The dispense of justice in law courts lies on the analysis and understanding judges give to evidence presented before them by litigants. With the advent of ICTs and the Internet, a new form of crime known as cybercrime has emerged challenging legal systems to equip themselves with basic knowledge on how to deal with cybercrime and digital evidence.

It is within this premise that Cameroon's cyber security Agency - ANTIC, organised a three-day seminar for magistrates and law enforcement officers of the country's East Region in Bertoua, 22-24 May, 2019 aimed at  strengthening their capacities on how to investigate cybercrime, secure and analyse digital evidence.

The art of cybercrime, legal framework regulating cybercrime in Cameroon, digital public order, security intelligence, the art of securing digital evidence, electronic signature and the challenge of identifying  ICT users were some of the themes experts from within and without ANTIC drilled the seminar participants on.

Presiding at the seminar's opening, May 22, the President of the East Regional Court of Appeal, Michel Ntyam Ntyam, while representing the Minister of State, Minister of Justice and Keeper of the Seals, saluted ANTIC for the initiative, and underlined that it is indispensable because it would enhance the aptitude of the judiciary corps in the investigation and prosecution of cybercrimes in Cameroon.

Meanwhile in his keynote address to the participants, ANTIC's Director General, Prof. Ebot Ebot Enaw, pledged the Agency's technical expertise in the fight against cybercrime at the service of the judiciary noting that the existing cooperation between the Agency and the judiciary has resulted in the successful prosecution of several cybercriminal cases.

According to Prof. Ebot, the ever-changing nature of cybercrime warrants stakeholders in the cyber security chain especially magistrates and judicial police officers to always be on guard by putting in place  stringent measures inspired by an understanding of the phenomenon through continuous trainings like the seminar organised by ANTIC.

Prof. Ebot singled out fake news disseminated on the Internet, mostly through social media, as a menacing cybercrime that must be dealt with accordingly because it constitutes a major threat to social cohesion and public order in Cameroon.

The seminar in Bertoua was in its fourth edition and is part of a nationwide campaign ANTIC initiated in 2016. So far, the Centre, Littoral, West and East Region have already been covered.