DHS OSINT Sources for 2010 Olympics Security
Mod Squad: If this belongs elsewhere, feel free to move w/my thanks for your patience.
DHS has issued a Privacy Impact Assessment (PDF at DHS site - PDF at Scribd.com) highlighting some of the web sites they'll be monitoring to assess threats to the 2010 Olympics.
In spite of my bitterness at not making it into the Appendix ;), I've developed a page with their selected list o' links here.
OPSEC, Open Source & the Black Budget
An excellent example of how astute observers can take the innocuous and start piecing together puzzles.
Quote:
It is, according to a new book, part of the hidden reality behind the Pentagon’s classified, or “black,” budget that delivers billions of dollars to stealthy armies of high-tech warriors. The book offers a glimpse of this dark world through a revealing lens — patches — the kind worn on military uniforms.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/01/sc...prod=permalink
Then again, when the media gets it wrong, they really get it wrong -
http://trekmovie.com/2011/05/06/gema...laden-mission/
Exploiting open sources: an example
Leah Farrell's blog consistently provides insight, aided by being Australian too and from a police background:http://allthingscounterterrorism.com/
A few weeks ago she posted a series of photos, obtained from a jihadi website, on an IMU training camp in Pakistan:http://allthingscounterterrorism.com...an-apparently/
After some input and open source research she's posted an update:http://allthingscounterterrorism.com...ing-camp-pics/
The IMU crop up irregularly, especially due to their German links and maybe there is nothing of note here. It is IMHO an example of what can be done from open sources.
OSINT: To Defeat Terrorists, Start Using the Library
To Defeat Terrorists, Start Using the Library, by Scott Helfstein. Bloomberg, Aug 30, 2011.
Quote:
The information glut that marks the 21st century is evidenced in some unexpected places. Last month, my organization, the Combating Terrorism Center at West Point,
released a report that sharply disputed conventional wisdom about terrorism along the Afghanistan-Pakistani frontier.
The report argued that the Haqqani Network, a border- spanning tribal group with deep ties to Pakistan’s government, had been more influential than the Taliban in aiding al-Qaeda’s rise.
How did we support this thesis, which has vast implications for reconciliation efforts in the region as well as for the distribution of U.S. military aid? Not with data culled from clandestine operations in Pakistan’s tribal areas or from Osama bin Laden’s computer hard drive. The report was based on the public statements and writings of individual extremists over the past 30 years. Rather than ferreting out secret information, researchers merely took extremists at their voluminous word.
It seems terrorists, too, are susceptible to the syndrome known as Too Much Information.
Are We All Intelligence Agents Now?
Hat tip to a "lurker" for this Swiss think tank's fifteen minute podcast:http://www.isn.ethz.ch/isn/Digital-L...g=en&id=154122 and the speakers bio:http://www.i-intelligence.eu/about/team/
The summary says:
Quote:
The growing availability of open source information has profoundly impacted intelligence agencies and how they have operated over the last 10 years. In today’s podcast, Chris Pallaris discusses the risks and opportunities that open source intelligence poses. He also describes what makes a good intelligence analyst in the open source era.
Jihad, Syria and social media: how foreign fighters have documented their war
I missed this short video from The Guardian, in April 2014, on the work of a small team at Kings College London's ICSR; they have been to the fore this week commenting on counter-Jihadist options post-Foley:http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/v...al-media-video
Towards the end Dr. Peter Neumann, the ICSR Director, wonders why the teams work is appearently not matched within officialdom with far greater resources.
Why big data missed the Ebola outbreak
A FP article which is not convinced of the frequent claims that big data can provide answers and warnings:http://www.foreignpolicy.com/article...igns_of_ebola?
It is behind a registration wall, which defeats citation.
4CHAN Message Board Is Using Border Webcams To Help Report Illegals
Quote:
One 4Chan user suggested the Administration turn the live feeds into a “game” for users to help spot and report Illegals crossing, potentially earning points. The two screen shots attached to the original tweet purport to show 4Chan users catching would-be illegals in the act:
http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2017...port-illegals/
How Syria and Russia Spun a Chemical Strike
A short, seven minute video from the NYT on the CW stroke on Khan Sheikhoun; it mixes open source info, yes with drone footage and the public statements by Russia & Syria.
Link:https://www.nytimes.com/video/world/...=67232673&te=1
Copied from the current Syria thread as an example what can be done.
Note the NYT does not attribute responsibility for the CW strike.
OSINT guide for terrorism and radicalisation research
A chart worth keeping to hand, although the focus in terrorism and radicalisation there is more there e.g. crypto currency.
Link:https://start.me/p/OmExgb/terrorism-...arch-dashboard
Bellingcat and How Open Source Reinvented Investigative Journalism
Thanks to a "lurker" a pointer to this NY Review of Books article, which I have only skimmed briefly:https://www.nybooks.com/daily/2019/0...ve-journalism/