Open-Source Intelligence

Catalog description

The digital revolution is transforming how we think about information, facts and evidence. It has also changed how journalists, investigators, intelligence analysts and fact-finders of all stripes think about and leverage publicly available data to analyze and explain patterns, relationships and trends. In the era of virtual everything, it can be hard to separate what is a signal from what is noise, what is fact and fiction. Bots, trolls, deep fakes and disinformation are only half the challenge. Governments, corporations, institutions and people all use information to advance or hide their interests or actions. Increasingly, armed conflict, organized crime and political violence are shaped by geopolitics and transnational dynamics. Security threats and challenges, as a result, often span borders, time zones, frequently involve multiple organizations and impact a variety of communities. To assemble all the puzzle pieces into a coherent picture, investigators need to become skilled hunters of digital information. This course covers how technological change has historically shaped the field of intelligence analysis and how digital technologies can be leveraged to understand complex phenomena like war, political violence, crises, disasters and transnational crime. Students gain an introductory understanding of how digital tools, tricks and methods can be helpful for collecting and verifying unique information, detecting hidden details and patterns, and how to turn information into insights that translate into actionable intelligence.