Winner of European Crime Prevention Award 2018

On 14 December 2017, this year’s European Crime Prevention Award (ECPA) was awarded during the Best Practice Conference (BPC) in Tallinn, Estonia. It was again a great success since 18 countries participated with their best national crime prevention projects, focusing on the theme ‘Cyber Safety’. The winner received a check of 10 000 euro, while two other projects were also awarded with an honourable mention and a check of 5 000 euro each.

The winner of the ECPA 2018 is the project “Cyber Defence field of study at Põltsamaa Coeducational Gymnasium” of Estonia. This project was chosen because of its uniqueness and innovativeness. This school is the first known school in Europe to implement this field of study. With this course the Estonian project tries to fill the knowledge gap and to make its students carriers of cyber defence awareness. The goal of the project is for students to become the next cyber safety experts.

The runner-up project ‘The Danes’ digital self-defence’ of Denmark was particularly liked because of the promising method. Through the interactive application, users are given practical tips and information on the cyber threat landscape. The users themselves can also tip the project by offering their experiences, effectively contributing to the overall knowledge. The Second runner-up project is the Belgian project ‘Cybersimple’. Having Google as a partner was seen as a major asset and the high replication possibility, due to it already being developed in three languages, was much appreciated by the jury. Additionally, the project encompasses a wide range of topics within cyber safety.