Description
This thesis will illustrate how "web services" (Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Google, Bing, Yahoo, Alerts, RSS Feeds, Web Slices, and Google Reader) can and will enhance Open-Source Intelligence (OSINT) collection and utilization by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Intelligence Communities (IC) and its Domestic Partners (DP) that have the sole responsibility of protecting the nation. Using these web services that are already available can lead to positive outcomes for: counter-cartel operations in the US and Mexico, Middle East unrest, Humanitarian Assistance Disaster Relief (HADR), and eDiplomacy (State Department). This thesis will also demonstrate the use of these web services and how DHS can process millions to billions of pieces of information per day and potentially build data infrastructures and workflows to assist in the broad range of DHS responsibilities. These web services will ease the collection and utilization of OSINT if managed properly, maximize relevant and critical information that can be translated into rapid intelligence, and minimize cost measures (since these web services are already built and currently in use in other forms). If these web services are not taken into consideration as an enhancement tool for OSINT, then DHS, IC, and its DP will be missing important rhetoric information (online), the proliferation of terrorism activity inside and outside the US, threats to critical infrastructure, and will be denying citizens the protection and transparency they deserve from DHS. Now, how is this actually being done? How much further behind is the US because the materials for OSINT have exploded (online)? What tools as web services are really there for the IC, for Law Enforcement or groups such as DHS? These questions among others, in conjunction with historical context of OSINT, will be answered in this thesis.
