Papers are accepted for the Big Data, Intelligence Management and Analytics Workshop, as part of the 7th IEEE/ACM International Conference on Utility and Cloud Computing (UCC 2014). The workshop will take place in London between the 8th and 11th of December 2014. The website of the workshop is the following: http://bigdataworkshop.altervista.org/.
Andrew Staniforth, Detective Inspector and Senior Research Fellow at CENTRIC, continues his counter-terrorism series of articles for online police magazine www.PoliceOracle.com with an examination of the lessons learned for UK police and security forces following the armed terrorist assault in Mumbai five years ago.
The online counter-terrorism series serves to raise awareness of key issues and challenges to front line practitioners, senior police leaders and security professionals amongst the growing readership of Police Oracle.
Published at the 13th annual IEEE Conference on Technologies for Homeland Security (HST ’13)
Authors: Babak Akhgar CENTRIC, Dave Fortune CENTRIC, Richard E. Hayes Evidence Based Reasearch, Bárbara Guerra EDGE Technology & Marco Manso RINICOM.
Abstract — Large-scale crises challenge the ability of public safety and security organisations to respond efficient and effectively. Meanwhile, citizens’ adoption of mobile technology and rich social media services is dramatically changing the way crisis responses develop. Empowered by new communication media (smartphones, text messaging, internet-based applications and social media), citizens are the in situ first sensors. However, this entire social media arena is unchartered territory to most public safety and security organisations.
In this paper, we analyse crisis events to draw narratives on social media relevance and describe how public safety and security organisations are increasingly aware of social media’s added value proposition in times of crisis. A set of critical success indicators to address the process of adopting social media is identified, so that social media information is rapidly transformed into actionable intelligence, thus enhancing the effectiveness of public safety and security organisations – saving time, money and lives.
Andrew Staniforth, Detective Inspector and Senior Research Fellow at CENTRIC, has co-authored a chapter with Clive Walker, Professor of Criminal Justice Studies at the School of Law, University of Leeds and special adviser to the Independent Reviewer of Terrorism Legislation, as part of a new ground breaking edited collection ‘Counter-Terrorism, Human Rights and the Rule of Law – Crossing Legal Boundaries in Defense of the State’. Published by Edward Elgar Publishing, this new volume provides a deep and thoughtful exploration of counter-terrorism written by leading commentators from around the globe. The book poses critical questions about the definition of terrorism, the role of human rights and the push by many governments for more security powers. It carefully examines the boundaries between crime and thought, crime and war, the domestic and the international and the legal and the illegal-boundaries that were once seen as inviolate, but which have become blurred during the last turbulent decade. The chapter provided by Andrew and Clive marks a five year collaboration concerning anti-terror legislation between police and academia, based upon a joint seminar paper presented at the prestigious Max Planc Institute during 2010 concerning the amplification and melding of UK counter terrorism apparatus since 9/11. The chapter has been revised and updated to include the new counter-terrorism structures in place to tackle contemporary terrorism. To view the new book, edited by Aniceto Masferrer, University of Valencia, Spain and Clive Walker, University of Leeds, please follow the link to: http://www.e-elgar.co.uk/bookentry_main.lasso?id=15162
Andrew Staniforth, Detective Inspector and Senior Research Fellow at CENTRIC continues his counter-terrorism series of articles for online police magazine www.PoliceOracle.com with an examination of the the UK Government’s Counter Terrorism Strategy (CONTEST). Drawing on previous collaborations with Sir David Omand GCB, the former Director of GCHQ, author of CONTEST and Professor at King’s College London, the article provides a unique insight to the challenges of developing and delivering what has become the worlds most sophisticated counter-terrorism strategy. To view the article follow the link:
The online counter-terrorism series serves to raise awareness of key issues and challenges to front line practitioners, senior police leaders and security professionals amongst the growing readership of Police Oracle.
How open-source intelligence can support and corroborate investigations
By BABAK AKHGAR
Criminals are connected by a maze of networks. Unfortunately, law enforcement is not always so well connected. Data sharing could change the face of public and national security.
Working together, agencies can harness the power of big data to understand the continuum of past, present and future – with a proactive focus on the future. Since the big data analytics foundation is available, there are no excuses. The mission of public health, safety and security, require us to take action.
Today, law enforcement agencies around the world have the technological capability to deliver preventive policing – something that was previously inconceivable. To do that, IT must be seen as an ally, not a road block
Steve Lofthouse was recently awarded the SAP Visionary Award by SAP, ‘…in appreciation of his exceptional dedication, professionalism, innovation and engagement.’
Steve was also given the award/role of SAP Mentor by SAP, who describes their mentors as ‘..the most influential community participants in the SAP ecosystem. As part of a super smart and engaged global cohort of nearly 110 bloggers, consultants, and technical wizards nominated by SAP Community Network peers and selected by SAP. All SAP Mentors are hands-on experts of an SAP product or service, as well as true project champions. The majority of SAP Mentors work for customers or partners of SAP.’
Steve has recently brought a number of SAP projects into CENTRIC including a project to utilise SAP’s HANA predictive analytics technology, together with social media to perform real time sentiment analysis in response to terrorist incidents. CENTRIC will also be working with SAP to develop an IPad app to present the results of real time intelligence analysis to law enforcement and intelligence officers.