperation on incident response and confidence-building measures, societal cyber resilience and disinformation. The programme also looked closely at a challenge shared across the region: how to develop, attract and retain the cyber talent needed by governments, businesses and other institutions, and how to convert talent into operational capability. 
What stood out throughout the dialogue was the strong interest of participants in connecting people and institutions across the region, sharing experience and finding practical opportunities for joint action. This is precisely the kind of regional professional network that can make cooperation more effective long after an event has ended.

The dialogue was organised by Observer Research Foundation, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands and the Western Balkans Cyber Capacity Centre (WB3C), with the support of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Montenegro.
A particular thank you to Anneleen Roggeman, Bruce McConnell, Katherine Salinas and Jeffrey Bean from ORF America for another excellent collaboration, and to jantine van Bakel for the close partnership with the Netherlands. From WB3C, many thanks to Maja Miranovic and Gilles Schwoerer for their contribution to making these two days happen.

And thank you to all our speakers and participants for the openness and energy they brought to the discussions, including Vladimir Petreski, Project Manager and Editor-in-Chief of Vistinomer.mk at the Metamorphosis Foundation, who contributed to the exchange on disinformation and the role of civil society in strengthening information resilience and Andreja Mihailovic, PhD for leading the discussion on talent gap. 
We look forward to continuing these conversations — and, above all, turning the connections made in Podgorica into stronger regional cooperation.

This week at WB3C, police officers and prosecutors from the Western Balkans worked through a four-day practical programme on Open-Source Intelligence (OSINT) and Dark Web investigations, delivered in cooperation with CIVIPOL and EU4FAST.
Led by WB3C training team Cyril CORRIAS and Jean-Pierre Bonnet, the course focused on the practical skills needed to collect and analyse publicly available information in support of Internet investigations — from identifying potential threats and gathering digital evidence to producing actionable intelligence. 

The programme moved progressively through the fundamentals of Internet investigations and evidence preservation, protection and anonymisation techniques, social network investigations, online checks and surveys, and safe navigation of the Dark Web, combining each area with practical exercises. Participants also worked on approaches to data collection and the legal and ethical considerations linked to the use of digital information. 

The training brought together law-enforcement practitioners from the WB6 who were attending a WB3C programme for the first time, expanding the network of professionals in the region equipped to work with open-source information in increasingly complex digital investigations. 

Our thanks to our partners CIVIPOL and EU4FAST, and especially Marie Pierre MOSIN for supporint this programme, and to all participants for four intensive and highly practical days in Podgorica.

On the sidelines of the BerlinProcess meetings held in Montenegro this week, we were honoured to welcome Ms Marie-Pierre Vedrenne, Minister Delegate to the Minister of the Interior, responsible for Citizenship.

Accompanied by the newly appointed French Ambassador to Montenegro, Ms Cécile Humbert-Bouvier, the Minister met with the WB3C team and learned more about the training programmes being delivered at the Cyber Centre this week.

She spoke with participants, WB3C trainers and external experts, including Reza Elgalai from the University of Technology of Troyes (UTT) and Major Marc TEROUANNE of the French Gendarmerie, who travelled to the WB3C specifically to deliver digital forensics training.

The Minister also met with Polish experts from NASK, who are working alongside Slovenia’s URSIV to deliver cybersecurity training focused on disinformation. She also engaged with CIVIPOL experts from the EU4FAST project, who are providing specialised cybercrime and OSINT training to strengthen the fight against migrant smuggling and irregular migration.