September 25, 2022

Identifying Suspicious Businesses, Reddit Analysis and Tracking Russian Propaganda: Here are the Results of Bellingcat’s First Ever Hackathon (Bellingcat)

Bellingcat: Identifying Suspicious Businesses, Reddit Analysis and Tracking Russian Propaganda: Here are the Results of Bellingcat’s First Ever Hackathon. “Bellingcat hosted its first ever hackathon earlier this month with the event focussing on developing network analysis tools. We were impressed with the quality of the projects and had a great time getting to know the developers, many of whom work at the intersection between open-source research and open-source software.”

Ukraine 0
September 25, 2022

Bellingcat: Preserve Vital Online Content With Bellingcat’s Auto Archiver

Bellingcat: Preserve Vital Online Content With Bellingcat’s Auto Archiver. “Open source research often relies on social media posts that contain videos and images. However, these posts can be taken down by platforms or deleted by those posting them. That’s why we at Bellingcat created a tool — the Auto Archiver — to help the open-source community, as well as journalists and researchers, easily archive online content. The tool allows for posts, and their video or visual attachments, to be archived by simply entering a link into a Google Sheets document.”

New Resources 0
September 22, 2022

Kotaku: GTA VI’s Vice City Is Already Being Mapped Using MS Paint, Google Earth, And Maths

Kotaku: GTA VI’s Vice City Is Already Being Mapped Using MS Paint, Google Earth, And Maths. “Previously this week, early development footage of the next Grand Theft Auto game, assumed to be Grand Theft Auto VI, leaked all over the internet. You probably already know about all that. Since then, it’s become harder to find the leaked footage, and sites — including Kotaku — aren’t able to showcase footage or screenshots from the leaks. But that hasn’t stopped a dedicated group of GTA fans from coming together in various places in an effort to map out as much of the new Vice City and its surroundings as they can using maths, MS Paint, Google Earth, and teamwork.”

Around the Search & Social Media World 0
September 16, 2022

MakeUseOf: How to See Deleted Reddit Posts

MakeUseOf: How to See Deleted Reddit Posts. “When you’re browsing Reddit, finding a deleted post with tons of upvotes is annoying. A brief look at the thread title and your curiosity takes control, leading you into wondering how great it would be if you could just time travel to the past and see what the deleted thread was all about. Well, that’s not possible—only the time travel part. We’ll show you five different ways to view old, deleted Reddit posts and comments so you can satisfy your curious mind.”

Useful Stuff 0
September 13, 2022

Lieber Institute West Point: Ukraine Symposium – Data-rich Battlefields And The Future LOAC

Lieber Institute West Point: Ukraine Symposium – Data-rich Battlefields And The Future LOAC. “Russia continues to deploy its formidable ‘information war machine’ to ‘confuse and disable’ while Ukraine and non-State actors such as news organizations, think tanks, and NGOs counter these tactics through the use of ubiquitous, open-source battlefield data. In effect, we are watching the future of warfare—data-rich battlefields in which information is a critical component of military operations—emerge in real time.”

Ukraine 0
August 26, 2022

WIRED: Their Photos Were Posted Online. Then They Were Bombed

WIRED: Their Photos Were Posted Online. Then They Were Bombed. “Analysts and online sleuths, such as journalists at the investigative news outlet Bellingcat, have developed and professionalized open source investigation techniques for years. Open source intelligence, also known as OSINT, involves the use of public data—such as social media posts, flight tracking data, and satellite images, among other sources—to let anyone investigate events worldwide, from potential war crimes to human rights violations. Piecing together small details from multiple sources of information can allow investigators to understand a clearer picture of events on the ground.”

Ukraine 0
August 15, 2022

Bellingcat: These are the Tools Open Source Researchers Say They Need

Bellingcat: These are the Tools Open Source Researchers Say They Need. “Researchers told us that the tools they are most likely to use need to be free, clearly describing what they are capable of doing and how they can be used. Given that only a quarter of our respondents knew how to use the command line, tools which do not require more advanced technical skills are particularly welcome. Nearly 200 of our respondents provided concrete suggestions for tools which could help them in their work, which we have provided in a publicly-accessible spreadsheet.”

Research & Opinion 0
August 14, 2022

CNN: How a tiny nonprofit with no full-time employees became the foremost tracker of gun violence in America

CNN: How a tiny nonprofit with no full-time employees became the foremost tracker of gun violence in America. “Yet for all its influence in providing that data, the Gun Violence Archive is remarkably small-scale. The organization is funded almost entirely by a single octogenarian donor, has no office space or any full-time employees, and is led by a bushy-bearded Kentucky gun owner who sold several of his firearms to help launch the group. That this bare-bones organization informs the highest levels of power underscores the startling lack of timely, standardized data on American gun violence.”

Around the Search & Social Media World 0
August 14, 2022

Bellingcat: Using New Tech to Investigate Old Photographs

Bellingcat: Using New Tech to Investigate Old Photographs. “New tools and a wealth of online data make it easier to navigate more than 150 years of evolving landscapes, cities, buildings and street names. Reverse image searches, Google Lens, digitised newspapers, heritage and auctioneering websites, AI colourisation and tools such as Peakvisor can help add valuable information and understanding to historic art collections.”

Useful Stuff 0
August 6, 2022

The Guardian: From celebrity jets to Pelosi’s Taiwan trip, flight trackers are the sleeper hit of the summer

The Guardian: From celebrity jets to Pelosi’s Taiwan trip, flight trackers are the sleeper hit of the summer. “Want to watch a top-secret government flight live? Track a drug kingpin’s movements in real time? Or know how much Taylor Swift’s jets are polluting the air? They’re all streaming live on the sleeper hit of the summer: online flight trackers.”

Around the Search & Social Media World 0
July 27, 2022

Indiana University Bloomington: New social media tools help public assess viral posts, check for bots

Indiana University Bloomington: New social media tools help public assess viral posts, check for bots. “The Observatory on Social Media, or OSoMe, at Indiana University has launched three new or revamped no-cost research tools to give journalists, other researchers and the public a broad view of what’s happening on social media.” They’re very Twitter-oriented and look like a lot of fun.

New Resources 0
July 19, 2022

MakeUseOf: 12 Resourceful OSINT Tools You Should Know

MakeUseOf: 12 Resourceful OSINT Tools You Should Know. “Carrying out open-source intelligence manually is no doubt a Herculean task. There are just too many records and data to go through. Thankfully, many tools have been created to automate and speed up the OSINT process. With these tools, you can get a lot of information about a particular organization and person in seconds.” Interesting mix. Annotation is a little thin so be prepared to explore.

Useful Stuff 0
July 17, 2022

NBC Sports: New Twitter account tracks Dan Snyder’s superyacht

NBC Sports: New Twitter account tracks Dan Snyder’s superyacht. “Commanders owner Dan Snyder, who possibly has opted to run out the clock with the House Oversight Committee by remaining on his superyacht through at least the November election or at most the commencement of the new Congress in January, cannot secure shelter from the prying eyes of social media. A new Twitter account tracks Snyder’s massive boat, the Lady S, wherever it may be.”

Security & Legal Issues 0

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