Scientific and Forensic Cybersecurity Course

The development of the Scientific and Forensic Cybersecurity Course of the Metropolitan University of Education, Science and Technology -UMECIT-, pursues the achievement of the following objectives:

General Objective
Train professionals in the response to the increase in cybercriminal actors, including digital evidence management from scratch and the implementation and advice of incident response and investigation models from the recognition of current and future forms of cybercrime, their profiling cybercriminal and its multiple factors of affectation.

Specific objectives

• Recognize the different forms of computer crime and cyber threats, as well as their cybercriminal profiling from a dynamic and proactive approach.
• Identify the cybercriminal motivations and affectation capacities of the main online organized crime groups.
• Define containment and neutralization factors of cybercriminals, from a primary action in protection and management of digital evidence and the proposal of response models and cyber investigation.

The proposal of the Course in Scientific and Forensic Cybersecurity contemplates Six topics, which seek to develop skills as an expert in cybersecurity from scientific and forensic approaches.

TOPIC I: Computer crime and cyber threats
(3 Attendance hours + 4 Non-attendance hours = 7 Hours)

THEME II: Proactive cybercriminal profiling
(2 Attendance hours + 4 Non-attendance hours = 6 Hours)

THEME III: Cybercriminal motivations and affectation capacities
(2 Attendance hours + 4 Non-attendance hours = 6 Hours)

THEME IV: Factors for containment and neutralization of cybercriminals
(3 Attendance hours + 4 Non-attendance hours = 7 Hours)

THEME V: Primary action in protection and management of digital evidence
(4 Attendance hours + 4 Non-attendance hours = 8 Hours)

ITEM VI: Response models and cyber research
(2 Attendance hours + 4 Non-attendance hours = 6 Hours)

Computer crime and cyber threats: 
Train professionals in the response to the increase in cybercriminal actors, including the identification of the different forms of cybercrime and cyberthreats.

Proactive cybercriminal action: 
Train professionals in cybercriminal action from a dynamic and proactive approach.

Cybercriminal motivations and affectation capacities: 
Train professionals in the main cybercriminal motivations and affectation capacities of the main online organized crime groups.

Factors for containment and neutralization of cybercriminals:
Train professionals in containment factors and neutralization of cybercriminals

Primary action in protection and management of digital evidence:
Train professionals in primary action in protection and management of digital evidence.

Response models and cyber investigation:
Train professionals in response models and cyber investigation.

Upon completion of the UMECIT Scientific and Forensic Cybersecurity Course, the participant will demonstrate the knowledge, abilities, skills and values, through the performance of the following knowledge:

Know:

• You will apply acquired fundamentals that help you identify the different forms of computer crime and cyber threats, as well as your cybercriminal profiling from a dynamic and proactive approach.
• Recognize the cybercriminal motivations and affectation capacities of the main online organized crime groups.

Do:

• It will advise incident response and investigation models from the recognition of current and future forms of computer crime, its cybercriminal profiling and its multiple factors of affectation.
• You will apply strategies to identify the cybercriminal motivations of the main online organized crime groups.

Being / Living:

• It will respect the cultural diversity and idiosyncrasies of the Panamanian regions.
• They will develop a reflective, critical and creative attitude to detect and analyze unsatisfied needs.
• He will act as a Leading agent of change within the work environment in the different regions of the Country.
• Will know how to work as a team (suppliers, collaborators, private sector, and authorities)
• They will be able to analyze, reason, justify facts and develop arguments to become a free and fair being.
• It will ensure responsible, critical and active participation in society and will contribute to strengthening the democratic economy.

Lieutenant Colonel Marlon Mike Toro Alvarez

His academic and professional work in cybersecurity has focused on the investigation and profiling of cyberthreats, which allowed him, together with the number one cybercriminologist in the world, Dr. Kyung-shick Choi, to write the first book in Spanish on Cybercriminology, propose the First White Hat Hackers Conference and advise the Andean Parliament's Regulatory Framework for Cybersecurity. From digital literacy and testing criminal models online, he has forged a legacy that recognizes him as the forerunner of the Latin American school of cybercriminology.

His participation as a postgraduate teacher in different countries and languages has led him to give lectures to thousands of viewers and inspire the new generations of cybercrime investigators.

Among the most prominent positions is that of being a founding member of the Center for Cybersecurity and Cybercrime Investigation (Center for CIC) at Boston University. Co-founder of the International Observatory of ComputerCrime (INTOCC) and the Cybercrime Division of the American Society for Criminology; Cyber expert accredited by the Chaos Computer Club (CCC), the Society for Interdisciplinary Scientific Criminology (GiwK), a society that has the participation of important scientists from Germany, Austria and Switzerland; Honorary Cyberthinker of the Cyberthinking and Forensic Audit Tank (TCP-IP), among other renowned affiliations and professional reserve.

Lieutenant Colonel Toro-Alvarez holds a Master's in Cybersecurity and Cybercrime Investigation from Boston University (2017) and a doctoral fellow from Southern Illinois University (2018), Florida International University (2021) and New Haven University (2018).