OSINT Product On Russian Hackers And The Georgia Crisis Out Tomorrow! (Intelfusion)

The Grey Goose is about to fly! Nope, this is not an obscure quote from a numbers station; its a real product.

About 2 months ago, Jeff Carr over at Intelfusion set out to put together an OSINT team to take a look at Russian hackers and how they supported (or not) the Russian war effort in Georgia. Specifically, they sought to conduct "analysis of Russian hacker blogs in an effort to uncover connections that may not be readily apparent."

Jeff releases his initial round of results tomorrow. If you are interested in a copy, check out his post here for the instructions.

Israel-Iran Faceoff On Play The News (PlayTheNews.com)

Play The News has an interesting new predictive "game" (see below) on Israel's response to Iranian nuclear ambitions. As a teaching tool, this game (and Play The News in general) provides a good overview of the issue and then forces the reader/learner to synthesize what they have just read by coming up with an analytic judgment. It is a nice, tight package that would work well in a hour long class or as a homework assignment.

Sunday Funnies: Take On Me, Literally... (Current via Boing Boing)

If you survived the 80's (as I did) then this "new" Take On Me video will resonate. If you missed that decade, check out what we were doing back then (feel free to laugh at either version...).

"New" Version:

80's Version:

European Governments Likely To Change Approach To Sex Trafficking (ISN)

Mercyhurst grad student Brent Pearson has a well-researched analysis concerning changing European strategies to fight sex trafficking on ISN today. His BLUF suggests that European governments are likely to adopt new approaches focused "on attacking the illicit markets for sex traffickers by penalizing individuals who pay for sex from prostitutes, and treating prostitutes as victims of exploitation and trafficking." Interesting reading!

Knowledge Workers And Intelligence (BlogTalk Radio)

Deborah Osborne, of Analyst's Corner, hosted a podcast recently featuring Bob Heibel, Executive Director of the Mercyhurst College Institute for Intelligence Studies (Thanks, Rex!). Bob talked about our program, of course, but also shared his insights into the the present and future of intelligence studies in academe.

Bob started the program here at Mercyhurst some 16 years ago after a long career in the FBI as a Special Agent and, finally, as the Deputy Chief of Counter-terrorism. There are few people who have the depth of operational, intelligence and academic knowledge that he does. It makes him worth listening to on a number of different levels.