Analysis of the ‘Open Source Internet Research Tool’: A Usage Perspective from UK Law Enforcement

Joseph Williams; Paul Stephens

doi:10.1007/978-3-030-57404-8

Analysis of the ‘Open Source Internet Research Tool’: A Usage Perspective from UK Law Enforcement

Joseph Williams, Paul Stephens

Research output: Contribution to conference › Paper › peer-review

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Abstract

Internet Intelligence and Investigations (i3) are a fundamental investigative tool of the modern law enforcement official (LEO) in an always-connected online era. Ensuring LEOs follow good procedure for such investigations is critical for both law enforcement and society, as it ensures consistency, rigor and transparency.

Procedural issues lie with online evidential capture, however. For example, it is not feasible to directly apply digital evidence methodologies one would for ‘offline’ digital forensics; instead, one must apply best practices and a consistent ap-proach. How those best practices and consistent approaches apply will typically fall to individual forces. One such tool in the arsenal of law enforcement is the ‘Open Source Internet Research Tool’ (OSIRT), a free all-in-one browser that assists law enforcement in conducting i3 in a standardized manner.

This paper analyses and discusses the results of 32 questionnaire responses from serving LEOs in the UK and their use of OSIRT. Results showed that LEOs found OSIRT to be helpful to them and compared to their previous method of conducting online investigations, OSIRT offered an improved system to conduct online investigations in many instances.

Original language	English
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-57404-8
Publication status	Published - 7 Jul 2020
Event	14th International Symposium on Human Aspects of Information Security & Assurance - Online, Greece Duration: 7 Jul 2020 → 10 Jul 2020 https://www.haisa.org/HAISA%20Programme%202020.pdf

Conference

Conference	14th International Symposium on Human Aspects of Information Security & Assurance
Abbreviated title	HAISA 2020
Country/Territory	Greece
Period	7/07/20 → 10/07/20
Internet address	https://www.haisa.org/HAISA%20Programme%202020.pdf

Keywords

Internet Intelligence and Investigations
OSINT
Digital evidential capture

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10.1007/978-3-030-57404-8Licence: Unspecified

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© 2020 The Author(s). This an open access work distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted reuse, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Accepted author manuscript, 282 KBLicence: CC BY

Cite this

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abstract = "Internet Intelligence and Investigations (i3) are a fundamental investigative tool of the modern law enforcement official (LEO) in an always-connected online era. Ensuring LEOs follow good procedure for such investigations is critical for both law enforcement and society, as it ensures consistency, rigor and transparency. Procedural issues lie with online evidential capture, however. For example, it is not feasible to directly apply digital evidence methodologies one would for {\textquoteleft}offline{\textquoteright} digital forensics; instead, one must apply best practices and a consistent ap-proach. How those best practices and consistent approaches apply will typically fall to individual forces. One such tool in the arsenal of law enforcement is the {\textquoteleft}Open Source Internet Research Tool{\textquoteright} (OSIRT), a free all-in-one browser that assists law enforcement in conducting i3 in a standardized manner. This paper analyses and discusses the results of 32 questionnaire responses from serving LEOs in the UK and their use of OSIRT. Results showed that LEOs found OSIRT to be helpful to them and compared to their previous method of conducting online investigations, OSIRT offered an improved system to conduct online investigations in many instances.",

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N2 - Internet Intelligence and Investigations (i3) are a fundamental investigative tool of the modern law enforcement official (LEO) in an always-connected online era. Ensuring LEOs follow good procedure for such investigations is critical for both law enforcement and society, as it ensures consistency, rigor and transparency. Procedural issues lie with online evidential capture, however. For example, it is not feasible to directly apply digital evidence methodologies one would for ‘offline’ digital forensics; instead, one must apply best practices and a consistent ap-proach. How those best practices and consistent approaches apply will typically fall to individual forces. One such tool in the arsenal of law enforcement is the ‘Open Source Internet Research Tool’ (OSIRT), a free all-in-one browser that assists law enforcement in conducting i3 in a standardized manner. This paper analyses and discusses the results of 32 questionnaire responses from serving LEOs in the UK and their use of OSIRT. Results showed that LEOs found OSIRT to be helpful to them and compared to their previous method of conducting online investigations, OSIRT offered an improved system to conduct online investigations in many instances.

AB - Internet Intelligence and Investigations (i3) are a fundamental investigative tool of the modern law enforcement official (LEO) in an always-connected online era. Ensuring LEOs follow good procedure for such investigations is critical for both law enforcement and society, as it ensures consistency, rigor and transparency. Procedural issues lie with online evidential capture, however. For example, it is not feasible to directly apply digital evidence methodologies one would for ‘offline’ digital forensics; instead, one must apply best practices and a consistent ap-proach. How those best practices and consistent approaches apply will typically fall to individual forces. One such tool in the arsenal of law enforcement is the ‘Open Source Internet Research Tool’ (OSIRT), a free all-in-one browser that assists law enforcement in conducting i3 in a standardized manner. This paper analyses and discusses the results of 32 questionnaire responses from serving LEOs in the UK and their use of OSIRT. Results showed that LEOs found OSIRT to be helpful to them and compared to their previous method of conducting online investigations, OSIRT offered an improved system to conduct online investigations in many instances.

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ER -

Analysis of the ‘Open Source Internet Research Tool’: A Usage Perspective from UK Law Enforcement

Abstract

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Keywords

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