Juan Manuel Corchado, director of the BISITE Research Group of the University of Salamanca, has been decorated by the National Police with the Order of Police Merit – a Cross with a White Badge. The insignia bestowal ceremony, which took place at the National Police School in Avila, recognizes professional careers, scientific studies or projects that provide prestige or are of great service to the Corps.
Corchado received the medal from the Chief of Police of Castilla y León, Juan José Campesino, during the institutional act commemorating the 199th Anniversary of the Foundation of Law Enforcement, which was presided over by José Ángel González, deputy operational director of the National Police, accompanied by José Luis Tejedor, director of the National Police School; Rafael Martínez López, deputy director general of Logistics and Innovation, and Cirilo Durán, head of the Training and Development Division.
This award is a recognition not only of the academic career of Juan Manuel Corchado, member of the advisory group on online terrorist propaganda of the European Counter Terrorism Center (ECTC) of EUROPOL, but also of the training and scientific work of BISITE as a whole. As he points out, “it has been a source of great pride for me to receive this Cross of Recognition. Although it is an insignia that I receive personally, it has been awarded to me because of the effort of our Research Group over the last decades”.
Our Group, based at the University of Salamanca, has in recent years promoted numerous research projects in collaboration with Spanish and European security forces. The last two projects involved collaboration with the National Police on the previous and current edition of the C1b3rWall Academy, an initiative aimed at raising awareness among the public of the dangers of the Internet, which has attracted hundreds of thousands of students interested in cybersecurity-related issues. In addition, specific training activities for police officers in which USAL collaborates through BISITE, are to start soon, including training on “Information and Communication Technologies and their Security” and “Cyberintelligence”. These initiatives have been “extremely interesting and rewarding” to develop for those involved, the Director assures.
