COMP47630 OSINT Collection & Analysis

Academic Year 2023/2024

Please note this module is only available to active law enforcement students registered to the MSc in Forensic Computing and Cybercrime Investigation. There are no elective or audit places available to other programmes.

Open source intelligence (OSINT) is a form of intelligence collection management that involves finding, selecting, and acquiring information from publicly available sources and analysing it to produce actionable intelligence. In the intelligence community (IC), the term "open" refers to overt, publicly available sources as opposed to covert or classified sources.

Despite the fact that the number of available open sources is infinite, as digital investigators, during the course we will focus only on open sources as we find them on the Internet. In addition to many practical guidelines, we will explore issues of prejudice and how to reduce risk, discuss existing applications to secure messaging and proven solutions to assist you positioning OSINT in your organisation.

Today, the world gets more and more digital and every day more information gets stored in a digital form. Most of this information is made available over the internet. Social Media and Dark Web can also be a huge source of information for criminal investigations. This module also shows in-depth knowledge on social network searching and analysing in a forensic sound manner. We moreover present new investigative opportunities as well as new methodologies, reporting skills and legal aspects these new areas bring with them.

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Curricular information is subject to change

Learning Outcomes:

Upon successful completion of this module students should be able to:
• Describe open source intelligence gathering methodologies
• Search open sources, social media sites, DarkWeb/DeepWeb for intelligence in a forensically sound manner
• Develop and use automated social network analyses
• Describe the hidden use of the internet and search in an anonymous way, so that traces are kept to the minimum
• Describe the reliability of search results
• How to use social media sites without endangering yourself or others in Law Enforcement
• List and use online databases and information gathering tools
• Analyse and report search results

Student Effort Hours: 
Student Effort Type Hours
Lectures

24

Practical

70

Autonomous Student Learning

120

Total

214

Approaches to Teaching and Learning:
active/task-based learning; lectures; critical writing; reflective learning; lab work; problem-based learning; case-based learning; 
Requirements, Exclusions and Recommendations

Not applicable to this module.


Module Requisites and Incompatibles
Not applicable to this module.
 
Assessment Strategy  
Description Timing Open Book Exam Component Scale Must Pass Component % of Final Grade
Continuous Assessment: Continuous Assessment Varies over the Trimester n/a Graded Yes

30

Examination: End of trimester exam 2 hour End of Trimester Exam No Graded No

70


Carry forward of passed components
No
 
Resit In Terminal Exam
Summer Yes - 2 Hour
Please see Student Jargon Buster for more information about remediation types and timing. 
Feedback Strategy/Strategies

• Feedback individually to students, post-assessment

How will my Feedback be Delivered?

Not yet recorded.

Timetabling information is displayed only for guidance purposes, relates to the current Academic Year only and is subject to change.
 

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