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Informing your decisions with actionable intelligence
The Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) is a not-for-profit investigative reporting platform for a worldwide network of independent media centers and journalists. The OcCRP is one of the organizations that collaborated with global news organizations on Project Pegasus – an expansive investigation of the NSO Group “zero click” surveillance software.
They are on the Russian Oligarch beat now, introducing the Russian Asset Tracker – “a project to track down and catalog the vast wealth held outside Russia by oligarchs and key figures close to Russian President Vladimir Putin. OCCRP and its partners trawled land records, corporate registries, and offshore leaks to come up with this database of assets belonging to key figures close to Vladimir Putin. Proving the ownership of yachts, mansions, and planes is not easy, since their owners often take pains to keep them hidden. We only included assets in this database if our researchers uncovered clear evidence of their ownership. We’ve also included assets owned by family members and known proxies of the figures we investigated.” (1)
Also available via the OCCRP:
OCCRP Aleph: The Aleph data platform brings together a vast archive of current and historic databases, documents, leaks and investigations. This web of evidence helps journalists at OCCRP, other publications, and across the world, to see connections, find stolen funds, spot political influence, and unveil corruption. As part of Aleph, we periodically fetch public records from over 230 online sources and provide public search access. Accredited journalists can also access an archive of leaked evidence.
OCCRP ID: Browse our global index of public registries for company, land, and court records. We’ve pulled together over 1,000 sources from 181 countries.
What is Plane Tracking?: OCCRP investigators who track planes are looking at two things:
OCCRP has long tracked the flight paths of the powerful, but as more countries block Russian flights from their airspace, plane tracking is more useful than ever before in helping us monitor sanctioned individuals and examine their next moves.
According to Forber magazine: “Oryx is a blog that tracks the destruction of military equipment through open-source reports (e.g., social media, Reddit), with each claim backed up by photographic evidence. The equipment list consists of heavy weapon systems and vehicles — including tanks, armored vehicles, infantry fighting vehicles, trucks, aircraft, and watercraft. There remains a large amount of uncertainty as to the accuracy of the website, especially since it is based on open-source reports.”
“Critics have noted that there may be more imagery circulating of Russian losses given the interest of both Ukrainian troops and civilians in maintaining operational security and morale. Regardless, Oryx provides a more accurate picture of the progress of the war than other sources, many of which show a clear bias. Furthermore, the lists of damaged equipment aligns well with the narrative of events that unfolded during the Russian invasion and can provide some insight into the details of what has occurred. Oryx further analyzes the images to validate authenticity and determine the make and model of each piece of equipment.” (2)
According to the UCS website: “Assembled by experts at the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS), the Satellite Database is a listing of the more than 4,852 operational satellites currently in orbit around Earth. Our intent in producing the database is to create a research tool for specialists and non-specialists alike by collecting open-source information on operational satellites and presenting it in a format that can be easily manipulated for research and analysis. It is available as both a downloadable Excel file and in a tab-delimited text format. A version is also provided in which the ‘Name’ column contains only the official name of the satellite in the case of government and military satellites and the most commonly used name in the case of commercial and civil satellites.” (3)
Satellite quick facts – Includes launches through 12/31/2021:
The United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR) provides innovative learning solutions to individuals, organizations, and institutions to enhance global decision-making and support country-level action for shaping a better future. The United Nations Satellite Center (UNOSAT) offers the following Maps and Data services to organizations affiliated with Member Nations:
According to the UNOSAT website: “The increase in the occurrences of disasters and the high numbers of victims of conflicts are urgent issues that require effective and rapid action. Satellite imagery analysis can cover large areas and provide accurate information in near real-time. The ability of national and regional authorities to seamlessly collect, integrate, and analyze geospatial information in a comprehensible and easy-to-use format is key to strengthening disaster and climate resilience, supporting humanitarian action, and supporting sustainable development policies.”
“Our mission is to promote evidence-based decision-making for peace, security, and resilience using geo-spatial information technologies. We provide United Nations funds, programs, and specialized agencies with satellite analysis, training, and capacity development, at their request. We also support Member States with satellite imagery analysis over their respective territories and provide training and capacity development in the use of geospatial information technologies.” (4)
UNOSAT also offers the Rapid Mapping Service: “Operational since 2003, UNOSAT Rapid Mapping provides satellite image analysis during humanitarian emergencies, both natural disasters and conflict situations. With a 24/7 year-round availability to process requests, a team of experienced analysts ensures timely delivery of satellite imagery-derived maps, reports, and data ready for direct inclusion in Geographic Information Systems (GIS) according to needs.
Typical situations for which UNOSAT Rapid Mapping is activated include floods, earthquakes, storms, landslides, volcanoes, oil spills, chemical waste, refugee and Internally Displaced Person (IDP) camp mapping, conflict damage assessment, and situation analysis. UNOSAT benefits from a variety of sources for its satellite imagery: Free and open-source, commercial vendors, International Charter Space and Major Disasters (natural and technological disasters only), and in-kind donations.
The service is free of charge for UN sister agencies and humanitarian entities operating in line with UN policies. Output products include maps, GIS-ready data (for example flood extents, damage assessments), statistics, and reports.” (5)
Opportunities for Advantage – Strengthening Your Organization’s Cognitive Infrastructure: Leverage these open source tools to provide your organization with the best in class information to inform business strategy, operations, and risk awareness levels in Europe right now. As Matt Devost noted in the OODA Almanac 2022 – Exponential Disruption; “In 2019 we began working in the national security sector to raise awareness of a concept called Cognitive Infrastructure. US movement in the protection of this infrastructure has been slower than we would like, perhaps due in part to the uniquely American distrust of anything championed by authority or pushed by the government. Whether it is recognized by DHS as a critical infrastructure or not, it is one of critical importance to the private sector, in our view firms that understand the strengths and weaknesses of their own Cognitive Infrastructure will have an advantage over those that do not.”
Cyber Attacks are Still a Threat: The better your baseline cognitive infrastructure, the better informed your risk assessment and mitigation efforts will be if the cyber conflict escalates in Ukraine or triggers a cyber attack in the U.S.
Ongoing Geopolitical Risks: There are many scenarios that we could see escalating tensions in Ukraine (see OODA CTO Bob Gourley’s recent For Corporate Strategic Planners: Five Scenarios For War’s End). If history is a guide it tells us the unfolding of miscalculations could lead to situations no one wants. Open-source intelligence tools are also an approach to tracking geopolitical risk in-house within your organization. We will continue to track and assess on our Geopolitical Risk Sensemaking page.
Simultaneous Crisis Mode: In 2022 our national decision-making apparatus will be significantly stressed as the U.S. tries to manage multiple simultaneous crises. A new Covid variant, January 6th investigation, China and Russia regional power projection, supply chain, cyber, and economic issues will create an opportunity for adversaries to push the envelope in hopes that capacity is diminished and distracted. Organizations will have to build decision, crisis, and operational resiliency informed by strategic forecasting.
OODA is here to help. OODA members can contact us by replying to any of our emails or using this form.
America’s Most Critical Infrastructure is also Our Most Neglected Infrastructure
Mitigating Risks To America’s Cognitive Infrastructure
OODA Loop – Open-Source Intelligence Resources: The EU Disinformation Lab’s Ukraine Conflict Resource Hub – The EU DisinfoLab is an independent non-governmental organization (NGO) focused on “researching and tackling sophisticated disinformation campaigns targeting the European Union, its member states, core institutions, and core values.” (1) The lab has created the Ukraine Conflict Resource Hub with essential information and links to reliable research, analysis, and fact-checks to help [organizations] navigate during this crisis. You can also find tips and ways to combat mis— and disinformation as well as responses brought to counter disinformation.
Open-Source Intelligence Resources: The USGS 2022 List of Critical Minerals: Moody’s Analytics economist Tim Uy wrote in a recent report: “The greatest risk facing global supply chains has shifted from the pandemic to the Russia-Ukraine military conflict and the geopolitical and economic uncertainties it has created.” Our recent “Warning for the U.S. Chip Industry: Russian Retaliation Could Hit Supply of Key Materials” provided a breakdown of the Russian and Ukraine-source materials critical to the semiconductor manufacturing process (Neon, Palladium, etc.). In February, The US Geological Survey released the 2022 List of Critical Minerals. Palladium and Scandium are included in the USGS list.
The UNHRC Operational Data Portal – Ukrainian Refugees: The Human Rights Council is an inter-governmental body within the United Nations system responsible for strengthening the promotion and protection of human rights around the globe and for addressing situations of human rights violations and making recommendations on them. The Operational Data Portal (ODP) was created in 2011 to enable UNHCR’s institutional responsibility to provide any information and data-sharing platform to facilitate the coordination of refugee emergencies.
Bellingcat and the Russia-Ukraine Monitor Map: Bellingcat (an innovative open-source investigative journalism network and business model) has been in our research arsenal for a while – ripe for a post to introduce our readers to their tools, investigations, and innovative approach to networked journalism. The war in Europe has now put Bellingcat in the spotlight, based on the growing popularity of their crowdsourced mapping and monitoring efforts.
Now more than ever, organizations need to apply rigorous thought to business risks and opportunities. In doing so it is useful to understand the concepts embodied in the terms Black Swan and Gray Rhino. See: Potential Future Opportunities, Risks and Mitigation Strategies in the Age of Continuous Crisis
The OODA leadership and analysts have decades of experience in understanding and mitigating cybersecurity threats and apply this real-world practitioner knowledge in our research and reporting. This page on the site is a repository of the best of our actionable research as well as a news stream of our daily reporting on cybersecurity threats and mitigation measures. See: Cybersecurity Sensemaking
OODA’s leadership and analysts have decades of direct experience helping organizations improve their ability to make sense of their current environment and assess the best courses of action for success going forward. This includes helping establish competitive intelligence and corporate intelligence capabilities. Our special series on the Intelligent Enterprise highlights research and reports that can accelerate any organization along its journey to optimized intelligence. See: Corporate Sensemaking
In 2020, we launched the OODAcast video and podcast series designed to provide you with insightful analysis and intelligence to inform your decision-making process. We do this through a series of expert interviews and topical videos highlighting global technologies such as cybersecurity, AI, and quantum computing along with discussions on global risk and opportunity issues. See: The OODAcast
About the Author
Daniel Pereira is research director at OODA. He is a foresight strategist, creative technologist, and an information communication technology (ICT) and digital media researcher with 20+ years of experience directing public/private partnerships and strategic innovation initiatives.
Informing your decisions with actionable intelligence
Informing your decisions with actionable intelligence