Countless demonstrations and acts of civil unrest around the world have been organized through social media and mobile apps. While new media platforms represent a great avenue to organize these events, criminal groups, outliers, and foreign powers regularly infiltrated civic groups’ events to push their own agendas. Therefore, it is of essence, that law enforcement […]
MONITORING THE SPREAD OF PROPAGANDA AND EXTREMISM WITH OSINT
January 6, 2021; Shortly after President Trump concluded his speech to supporters gathered in front of the white house, by calling them to march on Congress, an organized mob of protesters stormed the capitol building in Washington D.C. causing damage to infrastructure, temporarily impeding the final announcement of the 2020 election results, and shocking spectators […]
UNCOVERING TERRORIST OPERATIVES THROUGH OSINT
Globalization has expanded terrorist organization’s theater of operations beyond established territorial borders and into the online sphere. With easy access to large amounts of potential supporters and seamless communication with operatives around the world via new media platforms, it is no surprise that research shows that around 90% of terrorist organizations have social media presence. […]
MAINTAINING PUBLIC ORDER DURING LARGE SCALE EVENTS USING OSINT
Large crowds inevitably represent a higher risk for public disorder. As one of the biggest crowd drawers, it comes as no surprise that sports events represent a unique obstacle for law enforcement and security agencies. Disorderly behavior amongst opposing teams’ supporters has been common since the beginning of sports. Loyalty to a team creates an […]
COMBATING DISINFORMATION CAMPAIGNS THROUGH FAKE ACCOUNT DETECTION
It is no secret that “fake news” is a reality. Since the 2016 race to the White House the term “fake news” referring to disinformation campaigns has dominated discourse on traditional and new media. As information becomes more readily available with less checks and balances, “Media Literacy,” meaning the ability to distinguish real news from […]
LEVERAGING OSINT TO MONITOR ORGANIZED CRIME ACTIVITY IN PRISON
Prison has long been a breeding ground for organized crime organizations and gangs to expand their following and influence over new members. Although locked within prison walls, criminal leadership continues to expand their influence and commit crimes with the help of outside collaborators. Using open source intelligence (OSINT), law enforcement can monitor communication related to […]
SURFACING EXTORTION CYBER ATTACKS WITH OSINT TECHNOLOGY
As the world digitalizes, individuals and entities are inevitably leaving a larger digital trace. Using open source intelligence (OSINT), investigators can leverage these traces and transform them into substantial intelligence used to solve crimes committed in the digital sphere. Rise in Cybercrime Cybercrime profits account for approximately 1% of the world’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP). […]