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Security

Security officials ponder use of social media

By Robin Hicks | 27 October 2009

Government officials from Australia and Singapore have admitted that there is much to be done to understand how social media can be used to gather intelligence on security matters from the public, at a security event organised by FutureGov in Singapore last week.

Paul Retter, Executive Director, Office of Transport Security, Government of Australia, told delegates at the Transport Security Forum 2009 that “more thought” needs to go into government security strategies that use information gathered from social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook.

Retter said that the public is the “first line of defence” against security breaches – the “eyes and ears of government”. And there was value to be unlocked from social media. But he insisted that it would be difficult for the public and private sectors to “meaningfully harness this value”.

“How can you tell from reports on Twitter or Facebook what is genuinely suspicious activity?” he asked. “How do you know what to look for; how can you ascertain what is out of place from a security perspective? Should we, as government, trust the feedback we get from a citizen’s PC or BlackBerry? If so, the issue is how we communicate this information in a timely and effective way.”

Retter pointed out that the different definitions of suspicious activity by civil, maritime or aviation authorities could add “cultural hurdles” to social media-based intelligence, a view echoed by Goh Yam Song, Deputy director, Emergency Preparedness, Land Transport Authority (LTA), Singapore.

In June this year, the LTA launched the web site safejourney.sg, a platform from which young Singaporeans can get information to help them get home safely. But the site has yet to introduce a social media component.

“We need to let it run to see the response we get from young Singaporeans,” Goh said. “The Singapore government, as a whole, is not averse to using new media. We’re not ruling out the opportunities it presents us. But we’re not completely sure how to use it yet.”

Goh and Retter’s comments follow soon after the news that the United States’ Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) has invested in a social media monitoring firm to help it screen Twitter updates, Facebook posts, YouTube videos and Amazon reviews for “open source intelligence” – information that is publicly available, but hard to make use of.

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