Open Source Intelligence. The use of white intelligence in local government is not only a Google browser, but also other tools to check our contractor in activities for the local government, as well as effective promotion and checking the effectiveness of marketing activities on the web.OSINT is based on what is available on the Internet and what we can get while sitting in front of a computer.
What issues do I raise:1) Who bought a given Internet domain and when is it valid?2) How to check if our domain is free?3) Which domains are better not to enter in Poland?4) Who got funding from the European Union in Poland?5) Who received public aid? For more infoChina calls it “War Z” – an allusion to Russia’s failed “Z-Force” invasion of Ukraine. And its recent study into a “total war” scenario in South East Asia predicts a similarly devastating outcome. The People’s Liberation Army (PLA) research group Unit 91404, part of China’s Institute of Command and Technology of Equipment, has published an analysis of a “clash of strategic willpower” involving 50 of its most modern warships. “Total war means all available resources and efforts of a nation are mobilised towards winning the war,” states the South China Morning Post, which fell under the control of the Chinese Communist Party when it asserted control over Hong Kong in 2020. “It involves not only the military but also the civilian population and the economy, such as occurred in World War I and II.” Despite rhetoric labelling the scenario a “doomsday” event, the survivability and effectiveness of Chinese warships were judged on their performance involving conventional (non-nuclear) weapons.
Read moreTwo of the federal government’s most high-profile technology misfires of the past year, Defence’s myClearance vetting system and Parliament’s expenses management system, are to be examined by the Australia’s national auditor. The auditor is also contemplating an audit of the National Disability Insurance Agency’s (NDIA) new Salesforce customer relationship management system, which more than doubled in price before it had even been launched. Releasing its work plan for 2023-24 on Thursday, the Australian National Audit Office (ANAO) revealed the programs confirmed for review over the next 12 months, as well as those targeted for potential audits.
Continue ReadingHow and when does political change occur in authoritarian states? Recent events in Russia have reminded us that seizing or holding power depends on information, argument, momentum, individual choices and timing. Only the successful revolution looks inevitable in hindsight. On the morning of November 6 1917, Lenin was in a distant suburb of Petrograd, then capital of Russia. He did not know the exact position of either the Provisional Government or of the Bolshevik Central Committee. Fearful of being stuck on the wrong side of town, he walked to the Smolny Institute – once a convent school in Tsarist Russia, then the headquarters of the Petrograd Soviet and the All Russian Central Executive Committee of the Soviets of Workers’ and Soldiers’ Deputies. There he found Trotsky, who he bombarded with impatient questions. At 2am on November 7 Trotsky pulled out his watch and said ‘It’s begun.’ Lenin said: ‘From being on the run to supreme power – that’s too much. It makes me dizzy.’ He made the sign of the cross and the two men lay down on the office floor, pulled a rug over themselves and waited for news.
Know moreYou have to hand it to the good folks at the Digital Transformation Agency for their impeccable sense of timing. On the eve of the Royal Commission into the Robodebt Scheme report being tabled, the now Department of Finance-headquartered technology supermarket and advice shop has issued whole-of-government interim guidance on the use of Generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the public sector. It’s an important development for the public service because apart from the usual security-related alerts, warnings and bans from the Australian Signals Directorate and other cyber friends, the set of recommendations is the first real set of government guard rails for the likes of ChatGPT, Bard AI or Bing AI, and there are some pretty big caveats that could easily bring unassessed projects seriously unstuck.
Read MoreWhy do we need a new research agenda to study contemporary intelligence? This is in essence the question to which the recently published book Problematising Intelligence Studies aims to respond. The ambition to revisit and recast the study of intelligence is pressing in order to address an analytical problem currently facing intelligence studies (IS). Its exaggerated focus on states’ intelligence services and their performance, combined with modes of inquiry that largely ignore the plethora of social actors and practices that currently make up intelligence, means that much of what is going on in intelligence today largely escapes the focus of IS. To address this issue, the book aims to shape a renewed research approach and agenda. This article outlines this approach in more detail.
Read the reportThe Wagner mutiny in Russia was short-lived, but it was nevertheless a watershed event in post-Soviet history with long-term implications for Russia’s future. Wagner leader Yevgeny Prigozhin’s claim that his march on Moscow was not aimed at Russian President Vladimir Putin was disingenuous. He said he only did it to confront the Defense Minister and Chief of the General Staff, but in today’s Russia only Putin has that prerogative. Simply put, Prigozhin challenged Putin in his own house through force of arms while the world watched. For a brief and shocking moment, people, including people in Russia, wondered if this might be the end for Putin. It wasn’t, but the mere fact that it was wondered at all, combined with the equally shocking end of the revolt in which Prigozhin was allowed to walk away, suddenly makes Putin seem less inevitable. Given this, what indicators should we be looking out for now that his control is indeed eroding?
Read the full pieceSir David Omand is one of the most respected intelligence professionals in the world and author of the book How Spies Think: Ten lessons in intelligence. His career in intelligence began shortly after graduating from Cambridge in 1969 when he joined the UK’s GCHQ (Government Communications Headquarters). He would later become the director of GCHQ. He also served as the first UK Security and Intelligence Coordinator, the most senior intelligence, counter-terror and homeland security position in the UK. In this OODAcast we discuss lessons in leadership from his time in the intelligence service and his views on the current threat environment, including threats to nations, corporations and citizens of the free world. We also examine how his time in intelligence informed his own models for understanding and analyzing complex situations and how this motivated him to write How Spies Think.
For more informationRolf Mowatt-Larssen challenges us with his fasten your seatbelts presentation on the complex issue of intelligence in which he discusses spies, nukes, emerging science and technology, climate change and fake news.
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