'Document and Media Exploitation. Train the Trainers' course enhances instructor training in this discipline

• It was taught by the Improvised Explosive Devices Centre of Excellence

The Centre of Excellence against Improvised Explosive Devices (C-IED Coe) has given the DOMEX (Document and Media Exploitation) ‘Train the Trainers’ course at its facilities in Hoyo de Manzanares, Madrid.

Directed and organised by C-IED CoE staff, and funded by NATO's Innovation, Hybrid (Threat) and Cyber Division, the course gathered eight instructors from three nationalities (Spain, the United States and Greece), including members of the various Armed Forces, Law Enforcement and Security Forces and civilian personnel.

The CoE C-IED has been supporting the enhancement of Technical Exploitation knowledge in support of Attacking Insurgent and Terrorist Networks since its inception, being, at the time, the only international body to provide training in the DOMEX domain.

In recent years, the demand for DOMEX courses has grown as Allies have realised the importance of extracting and sharing information from documents and digital devices (especially drones and mobile phones) in theatres of operations to support military operations and intelligence analysis. For this reason, the C-IED CoE supports NATO member nations and Partners through its DOMEX courses (basic and advanced), offering several editions throughout the year.

In order to improve the training of trainers who teach the courses, as well as to increase the number of experts in this area and to help nations develop their own DOMEX capacity, the DOMEX ‘Train the Trainers’ course has been organised.

During this one-week course, a review of the DOMEX training programme was conducted through a process of identified/learned lessons in order to adapt it to the changing global scenario. Furthermore, from a technical standpoint, participating instructors received advanced training in data extraction techniques (Chip-Off) from damaged devices that cannot be processed through digital forensic tools; as well as specific training in newly acquired digital forensic tools.

This course is expected to benefit the development of future DOMEX courses, which will be resumed in the second term of 2025, by increasing the technical knowledge of the participating instructors.