The EnCRYPT Certification
Enabling Cybercrime Response: OSINT, Profiling and Tradecraft. A 20-hour live online professional certification for law enforcement, integrating Open-Source Intelligence, AI-assisted investigation and cyberpsychology.
Reserve your seat
USD 225 per participant, open to participants in India and internationally. The fee covers all ten live sessions, the 16-resource participant toolkit and certification. Course recordings are provided by SSODL.
Booking for a team or a departmental nomination? Write to info@thecyberdiplomat.com and we will help with group registration.
Cybercrime is technical, psychological and investigative at once
Offenders operate across encrypted platforms, anonymisation networks, cryptocurrency, AI-generated content and multiple false identities. Victims shaped by shame, fear and manipulation may delay reporting or give fragmented accounts. Most training still teaches technical skills, legal frameworks and behavioural insight in isolation. EnCRYPT brings them together.
OSINT Tradecraft
Identify digital footprints, map criminal infrastructure, trace online personas and build evidence-grade intelligence from publicly available sources.
AI-Assisted Investigation
Use AI tools ethically and effectively for image verification, behavioural analysis, entity mapping and threat intelligence, with a clear view of evidentiary limits and bias risks.
Cyberpsychology & Profiling
Understand why victims behave as they do, how offenders manipulate and escalate, and how trauma-informed interviewing improves investigative outcomes.
The essentials
- Offered by
- SSODL, Symbiosis International (Deemed University), in partnership with The CyberDiplomat
- Level
- Professional certification · law enforcement capacity building
- Duration
- 20 contact hours · 10 sessions × 2 hours
- Schedule
- Wednesdays and Fridays · 6:00 – 8:00 PM IST · 18 November – 18 December 2026
- Mode
- Live online, interactive sessions with guided hands-on practice
- Cohort
- Up to 25 law enforcement professionals
- Assessment
- Participation, applied exercises and a capstone simulation (no written examination)
- Certification
- Certificate of Completion issued by SSODL, Symbiosis International (Deemed University)
- Recordings
- Course recordings provided by SSODL
- Faculty lead
- Sanjana Rathi, Founder & CEO, The CyberDiplomat
- Prerequisites
- Basic familiarity with cybercrime concepts. No advanced technical or psychology background required.
- Fee
- USD 225 per participant
Built for the people who investigate
- Police officers and cybercrime cell personnel
- Investigators handling online fraud, harassment, sextortion, grooming, stalking and financial cybercrime
- Intelligence and special branch personnel
- Women and child safety unit officers dealing with technology-facilitated abuse
- Digital evidence and cyber investigation teams
- Victim support officers and cyber helpdesk personnel
- Financial cybercrime and organised crime investigators
- Counter-terrorism and radicalisation investigation units
- Prosecutorial and legal support personnel involved in cybercrime matters
- Senior officers seeking strategic awareness of AI, OSINT and the behavioural dimensions of cybercrime
- Paramilitary and defence personnel with cyber or intelligence responsibilities
Ten sessions, session by session
Each two-hour session combines OSINT, AI-assisted investigation and cyberpsychology around a theme, with time for guided practice, building towards the Operation DualEdge capstone. All sessions run 6:00 – 8:00 PM IST.
Week 1 · 18 – 20 November
Wed 18 Nov
Cyberpsychology Foundations and Digital Victimisation
What cyberpsychology is and why it matters in investigation; the online disinhibition effect; online identity, personas and the "true self" problem; visible and invisible harm. How victims experience cybercrime: why they may delay reporting or behave inconsistently, and how shame, fear and coercion shape statements and evidence, with a case discussion on a delayed sextortion complaint (fictional). Orientation: programme roadmap and tools set-up checklist.
Fri 20 Nov
OSINT Principles, Legal Boundaries and Safe Research Practice
Information, intelligence and evidence distinguished; legal and ethical boundaries of open-source collection; data protection, privacy and admissibility. Analyst workstation hygiene and operational safety; advanced search operators and web archives, with a search-operator lab on a fictional case. Capturing and preserving online evidence, chain-of-custody awareness and the intelligence log.
Week 2 · 25 – 27 November
Wed 25 Nov
Social Engineering and Influence Psychology
Influence principles in cybercrime: authority, urgency, scarcity and liking; trust-building, deception and emotional dependency; romance scams, phishing, vishing, pretexting and impersonation. Assessed exercise: deconstruct a simulated phishing interaction and identify the manipulation tactics used.
Fri 27 Nov
Social Media OSINT and AI-Assisted Profile Analysis
Platform-specific OSINT across Facebook, Instagram, X, TikTok and LinkedIn; profile discovery, username correlation and network mapping; geotags, location clues and metadata; AI tools for entity mapping and pattern detection. Assessed lab: map the online footprint of a fictional persona across platforms, and preserve and document the findings.
Week 3 · 2 – 4 December
Wed 2 Dec
Grooming, Sextortion and Coercive Control
Stages of online grooming; sextortion mechanics and silence in victim behaviour; cyberstalking, doxxing and persistent harassment; risk escalation from online to offline threat. Exercise: identify grooming, coercion and escalation markers in fictional chat logs, and discuss why victims keep communicating with offenders after harm begins.
Fri 4 Dec
Infrastructure OSINT and AI Image Intelligence
IP and ASN lookup, WHOIS, RIPE and passive DNS; certificate transparency and domain registration analysis; Shodan, Censys and VirusTotal. Reverse image search, EXIF metadata and its limits, geolocation from visual clues, and AI tools for deepfake and manipulation indicators. Assessed lab: map the infrastructure behind a fictional phishing domain and verify a suspect image.
Week 4 · 9 – 11 December
Wed 9 Dec
Cybercrime Victimology and Trauma-Informed Interviewing
Why victims may not behave like "ideal complainants"; shame, self-blame and secondary victimisation; emotional attachment to offenders in romance fraud; trauma responses. Assessed exercise: create psychological safety and rewrite judgemental questions into trauma-informed language. Referral pathways to mental health and victim support services.
Fri 11 Dec
Offender Psychology, Dark Web and Cryptocurrency
Offender motivations; Dark Triad traits; lone and networked offender profiles; AI for behavioural pattern recognition. Surface, deep and dark web, Tor basics and safe, lawful dark web awareness; cryptocurrency fundamentals, blockchain explorers and red flags. Lab: follow a fictional transaction trail on a public blockchain explorer.
Week 5 · 16 – 18 December
Wed 16 Dec
Deepfakes, Disinformation and Intelligence Reporting
Why people believe misinformation; coordinated inauthentic behaviour; deepfakes, voice cloning and synthetic media harms; detection approaches and the ethical limits of AI in investigations. OSINT reporting for law enforcement: source references, confidence levels, caveats and court-admissible reporting. Capstone briefing: teams formed and the Operation DualEdge case pack issued.
Fri 18 Dec
Capstone: Operation DualEdge
Investigator wellbeing: vicarious trauma, compassion fatigue and managing exposure to distressing content. Assessed capstone simulation: a victim reports harassment, blackmail and financial fraud initiated via social media; teams analyse victim behaviour without blame, profile the offender, run OSINT on the domain and accounts, verify images with AI tools, draft trauma-informed interview questions, assess crypto red flags, write a structured intelligence report and brief a senior officer panel. Panel feedback and programme close.
What participants will be able to do
Applied performance, no written exam
| Component | Weight |
|---|---|
| Session participation across all ten sessions | 15% |
| Social engineering exercise (Session 3) | 15% |
| Digital footprinting exercise (Sessions 4 and 6) | 15% |
| Trauma-informed interview rewrite (Session 7) | 15% |
| Capstone: Operation DualEdge (Session 10) | 40% |
Participants who attend all sessions and complete the capstone receive a Certificate of Completion from SSODL, Symbiosis International (Deemed University).
16 resources, included
- Cyberpsychology Glossary for Law Enforcement
- Online Behaviour & Disinhibition Quick-Reference Card
- Victim-Sensitive Interviewing Checklist
- Grooming & Coercive Control Indicators Sheet
- Social Engineering & Influence Psychology Checklist
- OSINT Investigation Checklist
- Search Operator Quick-Reference Sheet
- Social Media Intelligence Workflow
- Infrastructure OSINT Worksheet
- Image Verification & Geolocation Checklist
- AI Tools for Investigations: Approved-Use Reference
- Intelligence Log Template
- OSINT Report Template (Law Enforcement Format)
- Capstone Brief: Operation DualEdge
- Investigator Wellbeing & Debriefing Checklist
- SSODL Certificate of Completion
Lawful, applied and case-based
- Expert-led live sessions grounded in real cybercrime investigation contexts
- Case-based discussion using fictional but realistic investigative scenarios
- Guided hands-on OSINT and AI-tool practice in a legally safe, controlled environment
- Victim-interview simulation and chat analysis to spot grooming, coercion and escalation markers
- Team-based capstone with an intelligence report and senior officer briefing
- Reflection and debrief at the end of every session
All case materials are fictionalised. The programme does not teach hacking, unauthorised access, credential misuse or any illegal technique. Psychological and AI concepts are taught to improve understanding, not to manipulate victims, suspects or witnesses.
What you will work with
Tools may be demonstrated or practised, subject to legality and the requirements of the participating agency.
- OSINT
- Google and Bing advanced operators · Wayback Machine · username discovery tools · Social Searcher · IntelX · WHOIS / RIPE · Shodan · Censys · VirusTotal · passive DNS and certificate transparency tools
- AI & image intelligence
- Google Lens · TinEye · Yandex · EXIF and metadata tools · Google Earth Pro · Sentinel Hub · AI-assisted entity mapping (subject to approval) · deepfake and manipulation detection (awareness level)
- Dark web & crypto
- Awareness only: Ahmia · OnionSearch · legally compliant demo platforms · public blockchain explorers
Victim dignity and trauma-informed practice · lawful techniques only · no bias or over-reading of behavioural cues · protection of children and vulnerable persons · caveated use of AI tools · referral to mental health professionals · investigator wellbeing · data protection and institutional oversight.
Faculty lead: Sanjana Rathi
Founder & CEO, The CyberDiplomat. Sanjana works across cybersecurity, cyber diplomacy, cyberpsychology, law enforcement capacity building, AI-related threats and online safety. She has designed and delivered training for government agencies, law enforcement institutions, academic bodies and industry across OSINT for cybercrime investigations, cyberpsychology for law enforcement, cybersecurity governance, digital trust and AI governance. Additional subject-matter experts from The CyberDiplomat's network may contribute to specific sessions.
The programme is offered by the Symbiosis School for Online and Digital Learning (SSODL), Symbiosis International (Deemed University), in partnership with The CyberDiplomat.
Seats are limited to 25.
Reserve yours online, or write to us about group and departmental registrations.