Open Source Intelligence Methods and Techniques Training Programme
Jane's Strategic Advisory Services (JSAS), the consultancy division of IHS Jane's, now offers an open source intelligence (OSINT) collection and analysis training service. In conjunction with Reuser’s Information Services (RIS), JSAS has developed a training programme for open source researchers to enable them to more effectively collect and analyse information in order to produce better quality reports.
The JSAS/RIS OSINT Methods and Techniques course is a modularised approach to identifying overarching methods, best practices, considerations, challenges and tools available to open source intelligence analysts. This course provides an overview of the current OSINT landscape and demonstrates how to best access and analyse the most appropriate resources to fulfil OSINT requirements.
Our team (see below) has worked to design and deliver a week-long open source research and analysis training course designed to assist intelligence analysts and researchers perform the following core tasks:
- Deconstruct analytical problems
- Devise collection plans to answer these problems
- Identify and access key sources
- Assess and analyze various streams of information
- Understand and assess source bias
- Synthesize information and insight from varied sources
- Produce open source intelligence products
Register now for the next OSINT Methods and Techniques training course at the location of your choice.
Course designers and instructors
Below are brief bio paragraphs for the five core OSINT Training team members. These five core team members represent one level of IHS Jane’s OSINT Training offering capability and are augmented and assisted by a deep reservoir of subject matter and OSINT experts resident in the Jane’s Expert Network, IHS Jane’s, other IHS Insight Business, such as HIS CERA, Lloyd’s Register Fairplay, and IHS Global Insight who assist in the development, delivery and review of IHS Jane’s OSINT training courses. A more in-depth description of this reach-back capability is included in a separate section below:
Mr. Tim Pippard is a Consultant with Jane’s Strategic Advisory Services (JSAS). Prior to coming to JSAS in January 2009, Tim served as the Managing Editor of Jane’s Terrorism and Insurgency Centre (JTIC), an online terrorism and global threat assessment centre, from December 2006 through June of 2008. Mr. Pippard has also served as the Coordinating Editor of Jane’s World Insurgency and Terrorism. Through his experiences on both the editorial and consultancy teams and as both a designer and practitioner of OSINT methodologies, Mr. Pippard has developed a nuanced understanding of Open Source Intelligence research and analysis methods and techniques. He is a core member of the IHS Jane’s / RIS OSINT Training team, including serving as the lead trainer of a recently completed OSINT and the Middle East / North Africa Region training course. In addition, Mr. Pippard is a sitting member of the U.S. National Counter-Terrorism Centre’s (NCTC) Worldwide Incident Tracking Service that is focused on developing enhanced methodologies for tracking terrorist activity and incidents.
Tim earned a Bachelors of Arts in Comparative American Studies from the University of Warwick in 2002 and a Masters of Arts in International Peace and Security from Kings College in London in 2003. Tim is a citizen of the United Kingdom and a native English speaker.
Arno Reuser is a professional librarian / information professional with more than 30 years experience in information handling and -processing. Arno founded the Open Source Intelligence Unit of the Dutch Defence Intelligence & Security Service about 15 years ago and still heads it today. Arno holds a bachelor degree in librarianship and has completed many courses in digital information management, Internet search strategies, update workshops etc. Arno learned the technical requirements of today's digital world by learning how to write software, program scripts to automate tasks, building websites, getting the most out of the Internet by studying network theory, all in support of OSINT information management.
In addition to his work with the Dutch Defence and Intelligence Service, the Service has granted Arno permission to establish Reuser’s Information Services in 2008 in conjunction with his current position as head of OSINT. RIS’ primary goal is to teach Open Source Intelligence and provide consultancy for government and private sector institutions worldwide. RIS has a close and continuing partnership with IHS Jane’s to provide open source intelligence training primarily to government organisations.
Arno has an extensive history of teaching OSINT, and OSINT training has been a core focus of his professional activities for decades. Today, he teaches OSINT, search strategies, information handling and security to a wide range of audiences. Arno travels regularly to the United States, Switzerland, Austria, and United Kingdom to teach to a wide range of multilingual, multicultural audiences and is thus used to communicating with people from different backgrounds and possessing different language skills.
Arno is a recognised expert on OSINT and speaks regularly at international conferences and workshops on the organization and maintenance of Open Source Intelligence Services, at home and abroad, for a diverse audience such as international organisations, government institutes, intelligence, military, and information professionals, including:
- First DNI Open Source Conference of the US Director of National Intelligence on a new model of Open Source Intelligence (https://www.dniopensource2007.com/sessions.cfm), 2007.
- Keynote speech on Information Visualisation, Open Source Intelligence and Web Mining 08 London.
- Presentations, speech and workshops on behalf of The OSINT Budapest Club, three times per year, Bucharest, Budapest, Rome.
- Workshop OSINT for teachers and instructors of the Royal Dutch Military Academy in Breda, The Netherlands.
- Speaker, workshop leader at the International Open Source Working Group, yearly.
- Keynote speech on Information Visualisation, Open Source Intelligence and Web Mining 09 Barcelona for mathematicians, physicists and the like.
- Keynote address at the Counter Terrorism Lab at the University of South Denmark, in Denmark, October 2009
- Invited speaker at Working Groups of Information Professionals in The Netherlands, October 2009.
- Speaker on Internet Security at Annual Intelligence and Security Conference NL. Yearly.
- Teacher for Open Source Intelligence at the Dutch Defence Intelligence and Security Institute, The Netherlands, 5 times per year.
- Teacher for a one week Open Source Intelligence course for the EU Consilium, repeated six times for a different class of participants.
- Speaker and workshop leader at the Dutch Police Academy Yearly Conference on OSINT and Web 2.0, 2009
- Teacher at the Pilot Course Open Source Intelligence, three courses, European Defence Agency, Brussels Belgium, 2008.
- Speaker and teacher at the PKI Information and Intelligence Cooperation in Multifunctional International Operations, Folke Bernadotte Academy, Sweden,2009.
- Teacher at the Open Source Intelligence Methods & Techniques course (two weeks), three courses, European Defence Agency, Brussels Belgium, 2009. This course was taught in conjunction with IHS Jane’s.
- Teacher at a one-day refresher Internet Search Strategy course, Europol, The Hague.
Arno was awarded a Golden Candle Award in 2003 and a Lifetime Award in 2004. He writes book chapters on OSINT and its role in Intelligence, and journal articles, like 'When InterNET is InterNOT', published Jan/Feb 2008 Online Magazine. Arno is fluent in English and Dutch and speaks fair German as well.
Terry Pattar is an Associate with JSAS, specializing in Project Management, open source collection and analysis techniques, emerging security and military threats, and jihadist radicalisation and recruitment.
In this role, Mr. Pattar has a range of projects focused on defence and security issues for European and Asian defence communities. His primary two responsibilities are managing IHS Jane’s monitoring and analysis of Islamic extremist websites and managing the delivery of IHS Jane’s on-going OSINT training courses. Since May of 2006, IHS Jane’s has provided monthly analysis of over 400 English, Arabic and Pushto-language Islamic extremist websites, blogs and forums in support of a government client. Since his arrival at IHS Jane’s, Mr. Pattar has lead a team of five analysts examining these sites for changes in content, adjustments in evolving sentiment toward specific states and individual leaders, and assessing the radicalisation and recruitment tactics of the webmasters and website operators.
In addition, Mr. Pattar has also played a central role as both a project manager and an instructor in the development and execution of IHS Jane’s Open Source Intelligence Training practice. Mr. Pattar has managed Open Source Intelligence Training projects focused on Methods and Techniques and OSINT and the Middle East / North Africa region, including designing and delivering course content.
Prior to joining Jane's, Mr. Pattar spent six years working as senior analyst for the United Kingdom’s Ministry of Defence, where he focused on different varieties of Islamist extremist terrorism, including Al-Qaeda in the Middle East, South Asia and Europe, North African extremists, as well as politically-motivated groups such as Hamas and Hizbullah. Mr. Pattar is based in Jane’s London office.
Terry received his BA in Arabic Studies from the University of Exeter, as part of which he spent a year studying Arabic at the University of Alexandria, Egypt. Terry attained his MA in Near and Middle Eastern Studies from the University of London, School of Oriental and African Studies. For his MA, he majored in the politics, history and religion of Central Asia Mr. Pattar is fluent in English and Arabic.
Tate Nurkin is the Director of Jane’s Strategic Advisory Services’ (JSAS) Security and Intelligence Practice. In this role, Mr. Nurkin is responsible for managing all of JSAS’ support to defence and intelligence community clients and is also responsible for the development and refinement of the capabilities to support these clients, including the IHS Jane’s / RIS Open Source Intelligence Training practice. Prior to coming to IHS Jane’s in March of 2006, Mr. Nurkin worked for Joint Management Services, a private consulting firm in Atlanta, GA; the Strategic Assessment Centre of Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC); and the Modelling, Simulation, Wargaming and Analysis division of Booz Allen Hamilton’s Defence Natural Team.
Much of Mr. Nurkin’s career has been focused on alternative futures analysis and scenario building, Red Teaming, Wargaming and developing and implementing “Devil’s Advocacy” and related methodologies. Mr. Nurkin has designed training courses focused on scenario building, futures analysis, wargaming, multiple advocacy, Devil’s Advocacy, and Red Teaming. Mr. Nurkin currently serves on the steering committee for the IHS Global Scenarios project, which is designed to integrate scenario development efforts of the bestin- brand IHS insight companies—IHS Jane’s (defence and national security), IHS Global Insight (economics), and IHS CERA (energy)—to provide comprehensive scenarios for future security, economic and energy environments out to 2030.
Mr. Nurkin holds a Bachelors of Arts from Duke University where he was a Dean’s List graduate. He also earned a Master’s of Science in International Affairs from the Sam Nunn School of International Affairs at the Georgia Institute of Technology, where he was voted Most Outstanding Graduate Student.
Mr. Nico Prucha: Mr. Prucha is a subject matter expert on on-line jihadist movements and ideologies; using blogs and social networking tools for intelligence collection; navigating and assessing forums and the “Deep Web”; key word analysis; sentiment analysis; and assessing and on-line recruitment and radicalization patterns. He has served as a retained expert on jihadist web analysis and OSINT methods and techniques since November of 2007. He is a core member of the IHS Jane’s team that monitors and assesses activity on over 350 English and Arabic language jihadist websites.
Mr. Prucha has been examining radical on-line activity since 2002 and has established and maintains a database of Arabic jihadist literature and videos and identified and categorized doctrinal keywords. Through his research, Mr. Prucha has developed a deep expertise on web-research and analysis, primarily on how to navigate and use forums, blogs, social networking tools, and other dynamic and interactive web resources in support of on-going open source research and analysis.
Nico has been a core part of the IHS Jane’s OSINT training team since August of 2009 and was an instructor for recently completed modules on blogs and social networking tools and the use of Twitter as an open source collection tool. He will also provide instruction on these modules for a course scheduled to be given in early December 2009.
Mr. Prucha holds a Masters of Philosophy from the Institute of Oriental Studies at the University of Vienna. He is fluent in German, English and Arabic and also speaks conversational French.
IHS Jane's OSINT Training Reach-back capability
In addition to the core trainers referenced above, the IHS Jane’s OSINT training offering also features the ability to reach-back to a deep and broad group of subject matter experts OSINT methods and techniques resident in IHS Jane’s, other IHS Insight Businesses, and the Jane’s Expert Network. These individuals include military and security intelligence professionals with deep expertise in developing and utilising OSINT, all of whom can and will support the design, delivery, review and refinement of the IHS Jane’s / RIS OSINT training programme.