COMP47630 OSINT Collection & Analysis

Academic Year 2021/2022

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
forensic 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

100

Carry forward of passed components
No
 
Remediation Type Remediation Timing
In-Module Resit Prior to relevant Programme Exam Board
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.