OSINT: Advanced Web Monitoring and Automation (3 Days)
To be effective, OSINT should allow as much time as possible for reading, analysis, insight generation and reporting. To this end, practitioners should know how to simplify or automate routine workflows, particularly those that support the rest of the intelligence value chain. They should also know how to leverage an extended range of sources, including those in foreign languages. This course builds on our OSINT: Foundations program to help you accelerate the collection and processing of information. We will also show you how to use standard office productivity tools to automate data processing and support collation, analysis and reporting.
Course Outline
Advanced Web Monitoring
Introduction to Web Monitoring
- The role of web monitoring in the OSINT workflow
- Passive vs. active web monitoring
- Selecting the right web monitoring approach
- Documenting the web monitoring process
Advanced Feed Discovery
- Prepping the browser for feed discovery
- Feed discovery strategies and tools
- Working with URL conventions
- Working with feed catalogues and search engines
- Working with multilingual feeds
Generating Feeds
- From basic to advanced feed generation tools
- Working with content selectors
- Working with HTML code
- Validating feeds
Page Monitoring
- Page monitoring tools
- Page monitoring extensions
- Page monitoring via AI tools
Monitoring News, Issues, Disciplines, and Industries
Advanced News Monitoring
- From basic to advanced news monitoring
- Working with news aggregators
- Automating feed generation
Going Beyond "Traditional" Sources
- Generating feeds from social media
- Generating feeds from blogs
- Generating feeds from newsletters
- Generating feeds from podcasts
- Generating feeds from "niche" content
Advanced Feed Processing
- Mixing feeds
- Filtering feeds
- Troubleshooting formatting issues
- Turning feeds into digests
- Feeds-based data analysis
Workflow Automation
Introduction to Workflow Automation
- Workflow automation as an important capability in OSINT
- Building a workflow automation toolkit
Working with IFTTT
- Working with IFTTT
- Automating data capture and collation
- Generating content / warning alerts
- IFTTT and AI
Working with Zapier
- Introduction to Zapier
- Working with triggers, actions and integrations
- Developing multi-stage research “zaps”
- Zapier and AI
Beyond IFTTT and Zapier
- Working with Make.com
- Working with self-hosted workflow automation tools
Who is this Course For?
This course is designed for OSINT practitioners wishing to improve workflow and process automation. It is also recommended for professionals working in news monitoring, conflict management, crisis response, reputational risks or similar watch keeping roles.
How You Benefit
On completion of this course you will have the ability to:
- Generate news feeds and alerts en masse, including in foreign languages and from specific locations
- Capture insights from niche sources
- Separate signal from noise
- Automatically generate newsletters and e-mail digests on topics of interest
- Process data by use of AI tools
- Use process automation tools to capture, process, and organise data relevant to your work
- Use taught tools and techniques to support tasks and processes other than web monitoring
What You Receive
- A full set of course slides / user guides in PDF
- Tip sheets and cheat sheets to enable rapid learning
- An index of recommended workflows and supporting tools
- Six months of post-course support
Course Prerequisites
We recommend that participants wishing to take our OSINT: Advanced Web Monitoring and Automation course first complete our OSINT: Foundations course.
Course Requirements
Please bring a Windows or Mac laptop (tablets are not recommended for this course). You should install Google’s Chrome browser and set up Google and Twitter accounts to facilitate the use of different tools. You will be required to install a range of browser extensions, so it is important that you have administrative rights to your laptop.
