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CSCE 201
Open Source Information
Privacy
Reading List

Recommended reading:
– Open Source Intelligence: Private Sector
Capabilities to Support DoD Policy,
Acquisitions, and Operations ,
http://www.fas.org/irp/eprint/oss980501.ht
m
– The Economic Espionage Act, 1996
http://www.usdoj.gov/criminal/cybercrime
/eea.html
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Open Source

Unclassified information in the public
domain or available from commercial
services
 Example: newspapers, magazines, scientific
publications, television and radio
broadcasting, databases, etc.
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Open Source Intelligence

Intelligence operation that uses open source
data
 Goal: answer specific question in support of
some mission
 Process:
– Requirement analysis
– Data collection/filtering/analysis
– Information integration Intelligence about
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Open Source Intelligence
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Generally legal (uses readily available
information)
 Attacker gains access to protected information,
e.g.,
– Business trade secrets
– Military strategy,
– Personal information
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Protected information: readily available in public
domain, can be inferred from public data, or
deduced from aggregated public data
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Open Source Intelligence
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Widely used (e.g., Department of Defense)
Cheap, fast, or timely
Most often legal
Advantages: no risk for collector, provides
context, mode of information acquisition, cover
for data discovery by secret operations
Disadvantages: may not discover important
information, assurance of discovery(?)
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Online Open Source
Intelligence

Large amount of public data online
– Web pages, online databases, digital
collections, organizations on line, government
offices, etc.
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Freedom and Information Act (FOIA):
industry data
 U.S. Patent Office: copies of U.S. patents
 Trade shows, public records, etc.
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Privacy

Use open source to find out confidential
data about people
 Find confidential data about people while
they browse through open source (e.g., Web
searches)
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Online Investigative Tools
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Find out confidential data for small fee
– Net Detective (http://ndet.jeanharris.com/
– Dig Dirt (http://www.classified3.com/ )

Privacy Tools
(http://www.epic.org/privacy/tools.html )
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Legislations

Privacy Act of 1974, U.S. Department of Justice
(http://www.usdoj.gov/oip/04_7_1.html )
 Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), U.S.
Department of Education,
(http://www.ed.gov/policy/gen/guid/fpco/ferpa/index.html )
 Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996
(HIPAA),
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Health_Insurance_Portability_and
_Accountability_Act )
 Telecommunications Consumer Privacy Act
(http://www.answers.com/topic/electronic-communicationsprivacy-act )
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Privacy Violations

Snooping via Open Sources
 Online activities
– Questionnaires
– Customers’ data
– Web site data collection (Cookies, IP address,
operating system, browser, requested page, time
of request, etc.) – without user’s permission
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Other Open Source Attacks
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Piracy
– Available in open source, but still protected by
copyright, patent, trademark, etc.
Copyright Infringement
– Acquisition of protected work without the owner’s
permission and sold for a fee
– Human perception: not serious crime
– Significant loss for marketing/manufacturing/owner
– Berman Bill (http://www.news.com/2100-1023946316.html )
– Copyright Law of the United States
(http://www.copyright.gov/title17/ )
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What is Intelligence?
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Information
 Activities
 Organization
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Information
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“…relevant to a government’s formulation and
implementation of policy to further its national security
interests and to deal with threats from actual or potential
adversaries.” (Silent Warfare)
Examples:
– Military matters of foreign nations
– Diplomatic activities and intentions of foreign nations
– Intelligence activities of foreign nations
Other party may or may not want to keep it secret
Raw data and analyses and assessments based on raw data
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Activity
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Activities:
– Collection and analysis on intelligence information
– Counterintelligence
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Collection: wide range (e.g., wiretapping,
broadcasts, newspapers, research publications,
aerial photography, espionage, etc.)
 Analysis: quality of data, correctness of analysis,
timeliness, etc.
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Organization
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Secrecy!
 Secret activities -- Covert actions
– Same organization vs. two organizations

Central Intelligence Agency
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Scope of Intelligence
 Government -- national security
– Range from peace time to war time intelligence
– Type of government
 Domestic Intelligence -- depends on nature of regime
 Business corporations – competitive advantage
 Economics and Intelligence
– Government-run economy
– Economic well-being of nation
 Non-traditions Intelligence
– Environmental issues
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Intelligence and Law Enforcement
 Transnational threats:
– Do not originate primarily from a foreign government
– Serious threats for nation’s well-being
– Fall within law enforcement rather than intelligence
– Examples: narcotics trafficking, international terrorism
 Law enforcement: waiting until a crime has been committed
 Intelligence: collection of convincing evidence
 Criminal investigation vs. criminal intelligence investigation
– Punishment of a given criminal act or struggle with an
organization engaged in criminal activity
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Intelligence – Information Age
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Advent of information age
Change the mode of operations for business
corporations and government
Technology: communicating and processing
information
Behavioral and institutional change: information
as the key of organizational activities
Intelligent Services vs. competing organizations
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Intelligence and Information Age
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Globalization
– Flow of information across borders
– International trade
– Division of labor
– Increased travel
– Increased penetration by news media
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Open Source Collection
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Goal oriented
Publications and broadcast
Additional information available from nonintelligence sources
Special sources (e.g., speeches of political leaders,
legal documents, demographic data, etc. )
Large amount of openly available data  Need
processing power
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Problem of Increased Availability

How to locate sources
 How to evaluate source reliability
 How to analyze information and integrate
with other intelligence information
 How to protect confidentiality of policy
maker’s interest
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