Open source intelligence applications in combating transnational organized crime

Open Source Intelligence and Organized Crime

In the words of Bell and Congram (2014), TOC-Transnational Organized Crime can be defined as a crime carried out by an enduring organization or structure created and primarily involved in pursuing profits through several illegal businesses. It shares certain traits with formal organizations: using rules and codes to coordinate activities, division of labour, and allocating tasks with the aim of actualizing some given goals. While it is appropriate to see TOC as being composed of several activities, it can be seen that some specified organized criminal activities fall into the same category. They include activities such as drug trafficking, money laundering, people smuggling, human/sex trafficking, endangered species trafficking, arms trafficking, and most significantly since the last decade, terrorism.

Structure of TOC Groups

According to Bell and Congram (2014), the domestic and transnational groups that perpetrate crimes have succeeded in modifying their structures into flexible, lively though loosely structured networks, with high fluidity which have the ability to get access to important influences, created with the aim of confusing the authorities and protecting their organization. Five distinct TOC organizational structures exist: criminal network, core group, clustered hierarchy, regional hierarchy, and standard hierarchy. However, some TOC groups do not fit into the confines of these five listed structures; nevertheless, the major frameworks (accessed through technologies) provide the needed basis to understand these structures. According to some arguments, the last three structures are believed nearest to conventional beliefs about organized crime, while the first two structures are nearest to organizations that emerge from the recent world environment.

Background of the Central Intelligence Agency

The Central Intelligence Agency was instituted in 1947 with President Harry S. Truman signing the National Security Act. DCI- Director of Central Intelligence, was also created by the act to act as the head of the U.S. intelligence unit; play the role of the President's principal adviser on intelligence matters that relate to national security; and also serve as the head of the newly created Central Intelligence Agency. The U.S. CIA carries out researches, development, and deploys high-leverage technology for the purpose of intelligence. As an independent agency, the CIA acts as an independent provider of evaluation on several topics of major concern and equally works hand-in-hand with all other intelligence agencies in the U.S. to make sure that the beneficiary of the intelligence reports receives the best possible intelligence (Central Intelligence Agency, 2016).

The CIA's wide implementation of OSINT informed its choice as a case study in its current and former activities. As a matter of fact, the CIA has been reported to declare that about 80% of its total intelligence is sourced from Google (Hayes, 2010). The role of the CIA is quite obvious in the battle against drugs and arms trafficking, the global war against terrorism, human trafficking and all forms of cybercrimes.

According to Burke (2007), the CIA ventured into IT technology production when it created the In-Q-Tel, a non-profit private organization in 1999 to develop new IT for the benefit of national security. In 2004 the CIA, launched what they called the CIA Wiki, and the Director of National Intelligence launched a wiki that touches every aspect of the intelligence community named Intellipedia in 2006. All these projects enable subject experts within the intelligence community to be able to edit old content and submit new ones with the aim of building a base of knowledge to be employed for the compilation of National Intelligence Estimates and national reports, with the aim of encouraging debate and producing better results.

OSINT as an Effective Solution

OSINT creates awareness and context that is relevant for deeper understanding of the overall security goal. The ever-increasing interconnectedness and complexity of our world, and the reducing degree of predictability and certainty, have emphasized the relevance of long-term tactical intelligence evaluation and scanning of the horizon based on the knowledge gathered from a wide range of disciplines and sources (Pallaris, 2008).

Gathering information through the conventional means has also been found to be more expensive than OSINT. Journalists and researchers engaged in fieldwork, for instance, are very invaluable sources of vital intelligence report on humans. The wide variety of forums and blogs based on international matters provides helpful communication intelligence. Relevant intelligence information can also be found on the letters and pages of frontline national dailies. Google Earth and other similar services provide the best imagery intelligence. The truth remains that OSINT provides a potentially higher ROI than all satellites and every other classified source is essentially vital for countries that have very slim intelligence budgets (Pallaris, 2008).