Use cases and best practices for LEAs

The dramatic increase in the use and proliferation of the internet over the last 15–20 years has seen increasingly large amounts of personal information made, not necessarily intentionally, available online. Consequently, law enforcement agencies have recognised they must open their eyes to this information and begin to use it to their advantage, especially since one of the key benefits of utilising open source information is that it is significantly less expensive to collect than other intelligence. This chapter illustrates how OSINT has become increasingly important to LEAs. It discusses how those carrying out open source intelligence investigation work online might best go about such a practice through the use of specific techniques and how an officer may protect themselves while carrying out such an investigation. It further presents exemplar case studies in how these best practices may, or already have been, exploited in order to bring about tangible results in real investigations.