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Date: Tue, 06 Aug 2013 06:48:11 -0700
From: Steven Aftergood
To: eugen@leitl.org
Subject: Secrecy News -- 08/06/13
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SECRECY NEWS
from the FAS Project on Government Secrecy
Volume 2013, Issue No. 72
August 6, 2013
Secrecy News Blog: http://blogs.fas.org/secrecy/
** MILITARY TESTS DATA MINING OF SOCIAL MEDIA FOR SPECIAL OPS
** U.S. TRADE POLICY, AND MORE FROM CRS
MILITARY TESTS DATA MINING OF SOCIAL MEDIA FOR SPECIAL OPS
The U.S. military has been investigating the use of sophisticated data
mining tools to probe social media and other open sources in order to
support military operations against money laundering, drug trafficking,
terrorism and other threats. But the window for doing so may be closing as
the social media landscape changes, according to an internal assessment.
U.S. Special Operations Command (SOCOM) National Capital Region (NCR)
conducted a series of experiments over the past year under the rubric
"QUANTUM LEAP" that was intended to test "non-traditional" tools and
techniques to advance the SOCOM mission.
An after-action report on the first experiment said it "was successful in
identifying strategies and techniques for exploiting open sources of
information, particularly social media, in support of a counter threat
finance mission." Counter threat finance refers to efforts to disrupt an
adversary's finances. A copy of the SOCOM NCR report was obtained by
Secrecy News. See "Project QUANTUM LEAP: After Action Report," 12
September 2012:
http://www.fas.org/irp/eprint/quantum.pdf
"Major lessons learned were the pronounced utility of social media in
exploiting human networks, including networks in which individual members
actively seek to limit their exposure to the internet and social media...,"
the report said.
The QUANTUM LEAP project, which did not utilize classified intelligence,
relied heavily on participation by private sector firms identified in the
report, who demonstrated tools they had developed "to enhance the ability
to discover relationships, human networks, and geospatial features" from
open source data.
A tool called Social Bubble permitted the search of Twitter-related
content "to explore human networks associated with the [counter threat
finance] scenario and enabled identification of various entities...
associated with the moneylaundering network." A tool called Recon was used
to reconstruct source documents from a raw data stream. Another tool
served to "collect large quantities of data from the 'deep web', or sources
which are accessible via the internet but not necessarily indexed or linked
via a world wide web page." And another called Semantica "is capable of
ingesting structured and semi-structured data and displaying it in a
'triplet' format, e.g. two entities and a relationship, such as [A is owned
by B]."
"More than 200 additional open-source tools and sources were identified
relevant to counter threat finance," the SOCOM report said.
The report said that as valuable as the opportunity created by new
techniques for data mining of open sources appears to be, it may prove to
be transient.
"We are currently in a 'window' of opportunity for exploitation of social
media sources for application to CTF [counter threat finance] or other
SOCOM NCR missions. This window could be as narrow as 18-24 months before
the social media phenomenon transforms. This future transformation is
unknown and could offer additional opportunities, or existing opportunities
could be closed, but the only thing that is certain is that there will
continue to be rapid change."
There are also unresolved legal issues.
"Legal review of the appropriate use and application of social media data
is in its infancy. Social media is transforming notions of privacy and
distinctions between personally identifiable information (PII) and
self-reported public information will have to be established by precedent
in case law," the report said.
"Almost all information relevant to the QUANTUM LEAP experiment has a
locative context [revealing the location of the source]. Location based
services (LBS) are becoming integrated into every facet of our lives and
are becoming much more accepted. There is a cultural/generational component
to acceptance of LBS in social media," the report said.
SOCOM Public Affairs did not respond to requests for comment or further
information about the project, and the report describing the effort
(labeled "draft") has not been formally released. However, the report was
kept unclassified, facilitating its dissemination and discussion among the
interested public.
Meanwhile, the future of SOCOM National Capital Region is itself
uncertain, as Congress has thus far declined to authorize or appropriate
funds that were requested for it in the coming fiscal year.
"The Committee remains unclear about the function, purpose, and costs
associated with the operations, infrastructure, and facilities for this
entity [SOCOM National Capital Region] both in the interim phase and the
final end-state," according to a June 2013 report of the House
Appropriations Committee. "Further, the Committee has received conflicting
information over the course of the last year as to the purpose of this
entity."
Project QUANTUM LEAP derives its name and inspiration from an initiative
in the late 1990s to incorporate advanced technologies into Naval Special
Warfare capabilities. That earlier Project QUANTUM LEAP was described in
"Stimulating Innovation in Naval Special Warfare by Utilizing Small Working
Groups" by Thomas A. Rainville, Master's Thesis, March 2001.
http://www.fas.org/irp/eprint/rainville.pdf
U.S. TRADE POLICY, AND MORE FROM CRS
New and newly updated Congressional Research Service reports that Congress
has withheld from online public distribution include the following.
Trade Promotion Authority (TPA) and the Role of Congress in Trade Policy,
August 2, 2013:
http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/RL33743.pdf
Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA) and Its Role in U.S. Trade Policy,
August 5, 2013:
http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/R41922.pdf
Trade Adjustment Assistance for Firms: Economic, Program, and Policy
Issues, August 5, 2013:
http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/RS20210.pdf
African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA): Background and Reauthorization,
August 2, 2013:
http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/row/R43173.pdf
International Crises and Disasters: U.S. Humanitarian Assistance Response
Mechanisms, August 1, 2013:
http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/row/RL33769.pdf
Chemical Facility Security: Issues and Options for the 113th Congress,
August 2, 2013:
http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/homesec/R42918.pdf
Health Care for Veterans: Answers to Frequently Asked Questions, August 1,
2013:
http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/R42747.pdf
The MF Global Bankruptcy, Missing Customer Funds, and Proposals for
Reform, August 1, 2013:
http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/R42091.pdf
_______________________________________________
Secrecy News is written by Steven Aftergood and published by the
Federation of American Scientists.
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_______________________
Steven Aftergood
Project on Government Secrecy
Federation of American Scientists
web: www.fas.org/sgp/index.html
email: saftergood@fas.org
voice: (202) 454-4691
twitter: @saftergood
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