OSINT generally refers to the acquisition of publicly available big data and conduct analysis of it for the purposes of intelligence gathering. However, it's also possible to use OSINT as an additional tool for criminal investigations. Since the resources of law enforcement agencies have always been scarce to the extent that they barely manage to deal with cases "physically", some bits of the investigations might be provided by the online community in the form of crowdsourcing. Such a crowdsourcing system requires additional and stricter safeguards than the commercial equivalents have. But that's the subject of another question. I wonder whether a similar idea was actualized before. Please don't mention one-time efforts like the investigation of Boston bombings.
The case of the passenger liner of Malaysian airlines MH17 shot down in Eastern Ukraine. Dutch investigator benefitted greatly from the reports prepared by NGOs and investigative journalists like Bellingcat, etc.
Panama Leaks - were prepared by the centre for investigative journalism who just uploaded their reports to the web.
Thank you for your answer Mr. Samokhvalov. But as I've also mentioned in my question, all previous examples are one-time solutions for extraordinary situations. I envision a system which continuously uses the investigative power of the crowd through a secure crowdsourcing platform. For example, digital forensic examination of a simple burglar might reveal thousands of e-mails which some of them might be associates or victims. Analyzing such a huge amount of data meticulously for a relatively simple crime is nearly impractical. This investigative job can be outsourced to a crowd of volunteers in a systematic and sustainable manner.
A journalist has started a database of information on police killings (as no such database previously existed). He has a spreadsheet with the name, ethnicity, date of death, and a few other slots (I am going now to find the project in another tab)
http://www.fatalencounters.org
If I remember correctly, the person who began this crowd sourcing project did so because after the events in Ferguson went pear-shaped, he began trying to collate data, only to find there are no requirements for law enforcement to report any numbers to the Federal Government and rarely kept record themselves, or- some cases of death in police custody were ruled 'suicide' when the evidence proves suicide to have been impossible (young man shot in the chest while handcuffed behind his back, in the backseat of a police car, after having been patted down and searched twice.)
http://www.fatalencounters.org
Hi Joseph,
Let me give you an example of what I really mean.
A hidden website in TOR network spreads revenge porn materials of adults. Somehow, law enforcement agents identify the true location of its administrator. In the digital forensics examination, hard drive of the administrator reveals thousands of e-mails, nicknames and other bits of information.
A through investigation of such a huge data is nearly impractical. Because it literally takes years. Quite possibly, officers allocate their already scarce sources to identify and catch the most profilic providers of the hidden website. However, many "small" providers are ignored in such a prioritization.
Let's add some very optimistic assumptions to our example: All mentioned data is just 1 TB and the country deals with only 10 cases like this in a year. Even such a heaven-like territory, law enforcement can not keep up with the workload. In real life, the situation is way much more dramatic and bitter.
What if authorities find a secure, fast and reliable way of conducting OSINT on this huge workload by the help of Crowdfunding?. I know it is an unorthodox measure but the current situation demands such drastic measures.
https://www.wearethorn.org/ They are as well an organisation combating crime against children online using spotlight.
Would it be a solution to close down the darknet?
Article OSINT by Crowdsourcing: A Theoretical Model for Online Child...
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