IT Governance Business Case
Cobwebs Web Investigation Platform
Police Department
Background
The Durham Police Department is responsible for the investigation of crimes, both nonviolent and violent, and providing the highest level of customer service to the citizens of the City of Durham. The mission of the Durham Police department is to work with the community to minimize crime, promote safety, and enhance the overall quality of life in the city.
In doing so, the Durham Police Department needs to have access to as many available resources as possible. This further enables them to generate leads for their criminal investigations to solve crimes, identify suspects, locate fugitives, and gather the necessary evidence that leads to convictions, which furthers the overall mission to minimize the city's crime, promote safety, and enhance the overall quality of life.
Durham Police Department has been seeking various platforms to enhance their investigative capabilities. Durham PD was introduced to CobWebs platform which is an OSINT(opensource intelligence) platform providing access to meaningful data that generates leads leveraging all the information on the internet that wouldn’t be normally readily accessible to an investigative officer.
Current Business Problem
The Durham Police Department needs to be able to access publicly available information on the internet in a more efficient and streamlined way to assist in the arrest and convictions of criminals to reduce crime, improve public safety and the overall quality of life in Durham.
• Currently the Durham Police Department could benefit from additional investigative resources to access meaningful and helpful intelligence that would assist in their criminal investigations and aid in the solving of crimes
• Durham Police Department currently does not have access to an OSINT enabled resources, leaving necessary investigative intelligence untapped
• Durham Police Department, like other law enforcement agencies nationally, is experiencing staffing shortages, making not only assigning cases to officers difficult, but also solving the cases
Current Pain Points
•A large amount of criminal evidence is available online, but the time it takes to manually search online information is time consuming making some information logistically un-accessible
•90% of internet-based/raw actionable intelligence is on the deep-web, not accessible via traditional web browsers or searching methods
•Limited technical capability and awareness due to vast amount of internet -based applications available on public internet and deep-web
•Due to staffing issues, there has been an increase in overtime and police officers are burdened with case overload
Desired Business Value
City of Durham's Strategic Plan Goal:
Innovative & High Performing Organization
Initiative #1: Develop and implement a continuous improvement model that includes evaluation and process improvement to analyze and improve City Services
Initiative #2: Provide professional management that encourages a culture of innovation, collaboration, and transparency to deliver quality service through and exceptional workplace
Future State Benefits
• Increased availability of intelligence to aid in investigations and solving of crimes
• More productive investigations and solved cases
• Expedited investigative process with AI enabled investigations
• Decreased overtime and burnout of Durham Police officers
• Decreased caseloads for Durham Police Officers
Analysis and Recommended Solution
Analysis of Proposed Solution: CobWebs Web Investigation Platform
• Founded in 2015, Cobwebs Technologies is a global leader in open-source intelligence, facilitating the generation of leads and insights from publicly available and hidden sources on the internet through their centralized cloud-based Software-as-a-Service platform
• Cobwebs was designed by intelligence experts and provides access to data across the internet from all open, deep, and dark-web layers
• Durham PD endpoint technology supports the Cobwebs Web Investigation Platform for utility and system administration
• Cobwebs cybersecurity controls meet the Durham cyber security standards (SOC II Type 2 certified)
• There are various known North Carolina municipal police departments who utilize Cobwebs, including Winston-Salem and Greensboro. The platform is also utilized by several federal agencies for investigations including the FBI and the IRS
• Durham Police Department underwent a free trial exceeding a month in which time the platform facilitated the solving of a cold-case homicide, and identified 7 individuals in separate violent crimes cases. Criminal Intelligence Unit indicates offenders would not have been identified otherwise.
• DPD recruiting has also been able to expedite background checks using platform decreasing timeline from 2 days to 8 minutes
Analysis of Alternative OSINT Option: Social Links
This alternative option was the only alternative option identified during market analysis.
Social Links
• Private For-Profit global open-source intelligence vendor, originally developed in Europe, but now headquarted in New York
• Data Center is hosted in Finland
• ISAE 3000 Type 1 standard certification
• Acts as an API of open-source intelligence gathered from social media, open data sources, blockchain, and deep and dark web sources
• Requires existing compatible visualization platform for integration or purchase of additional specific 3rd party software (Maltego or i2)
• Requires technical capability to access and utilize the information
Comparative Business Value Analysis
Pain Point CobWebs
Time consuming web-search
Alleviates Pain Point
Access to deep web and dark web
Alleviates Pain Point
Social Links
Alleviates Pain Point for technical end-users
Alleviates Pain Point
Simplified interface for nontechnical end-users Alleviates Pain Point Does not alleviate Pain Point
Centralized application Runs in browser, with everything centralized in one location
Requires either an already existing visualization platform, or procurement of additional 3rd party software (Maltego or i2)
Case overload and officer burnout
Alleviates Pain point
Not determined
Cobwebs Web Investigation Platform Peer Reviews
Winston-Salem Police Department
Winston-Salem PD has been utilizing the platform since July 2023
Expresses positive return on investment
Excellent supplement for criminal investigations
City of Greensboro Police Department
Currently undergoing onboarding
Impressed with results from Winston-Salem, so decided to implement in Greensboro
Other Known Organizations Leveraging CobWebs Platform:
IRS
FBI
SBI
Considering the business problem and pain points identified by the Durham Police Department, the intended end-users for the platform, and the need for additional 3rd party software, Social Links has not been identified as a viable option to alleviate the problem and pain points associated with this business case.
Recommended Solution: CobWebs Web Investigation Platform
Description
CobWebs Web Investigation Platform is a software-as-a-service open-source intelligence platform assisting law enforcement agencies in criminal investigations by providing immediate access to information across all three layers of the web: open, deep, and dark web
Pros
• Increased availability of information and intelligence on the internet
• Improved results from criminal investigations
• Increased solved cases
• Faster results from criminal investigations
• Centralized and supported web-based platform
• Increased solved cases, leading to decreased officer caseloads
Cons
• N/A
Security Review
The recommended solution meets the cyber security standards for the City of Durham.
Architecture Review
The recommended solution meets the architectural standards for the City of Durham.
Recommended Solution - Project Financial Estimate
Real
COST ESTIMATES FUNDING Description Implementation Costs (Hours) Post Implementation Run Costs (Hours)/ KTLO Departmental Funding Amount: $ 0.00 Labor $ (Hours) Internal TS Department: 35 hours Hours Funding Requested (Y/N): Y Business Analysis 10 Hours hours Internal Labor New FTE – Year 1 Costs $0.00 IT Support & Cyber Security Analysis 5 hours hours Project One Time Costs (External) $76,500.00 PMO Implementation 20 hours hours *Total Project Funding Requested for Year 1 $76,500.00 Durham Police Department 20 hours 10 hours Asset Run Cost Year 2 $76,500.00 External Labor $: $0.00 Professional Services: CobWebs Onboarding, Implementation and Training $0.00 included in service at no additional charge Non-Labor $ Software: $76,500.00 $0.00 Hardware: $0.00 $0.00 * Total Project Funding Requested Year 1 includes New FTE Labor, External Labor and Non Labor
Time Crime Solution
Risk Identification
Description of Risk Risk Impact (High/Medium/Low) Mitigated (Y/N) Contingency(Y/N) Vendor performance Low N N Cyber Security Low N N Project Team Turnover Low N N Poor Execution Low N N
Mitigation Risk (Costs)
• N/A
Contingency Risk (Costs)
• N/A
Our ask
We are asking the IT Governance
Steering Committee to approve the business case for CobWebs Web Investigation Platform to support the criminal investigations of the Durham Police Department.