Assist. prof. dr. Kateryna Latysh, Ukrainian researcher at VU Faculty of Law, was awarded by MSCA4Ukraine Programme of the European Commission and together with an academic mentor and the judge of the Supreme Court of Lithuania Dr. Gabrielė Juodkaitė-Graskienenė will do the research project on the topic “Digital forensic, open data source and artificial intelligence as tools of international security”.
Inspiration for the project came to assist. prof. dr. K. Latysh due to all aggression and crimes which was suffered by Ukraine and its people. During war time a lot of international organizations, individual states, law enforcement bodies and public activists helped for Ukraine by collecting evidence and investigating, basically assisting in remote way.
“More and more questions arise now, for instance: what form these investigations results should have; whether only photos, videos and other digital materials are enough; how the digital materials, especially those from open sources should be verified. And the rules for such digital evidence collecting are not sufficiently researched and regulated, as European countries have not had much experience in these matters yet. So I had an inspiration to do this project for that reason” – says assist. prof. dr. K. Latysh.
One of the research objects is a digital forensic, which according to researcher, has been constantly developed due to growing challenges for international security: nuclear threats, mass destruction weapons use, modern technologies used by criminals (blockchains, drones, robotics and etc.).
“Therefore, the research must “keep pace” with constant changes and be spread among the scientific and practical communities, which will facilitate the establishment of interdisciplinary connections with scientists who also conduct research in this field”, – she tells. As well it is important to keep in mind, that digital forensics tools have been used increasingly due to the dangerous conditions for investigative (search) actions conducting and immediate traces recording need is constantly growing.
The MSCA4Ukraine Programme of the European Commission is implemented by a consortium comprised of Scholars at Risk Europe hosted at Maynooth University, Ireland (project coordinator), the German Alexander von Humboldt Foundation and the European University Association, with the French national PAUSE programme, hosted by the Collège de France, and the global Scholars at Risk Network participating as associated partners. The scheme received over 400 applications. Final decisions were made by a Selection Committee comprised of established scholars from various academic fields from EU member states and Horizon Europe associated countries, as well representatives of organisations experienced in assisting researchers at risk.