By Danielle Cave, Fergus Ryan & Nathan Ruser
Open-source intelligence (OSINT) has long been undervalued; elbowed out past times sexier-sounding ‘secret intelligence’, it has also oftentimes been overlooked.
But what is intelligence?
For the answer, let’s become direct to the wisdom of the Middle Kingdom together with poor, overused Lord's Day Tzu, who said: ‘If you lot know your enemies together with know yourself, you lot volition non travel imperilled inwards a hundred battles.’ This tells us what nosotros need intelligence to create for us, but what isn’t good understood is that much of the information nosotros need isn’t ‘secret’ or ‘classified’. It is oftentimes past times combining publicly available together with hidden information that nosotros tin flame let on covert or hole-and-corner intent.
As demonstrated past times the Bellingcat investigation into revelations about Strava’s fitness heatmap (which 1 of us highlighted before this year), inwards the OSINT world, the devil is inwards the detail.
That particular lives inwards cyberspace, together with cyberspace is an OSINT goldmine when you lot know how to purpose it together with where to look.
Over the past times few months, ASPI’s International Cyber Policy Centre (ICPC) has leveraged its cyber, technical together with Chinese-language skills to consolidate together with expand on the rich together with growing torso of run that is shedding a brighter calorie-free on the Chinese state’s network of ‘re-education’ camps inwards Xinjiang province.
Our contribution includes a newly released ICPC report together with an associated public database.
In addition, today the ABC published some of this inquiry on a fantastic digital site, infused alongside its own master reporting to supply more context to some of our data.
Our study covers 28 camps that we’ve calculated the size of together with tracked the growth of over time. Since early on 2016, in that place has been a 465% increase inwards the size of these camps. They currently accept upwards 2.7 1 1000 1000 foursquare metres of flooring space, which is the equivalent of 43 Melbourne Cricket Ground stadiums.
We based our analysis on a broad make of sources, including satellite:
geo-located imagery of the 28 camps
time-lapsed imagery of their growth from 2016 to 2018
measurement of their size (the largest army camp inwards the sample is 526,500 foursquare metres; it was covered late by the BBC)
calculation of their growth over fourth dimension (one army camp grew past times over 2469.29% betwixt 2016 together with 2018; it was reported on by the New York Times)
international media reporting past times the the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, AFP, AP together with Buzzfeed (which included coverage of missing Uyghurs with Australian permanent residency).
All of the Chinese documents nosotros used—both novel ones nosotros institute together with cloth already revealed past times others—have been saved inwards the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine. Many valuable sources, particularly structure tenders together with authorities spider web pages, guide keep already been taken offline past times censors. (And for those who create online inquiry that mightiness travel censored, nosotros recommend this Wayback Machine Chrome extension.)
We guide keep been cautious inwards our analysis inwards our pursuit of the respond to a unmarried overarching question: Can nosotros assay that these facilities are non prisons, drug rehabilitation centres or legitimate vocational grooming centres? To come across that threshold, nosotros examined thousands of pieces of prove from multiple sources inwards lodge to corroborate the premise that the facilities are punitive inwards nature. We encourage you lot to accept a expect at our prove base together with to download the diverse datasets.
Our database is past times no agency exhaustive or final. It volition proceed to develop together with grow every bit additional datasets are added together with feedback is received. We promise media outlets, researchers, NGOs together with governments consider it every bit a resources they tin flame purpose inwards their run together with potentially contribute to.
We straight off alive inwards a footing inwards which 4.1 billion+ people purpose cyberspace together with where organisations together with governments must increasingly alive together with engage online. And it’s fast becoming a footing where it’s impossible to shroud from satellites. The value of high-quality OSINT is that it pulls multiple strands of information together that tin flame supply a unique platform to need greater transparency together with accountability.
The world’s journalists, diplomats together with NGOs guide keep exclusively rattling limited, if any, access to Xinjiang province. But that doesn’t hateful nosotros can’t consider what’s correct inwards front end of our eyes.
Danielle Cave is a senior analyst, Fergus Ryan is an analyst together with Nathan Ruser is a researcher at ASPI’s International Cyber Policy Centre.
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