A NEWPORT woman will be travelling across the world to give a talk on fighting online criminals.

Sharan Johnstone is a cyber crime specialist and a senior lecturer in Policing at the University of South Wales.

She will be giving a talk at an international programme on crime prevention and terrorism this month at the Charles Sturt University in Port Macquarie, New South Wales.

Mrs Johnstone previously worked at the USW’s cyber security department and she believes that while cyber security is a major security threat in Europe, it is only recently becoming a challenge in Australia.

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“Cyber-enabled crime, which was highlighted in Europol’s 2018 Internet Organised Crime Threat assessment, is now targeting large numbers of individuals and key organisations such as the NHS, particularly as the desire to obtain personal and confidential information increases," she said.

“There has already been £1.9 billion invested in tackling cyber-based crimes, and local force-based cyber teams have been created.

“However, there are still questions around whether the police forces have the right skills to respond to the continuing challenges that they face from cyber enabled crimes, and if they are able to detect, prevent, and resolve such faceless crimes while ensuring any evidence they collect is acceptable to be used in the criminal justice system.”

Attendees for the talk will include one of her colleagues Daniel Welch and 10 second-year students at USW.

Mr Welch specialises in the impact of police forces’ domestic abuse policies and how they are viewed by abuse survivors.

Only three universities from the UK – including USW – will be sending people to the conference.

The conference will include workshops that will be led by police and academics from across the world.