Social Networking Analysis and Homeland Security
Moderator at work: a separate thread Social Networking Analysis and Homeland Security was merged here today.
Cross-posted from my Posterous blog:
Social Networking Analysis & #crowdsourcing. How can #web20 tools assist in fighting terrorism? Thesis at @usacgsc
Can social networking assist analysts fight terrorism?
A U.S. Army Major at the Command and General Staff College (CGSC), participating in the Master of Military Art and Science (MMAS) degree program, poses that as the primary research question in the draft prospectus for his thesis.
The thesis - set within the focused program of Homeland Security Studies - proposes the following problem statement and research questions:
Problem Statement
Too much information frequently over-burdens analysts when identifying potentially dangerous activities. According to the 9/11 Commission Report, many of the 9/11 terrorists operating on U.S. soil possessed not only linkages to terrorist organizations in other countries, but also to each other. A great deal of the information that associated several of the involved parties was publicly available in unclassified forums.
Primary Research Question
* Can social networking assist analysts fight terrorism?
Secondary Research Questions
* What was the publicly available data on the 9/11 terrorists prior to the attack?
* How does social networking create linkages?
* How do U.S. analysts normally process Open Source Intelligence (OSINT)?
Crowdsourcing a Thesis
As the Chair of his MMAS Committee, I suggested asking those questions of the Web 2.0 community. Following David Meerman Scott's (@dmscott) example, where he incorporated his blog articles and user comments into the latest version of The New Rules of Marketing & PR, perhaps the research could be furthered through crowdsourcing.
Discussion Questions
Any issues with the proposed problem statement or research questions?
Recently Secretary Napolitano and DHS made the news when announcing the extension of the "If You See Something, Say Something" Campaign to Walmart Stores Across the Nation.
Does the analysis as proposed by this thesis merely extend that concept of "help[ing] the American public play an active role in ensuring the safety and security of our nation" from the physical domain to the virtual one?
Terrorist who dreamed of Judgment Day on Facebook
Referring to the dead terrorist in Sweden, another illustration of the speed of modern news media, I assume their own work:
Quote:
The suicide bomber who tried to cause carnage in Stockholm followed a series of fundamentalist Islamic websites including one preparing for the Day of Judgment.
Link:http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ukne...-Facebook.html
Stockholm bomber on Facebook
Hat tip to Jihadica for their excellent work on the Stockholm bombing and for this thread the link to Internet Haganah's work:http://internet-haganah.com/harchives/007103.html
Tracking key terror suspects
A BBC commentary on:
Quote:
...Technology is the only thing that can connect all these dots..
Link:http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-13366706
Caveat: catalyst for the comment being OBL's tracing and I remain unconvinced of the media reporting.
CIA secretly monitors world on Twitter, Facebook
Hat tip to Enduring America's review of the press.
Starts with:
Quote:
In an anonymous industrial park in Virginia, in an unassuming brick building, the CIA is following tweets — up to 5 million a day.
At the agency's Open Source Center, a team known affectionately as the "vengeful librarians" also pores over Facebook, newspapers, TV news channels, local radio stations, Internet chat rooms — anything overseas that anyone can access and contribute to openly.
Ends with a reference to events in Bangkok:
Quote:
Ultimately, some two-thirds of the reports coming out of the embassy being sent back to all branches of government in Washington came from the CIA's open source analysis throughout the crisis.
Link:http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45164661.../#.TrV-pfTz2sp
Using of social media intelligence: a report
Last month the London, UK radical think tank, Demos, published on-line a report '#Intelligence' on the use of social media intelligence and I found it today after an advert landed for a discussion forum next month at the Frontline Club, London.
From the summary:
Quote:
This paper is the first effort to examine the ethical, legal and operational challenges involved in using social media for intelligence and insight purposes. It argues that social media should become a permanent part of the intelligence framework but that it must be based on a publicly argued, legal footing, with clarity and transparency over use, storage, purpose, regulation and accountability.
On my first reading it is a good effort, notably on the ethics involved, but is marred by an over-confidence in existing regulatory and oversight mechanisms in the UK.
Link to summary:http://www.demos.co.uk/publications/intelligence
The report itself:http://www.demos.co.uk/files/_Intell...pdf?1335197327
Social Network Analysis (catch all)
Quote:
Orca can figure out the likely affiliations of individuals who will not admit to being members of any specific gang, as well as the sub-structure of gangs – the gang ecosystem – and the identities of those who tend to dictate the behaviour of others.
http://www.technologyreview.com/view...g-violence-in/
http://www.bbc.com/future/story/2013...orks-with-data
http://gizmodo.com/the-armys-insurge...-use-695363334
http://arxiv.org/abs/1306.6834
Moderator's Note
For additional sources and comments see the threads COIN comes home to assist policing (in Law Enforcement arena) and Social Media: the widest impact of (in this arena). (Ends.)
SNA, however, remains just an answer, not the answer
A short article which ends:
Quote:
Like every analytic technique, SNA has great utility for the right question. Within its limits, SNA is unmatched and can be usefully applied to identify key individuals or organizations within a network, generate new leads and simulate the flows of information or money throughout a network. SNA, however, remains just an answer, not the answer. Used inappropriately or without a full understanding of the limits of the method and analysts will only be finding new and more technically sophisticated ways to fail. That, then, is the primary job of the modern day analyst: making the judgment call of which techniques to use and when. Equally as important as knowing when to use SNA is knowing when not to use it.
Link: http://www.e-ir.info/2014/01/09/the-...-intelligence/
Social network analysis of an urban street gang using police intelligence data
A new UK Home Office publication 'Social network analysis of an urban street gang using police intelligence data' (33 pgs):
Quote:
This report uses intelligence data from Greater Manchester Police to systematically understand local gangs, helping target police activities. The method identifies interrelations in gang-related, criminal, and drugs-related networks within the data, and demonstrates the importance of understanding the strong role of other social links within a network.
The report is accompanied by a practical
‘How to guide’ (14 pgs) for police forces considering using this approach.
Link:https://www.gov.uk/government/public...elligence-data
GMP have had a big problem with gang-related firearms incidents, including the murder if two lady police officers; after a lull the problems have returned according to recent reports:http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england...ester-35250617
