Prosecutor Mihaela Nikolaeva (first from the left) and investigator Svetoslav Vasilev (second from the right) with representatives of U.S. law enforcement agencies
Mihaela Nikolaeva, a prosecutor at the Sofia City Prosecutor's Office, and Svetoslav Vasilev, Head of the Cybercrime Department at the National Investigation Service, participated in the Council of Europe’s international conference Octopus 2026, held from October 14 to 16, 2026, in Strasbourg, France.
The conference is dedicated to international cooperation in the fight against cybercrime and handling of electronic evidence. The forum takes place in the context of the 25th anniversary of the Council of Europe’s Convention on Cybercrime.
As part of the event, Mihaela Nikolaeva and Svetoslav Vasilev also participated in a workshop organized by the European Judicial Cybercrime Network, focused on developing training on the Second Additional Protocol to the Convention of Cybercrime.
During the conference, current issues regarding cooperation between the Bulgarian Prosecutor's Office, the National Investigation Service and U.S. law enforcement agencies were also discussed. In meetings with representatives of the U.S. Department of Justice, topics related to inter-institutional collaboration in countering cybercrime were addressed.