Workshop syllabus

This workshop offers an introduction to the most innovative Open-Source Intelligence (OSINT) techniques and outlines how digital data can be sourced, verified, and presented to court as evidence. The workshop covers the basic skills any open-source investigator should have in their toolkit, including advanced inquiry methods for online search engines; manipulate social media search engines for investigation (Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, Telegram, Linkedin); use satellite image providers for geolocation (Google Earth, Sentinel Hub, Planet et al.); use flight and maritime trackers search engines (Flightradar24, RadarBox, Vesseltracker, MarineTraffic, VesselFinder); preserve opens source information effectively and maintain anonymity (WayBackMachine, VPN, Veracrypt). The participants will learn to approach online open-source information with a critical eye and employ systematic methods of inquiry to ensure that it can be relied upon in legal proceedings. To do so, the workshop explains how open sources information can be used to meet evidentiary thresholds in a broad array of jurisdictions, including the International Criminal Court, and outlines the most innovative guidelines provided by the recently adopted Berkeley Protocol.

Instructors' bio profiles

• Leone Hadavi is an open-source investigator, analyst and trainer, with a background in security studies and law. He is a senior investigator for Lighthouse Reports’ EUArms project, where he has led a number of investigations, and a Bellingcat collaborator. He specializes in the arms trade and the use of weapons in theaters of war: he is an expert in the analysis and identification of small arms, weapon systems and vehicles, and an experienced military analyst, focusing from the identification of soldiers’ ranks, patches and insignias to order of battles, military capabilities and infrastructure. He has tracked suspicious vessels and aircraft, and traced extremist right-wing networks through social media.

• Stefano Trevisan, LL.M, is a qualified lawyer, open-source investigator, and lecturer specialized in human rights, international law, and arms trade. Stefano works as legal consultant at Lighthouse Reports where he has led important OSINT projects, such as the enquiry on the naval blockade against Yemen. Together with the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights, he has been working on the criminal case brought against RWM Italy for illegal arms exports. In 2020, in collaboration with the Global Legal Action Network he led a research project on post-sale services in the arms industry. He authored a number of publications on the probative value of OSINT in judicial proceedings.