Chief, Open Source Intelligence
Defence Intelligence and Security Service
The Netherlands
Abstract
The world of information is seeing almost as much change today as it did back in the early 16th century when moveable type bookprinting was invented by Johannes Gutenberg. It took him some time to print his world famous 42 line bible, but just a few years later the technology had advanced so rapidly that Martin Luthers 95 theses could be disseminated in about 300.000 copies in two years!
Early this year the rise of social networks has shown to be fenomenal.
The number of queries in Facebook has for the first time surpassed the number of queries in Google. The number of Tweets reaches 50m per day.
Although there is also news that indicates that Twitter is actually on the decline. Email is certainly on the decline, gradually being replaced by communication through social networks.
Crime too, makes increased use of the Net and social networks. Microsoft claims 50bn spam messages per day. Ebay is increasingly being used for fraud. It is so much easier to steal 10 euro about 50 million times than to break in a bank or two for which you need the whole night. Banks in the NL are victims of fraud, many webshops considered to be a Walhalla of fraud. People are very careless with the Internet. On Twitter it is completely normal to inform the world you are NOT at home (www.pleaserobme.com).
Remember the Dragon Hack? And the break in attempts at Google and other big US firms, a crime attributed to PR China? Facebook and the like are even used for murder.
Social networks are a gold mine for terrorists and criminals alike.
Acccording to the Simon Wiesenthal Center the use of Facebook, YouTube and Twitter by militant groups grew 20% in 2009. All that data (almost) is available in open sources such as weblogs, forums, newspapers, video, SMS messages, social network sites, journals, radio broadcast, etc. The by far majority of information is no longer available in text but in some other format. We have the analysts to interpret the information, to analyse it and produce actionable intelligence. What we do NOT have is scientists to create that information from the raw data. That is where you, conference delegates, come in. To produce the single, ultimate, all encompassing, universal 100% reliable algorithm to find the answers in network analyses. You have exactly three days to do it!
Short bio
Arno Reuser is a professional librarian / information professional with more than 30 years experience in information handling and -processing.
He founded the Open Source Intelligence Unit of the Dutch Defence Intelligence & Security Service about 15 years ago and still heads it today. Mr. Reuser holds a bachelor degree in librarianship and has completed many courses in digital information management, Internet search strategies, update workshops etc. He learned the technical requirements of today's digital world by learning how to write software, program scripts to automate tasks, building websites, getting the most out of the Internet by studying network theory, all in support of OSINT information management.
In addition to his work with the Dutch Defence and Intelligence Service, Arno established his own company "Reuser’s Information Services" in conjunction with his current position as head of OSINT. RIS’ primary goal is to teach Open Source Intelligence (systematic searching, finding and reporting with security in mind) and provide consultancy for government and private sector institutions worldwide.
Arno has an extensive history of teaching OSINT, and OSINT training has been a core focus of his professional activities for decades. Today, he teaches OSINT, search strategies, information handling and security to a wide range of audiences. He travels regularly to the United States, Switzerland, Austria, and United Kingdom to teach to a wide range of multilingual, multicultural audiences and is thus used to communicating with people from different backgrounds and possessing different language skills. Arno is a recognized expert on OSINT and speaks regularly at international conferences and workshops on the organization and maintenance of Open Source Intelligence Services, at home and abroad, for a diverse audience such as international organizations, government institutes, intelligence, military, and information professionals.
Arno is the owner and maintainer of Reuser's New Repertorium, an online categorised annotated listing of intel sources and search engines. He also wrote his own multisearch search engine Isolde to enable building block search strategies, and is the owner and moderator of NEDBIB-L listserv discussion list with 2000 participants.
Arno writes a regular column and has written journal articles and book chapters on OSINT.