An open source "open source internet research tool"

Open Source Internet Research Toolkit (OSIRT) is an open source tool developed in C# to support officers conducting open source research on the Internet. OSIRT provides investigating officers the ability to capture static and dynamic web content, scrape aspects of a website, hash user created or downloaded content and offers expansive reporting options. Any generated or downloaded content is date and time stamped, with its associated web location, in order to maintain full provenance (Bucknor v R [2010] EWCA Crim 1152) and, in addition, retained in an automated audit trail in accordance with principle three of The Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) guidelines on the Good Practice Guide for Digital Evidence (ACPO, 2012).

OSIRT is being developed in collaboration with the College of Policing, and is being used as a teaching aid on their Researching, Identifying and Tracing the Electronic Suspect course. The prototype is also being tested by officers from a number of constabularies and agencies across the United Kingdom, with several constabularies looking to roll out OSIRT to their Digital Intelligence Units once it is released for general use.

While carrying out development of the tool, a number of legal and ethical issues required attention; particularly surrounding user privacy, data protection and possible breaches of websites terms and conditions. This talk will explore those legal and ethical issues, in addition to the design, development, testing and implementation of OSIRT.