Social media is a key source of intelligence for corporate security professionals. As such, it's vital that they choose the right tool for the job to enable efficient social media monitoring and effectively detect potential threats early.
Many hacks go completely undetected as shown by the fact that in 2019 one of America’s biggest banks took over four months to realise they had had a severe data breach! Learn how Signal could have helped this bank find and respond sooner and reduce their reputational damage.
It was only on March 13th, two months after their systems were breached and sensitive data was stolen, that Kathmandu publicly responded to the breach; intelligence software like Signal could have instantly spotted people trying to sell the stolen data online and led to a much faster response time.
In this real-life example, we explore how utilising threat intelligence software like Signal could have easily spotted and halted a massive employee data breach which cost Llyods bank over $140k!
Part of Signal’s job is to aggregate online notifications around threats to buildings and the staff inside which affect business and personal safety in various ways. Monitoring online traffic like this can be the fastest way to notify any business of evolving threats.
In 2017 we launched our dark web monitoring functionality. From there we have evolved it into an invaluable part of our security intelligence offering which is used by corporate security teams across the globe.
In 2018 we launched Signal Spotlight! This feature allows users to analyse the emotion behind potential threats to determine associated risk. Signal users get a real-time overview of the emotional state of Signal search results to better understand the emotional drive behind identified threat intelligence.
Unfortunately, no-one is exempt from terror events happening as was the case in Melbourne on Friday 9th November 2018. During events of this nature it is critical to get rapid information from a variety of sources.
When catastrophic events strike, emergency services are seeing a growing reliance on social media by those affected. Citizens are going online to ask for help, mark themselves as safe and support relief efforts.
When Hurricane Harvey struck Texas at the end of August 2017, due to the scale of the disaster, traditional tools were unable to cope.
Although unprecedented in modern history, the impact of Harvey shows that agencies need to recognize the importance of channels like social media.
With our analysis, we have pinpointed aspects that occurred during the event. Post-event recovery is another area where additional situational awareness can be gained ... but that’s a topic for another blog.
Read on for all the information we gathered in infographic format.
Justin Kibell, Manager of Operational Intelligence, Emergency Management Victoria
We spoke with one of our customers, Justin Kibell - the Manager of Operational Intelligence for Emergency Management Victoria (EMV), to see what he thought the most important uses for monitoring online data were, when emergencies arose.
One of the key principles we use in our Intelligence section is to consider a broad range of information from different sources and agencies. Open source is a key source of information directly from the community, but it comes with a lot of noise.
It can often be difficult to locate the key pieces of information and this is why we have been using Signal to assist us with efficiently gathering and collating open source content across a range of platforms.
The key drivers for information gathering from social media platforms are similar to that of other information channels monitored by Intelligence Analysts. Open source information such as social media provides an opportunity to corroborate information from other sources and in some cases discover additional (important) information shared directly by the public who are on scene or potentially impacted.
Our Intelligence Analysts utilise the powerful search and monitoring features of Signal to search through various open source streams to locate information across a range of intelligence requirements such as:
1. Gauging Public Sentiment – to assist the social media team in our Public Information team, we use Signal to help determine what the community is saying about the emergency and the Governments response, both positive and negative.
2. Monitor News Coverage – searching local and interstate news websites, journalists and associated influencers, we use Signal to help obtain a bird’s eye view of what media are reporting which we pass onto the Public Information team to address and minimise misinformation.
3. Situational Awareness – using Signal to search and collate information from videos, images and descriptions of damage posted online is incredibly useful to our analysts both in building a more complete picture of what is going on (including known and potential impacts), but also in assisting our predictive services team with on scene observations which help validate their modelling such as photos with smoke plumes and fire behaviour showing.
4. Survey Damaged Areas – pinpointing the worst hit areas with observations directly from the community assists us in more efficiently deploying resources to areas with the most need. The geo-located content he at map feature quickly highlight key areas of interest.
At the State Control Centre we have been using Signal for over two years now. Our Intelligence Analysts have positively commented on improvements to the usability and features of the tool and look forward to using the new information offered through the new “Spotlight” functionality.
Over the last three years our social media emergency management intelligence capability has grown and throughout this period Signal has been an important and valuable tool in the tool chest used by our team.
Justin Kibell, Manager of Operational Intelligence, EMV
Justin's experience with Signal demonstrates the various benefits social media offers for emergency management intelligence.
How are you using open source intelligence in your emergency response efforts?
