Application of social networking in open source intelligence

1. Take the initiative to extract information

After the intelligence personnel determine the target of intelligence collection, they actively pay attention to the target of intelligence collection through social platforms during the implementation of the plan, and use various means to obtain the required information.

In July 2018, intelligence personnel of a terrorist organization in the Gaza area installed spyware on target mobile phones through two online dating sites to obtain intelligence. They started by stealing photos and personal information from the Facebook profiles of real women in the real world, found Israeli soldiers on social media and added friends, and then lured them into downloading fake apps. In the end, intelligence personnel activated the mobile phone cameras and microphones of Israeli soldiers, accessed the contents of the mobile phones, controlled certain mobile phone functions, and obtained certain military confidential information or photos that could be used to blackmail soldiers.

2. Comprehensive analysis of data

Intelligence personnel collect, process, analyze and extract valuable intelligence from complex and diverse online social data sets. Due to the large number of users and information categories on social networking platforms, the U.S. government has been actively organizing Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and other major social media sites in the country to create a shared database and establish a logical process for network social intelligence analysis. The analysis process consists of defining the target—intelligence decomposition—building a target model—evaluating selection—refining—structural forecasting.

Especially in the fight against terrorism, the intelligence agencies of the United States and Britain have specially established a "social" database of international terrorists. By entering the information of several suspicious individuals in the big data, and then using network social analysis tools to sort out the suspects who have chatted with them, analyze their relationship network, and finally dig out the core characters. Based on this, the leader of the terrorists can be deduced, and the upcoming terrorist attacks can be predicted and prevented. Although this method of intelligence acquisition is relatively passive, it needs to wait for the target object to be updated. And when the number of targets of interest is large, manual screening is time-consuming and labor-intensive. However, the United States and the United Kingdom have used this method to obtain intelligence in the anti-terrorism operations against the Islamic State and Al Qaeda.

3. Guide network social users to participate

Through careful planning and marketing activities in advance, attract members on the social network to participate and provide suggestions to obtain the required intelligence.

The General Electric Company of the United States used this "social idea" method to attract nearly 100,000 users on social platforms to participate in the discussion and collect the information needed by the company. Whoever's suggestion is adopted can get the preferential ticket provided by the company.

As a result, in less than half a day, the company collected thousands of opinions. Some suggest that in order to promote energy saving and emission reduction, environmentally friendly tableware should be introduced on all company flights, and disposable water cups, cutlery, garbage bags, etc. made of natural biomass degradable materials should be used to replace heavily polluting plastic or paper lunch boxes; Some users suggested that more audio-visual facilities and food reservation services should be provided on the plane, so that passengers will not feel so boring, and they can also taste delicious food. Even if they are not used to airplane meals, they can pre-order food such as burgers. The company promptly selects reasonable suggestions from network users, improves the process and service system, and greatly improves customer satisfaction.