Reflection: Open Source Intelligence

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Reflection is the process of analysing an activity with a view of changing an existing approach or adopting a new perspective on an experience (Nguyen et al 2014). Boyd and Fales (1983) state “that this process is central to understanding the experiential learning process”. According to Trottier (2015) Open Source Intelligence (OSINT) is the procedure of an organisation gathering and examining information that is available to anyone. Web sites and applications dedicated to Social media is one of the most popular in OSINT for information generation and widespread dissemination; security and intelligence agencies can capitalise on these opportunities to covertly study, things such as terrorist group behaviour, cultural contexts and recruiting …show more content…

Boutellier and Henizen (2014) suggest that technological advancement develops a lot quicker than our social and political development, often it grows before the safety standards and security can be implemented to protect users. Hancock and Hoffman (2015) build upon on this stating the people that use technology do not get a chance to understand the true potential and fully exploit the technical equipment because of the speed that it is updated or replaced that forces an organisational change. According to Allen and Lewis (2001) reflection can be beneficial in changing circumstances and help plan for the future; additionally they state that reflection empowers a pre-emptive approach to undetected opportunities and will help avoid becoming a victim of circumstance. Relating this to the dynamic cyber environment, OSINT operators may not actively reflect and might find it challenging adapting search techniques for new social media software and technological hardware updates which may jeopardise their future employability. The research suggests that important issues may arise in both organisations and people from technological development and change that may be mitigated through the use of reflection techniques. A department like OSINT section may need to evolve every time there is technological or sociological development in their specific field equally the personnel within it will need to have the capacity to be able to implement this

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