How British computer geekEliot Higgins uncovered war crimes, exposed poisoning plots, and found himself in Russia's crosshairs
Measuring that digital footprint began as a hobby, but Higgins has turned it into a formidable new field of intelligence known as OSINT, or open-source intelligence, whose techniques security services around the world are now eager to learn. “I’d say they’re way ahead of us on many things,” the Spectator, a right-leaning British weekly, quoted a senior British security official as saying in a profile last year.
What began as a personal crusade to understand which civilians the Syrian regime were barrel-bombing, has been transformed into an investigative website called Bellingcat, a team of researchers and an army of open-source enthusiasts.
