Behavioural Analysis Conference 2024 / Day 1

Behavioural Analysis Conference 2024 at Brentford Football Stadium, England / My summary of Day One

Below is my summary and take-home of Day One of the Behavioural Analysis Conference 2024. For the sixth time, Chair? Philip Baum ?and his organising team brought together an exciting group of attendees and expert speakers. A real smorgasbord of academics and practitioners gathered at Brantford Football Stadium, just across the river of Kew Gardens in London, UK.

If you couldn't attend, here are some of my favourites for the first day. There were many more. A complete list of all the lectures you can find on www.behaviouralanalysis.com

After Philip and our venue host's opening words, Detective Chief Superintendent Maria Lovegrove , Head of Interventions of UK's Counter Terrorism Policing (CTP), delivered an excellent opening keynote. She gave us an overview of the CTP's caseload and warned about Open-Source Terrorists. Nowadays, radicalisation has moved primarily to the online domain. Little or no grooming by so-called recruiters is required. And since Daesh/Islamic State, unfortunately, a vast body of high-quality content is readily available for all interested or intrigued, especially susceptible young minds. Maria rang the alarm bell because, nowadays, 55% of all CTP referrals are under 18 years of age, and they even introduced a new age category: children ten years old and younger.?

Also, the days of committed ideology are gone, and since the perfect storm of the Covid-19 epidemic, there has been a general push towards extremism, whatever the ideology. Online engagement will only grow over time, and tech and social media companies should do more to reverse this trend. Maria quoted a colleague clearly: "We cannot arrest ourselves out of this situation."

The first session of the day tackled racial and religious concerns (on behavioural analysis or profiling). Dr Julian Hargreaves looked at the (reported) numbers for both islamophobia and antisemitism in these recent troubled times. These figures are rarely compared, and Julian shared his thoughts and hesitations when drawing firm conclusions.

An Gaiser ?and? Allon Knetemann ?shared the stage for insights on (the prevention of) racial profiling in the aftermath of a recent lawsuit in the Netherlands. It concerned the adaptation of predictive profiling techniques by the Dutch police in 2009, especially their application during border control duties by the Military Police (KMar). Complaints by travellers for being ethnically targeted were first dismissed in court but vindicated in higher appeal, with the judge stating that no profiling using ethnic or racial characteristics is allowed in the Netherlands. An and Allon advocated that we should be more focussed on (training) the decision-making instead of the actual action to stop or apprehend the potential harmdoer, i.e. the execution phase. In their words: "Developing critical thinking in decision making will help to prevent racial or ethnic profiling".

Sagit Yehoshua Ph.D 's lecture was all about the skill sets of effective behaviour detection officers in counterterrorism. Her 'Profile the Profiler' centred on the advantages and disadvantages of the profiler. First, she admitted that the underlying methodology is thin. In her opinion, a profiler is a social scientist who assists an investigation team with building and directing the investigation and allocating a list of suspects. As an experienced profiler, she can give the team a broad perspective, putting herself in the perpetrator's shoes while focussing on understanding human behaviour and walking along the timeline with that person until the moment of the action.

Kim Covent?(Advisor to the Ghent Local Police Force, Belgium) showed us an extensive behind-the-scenes tour of red teaming exercises in and outside the Ghent museums. Her team even invites art students to participate in these exercises, giving them a list of 'tasks' to complete in the museum, such as changing their coats or counting the number of CC cameras in a specific room. Kim has multiple scenarios on a red team day; the briefing is extensive. Special attention is given to the red teamers, as it is hard to act as a convincing 'bad' museum-goer.

In the Insider Threat session,? Julian Claxton ?advocated enlisting your employees as your company's eyes and ears. In the same session, Catherine Piana (DG of CoEss, Confederation of European Security Services) warned that you, as a leader, must create a supportive environment for whistleblowers. In short, a strong security culture must be in place, cross-departmental collaboration is needed,?cognitive biases must be addressed, and the whole setup needs continuous evaluation. We will never bridge the gap between talk and action to mitigate insider threats without this.

Julian's lecture was titled 'I spy with my little eye'. It discussed how employees can use behavioural intelligence to identify insider threats. In keeping with his 'no guns, no gates, no guards' approach, we should ensure robust reporting and response systems. If we pay only lip service to these mechanisms, we will likely end up with one more disgruntled employee...?

In the afternoon,? Harel Peled ?provided us with a look into the minds of cybercriminals. Through case studies, Harel guided us into a world of Black hackers, White hackers, and even Grey Hackers (who are White during office hours and go Black when the sun goes down). The takeaway: forget about the stereotypes fast. Very few hoodies, and talking about their motivations, making money is outside the top 5!

We concluded the day with a plea to use human intuition in investigative interviewing in the daily operation of airports in West Africa. Lecturer? Nkechi Onyenso ?is MD/CEO of Pathfinders, a Nigerian company that has provided aviation security in 24 airports in West Africa for over 38 years. Nkechi states that intuition is not magic but can be powerful when combined with a good interview. The challenge is that her clients (i.e., the airlines)?are stuck?between being on time and being secure. Pathfinders' training and coaching of their employees is extensive, and they have short communication lines with the local consulates when a visa needs to be verified. Loved the case studies she shared with us.

With the lectures, discussions, and takeaways of Day One still fresh in our minds, Day Two will undoubtedly be another thrilling ride, including a masterclass by renowned author? Joe Navarro .

Post Scriptum:?See you all tomorrow, when I will post my pickings of Day Two.