Da Capo al Segno: Discovery in Government

Where is Discovery from?

No one tells the Discovery origin story better than Andy France, OBE; one of the founding fathers of OG Discovery in Government. I shall attempt to give the story justice.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~many cups of hot chocolates later~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Imagine this:
Day One: A sunny afternoon down a quiet street where many cars were parked Person A walks up and down the street. Person A is observing the street, and it’s quiet this afternoon.
Day Two: Person A walks down the street at the same time as Day One, stops every once in a while to look at the cars, peering inside.
Day Three: Person A repeats the same activity, this time accidentally bumping into several cars; walking away quickly if any car alarm is set off.
Day Four: Person A walks down the same street, armed with a crowbar, smashes windows of the cars without car alarms and steals any valuables.

Now if you were a person watching this activity from your window, ask yourselves this, at which point would you pick up the phone and call the police? If you called the authorities, at what point would it be considered a crime? How likely is it that the authorities would arrive at the exact moment when Person A is attempting to break into the car; thereby preventing the actual crime from occurring?

If we looked at each day as separate events, they may seem strange, but we are unlikely to consider them malicious except the events on the fourth and final day. To determine someone or something is “malicious” we need to understand intent. What was Person A’s intention of walking up and down the street on the different days? Is Person A new to the area and was familiarising themselves a new surrounding? Is Person A going through a rough time and committing crimes as a way to obtain financial support for his or her family? Is Person A a career criminal who is seekly personal financial gain?

Until we are able to see patterns in events and understand the underlying context, we will always be reacting to crimes after the fact. There is no do-overs once an incident occurs.

OG Discovery in Government was developed to identify and prevent major crimes such as terrorist attacks by looking at seemingly disconnected events by individuals. Did it work? Hells yeah it did!

Sadly, I never got to experience OG Discovery in Government. I did however get a good feel of what that might have been by watching the “Operation Overt: The transatlantic Bomb Plot” episode of a Netflix documentary series entitled “Terrorism Close Calls” (I am not sponsored by Netflix. I wish…)! The episode begins with a series of anomalous activities and behaviours exhibited by a number of people. Their activities lead to them being monitored by the authorities. Through further investigation and surveillance the investigators slowly worked to understand the cause and context surrounding the anomalous behaviours. The investigators’ work not only prevented a potentially catastrophic event; it also changed the way we travel by air.

In my next post, I will share how Discovery can work in the corporate world. Before then think about a time where a security incident or an investigation could have been prevented if early indicators had been uncovered and scrutinised. The heart of Discovery is to find your truth.

Until next time…

Skye

Disclaimer: All statements and comments are my own. They do not reflect the views of any past or present employers.