Photo By Master Sgt. Betty Squatrito-Martin | National Guard Counterdrug Program analysts attending the National Guard Counterdrug...... read more read more
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INDIANAPOLIS—With more than 1.86 billion monthly active users on Facebook, more than 328 million monthly active Twitter users, YouTube topping 1 billion users and WhatsApp with more than 1.2 billion users, is it a wonder social media is bringing with it a focus on Open Source Intelligence (OSINT).
OSINT, as defined in the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2006, is "produced from publicly available information that is collected, exploited, and disseminated in a timely manner to an appropriate audience for the purpose of addressing a specific intelligence requirement."
National Guard criminal analysts gathered in Indianapolis May 2-4 for the Criminal Analysts Open Source Techniques training, a course designed to give National Guard Criminal Analysts knowledge of the trends and techniques of OSINT along with techniques to conduct open source information gathering.
“The online tools, techniques and methods we use to support law enforcement efforts are constantly evolving,” said 1st Sgt. Donald Cooley, Criminal Analyst NCOIC. “We must continue to advance and train our Counterdrug members to meet this demand.”
With the pervasive role social media has come to play in people’s lives, and the seeming need for people to proclaim their exploitations, good or bad, criminal analysts search Open Source material in their quest to detect and disrupt illicit drug trafficking networks.
"Now everyone has the opportunity to talk to a larger audience," said Karen North, a professor of digital social media at the University of Southern California's Annenberg School. "If you commit an act and you want people to know about it, you now have a way to promote it." (U.S. News December 2015)
It is these declarations of bravado coupled with the training that enables analysts to better scour social networking sites.
Most households have multiple internet devices be it laptops, tablets, smartphones, or gaming consoles where information is exchanged in the form of video, blogs, pictures, tweets and status postings. This is otherwise known as a digital footprint. Trained analysts can extrapolate pertinent case information from these publicly available exchanges to support law enforcement counternarcotics activities and the Department of Defense.
“OSINT training in 2017 focuses on the authorities in place to conduct this type of mission support, methods to provide case support in the cyber domain and best practices from experts in this field,” Cooley said.
“This specialized training is designed to create a training environment for analysts from the field to get together, network, and learn emerging techniques and current drug trends,” said Maj. Mesha Cichon, Counterdrug Intelligence branch chief, National Guard Bureau.
| Date Taken: | 05.02.2017 |
| Date Posted: | 06.15.2017 12:02 |
| Story ID: | 238001 |
| Location: | INDIANA, US |
| Web Views: | 147 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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