Dynamic Ad Hoc Social Networks in Improvised Intelligence/Counter-Intelligence Exercises: A Department of Homeland Security Red-Team Blue-Team Live-Action Roleplay

Myers Kellen, Lemanski Natalie, Fefferman Nina H. (), DeNegre Ashley, Mayberry Alexander, Redere Agnesa, Schwab Samantha, Stringham Oliver and Gallos Lazaros
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Fefferman Nina H.: University of Tennessee, Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Knoxville, TN, USA
Stringham Oliver: Rutgers The State University of New Jersey, Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Natural Resources, New Brunswick, NJ, USA
Gallos Lazaros: Rutgers The State University of New Jersey, Center for Discrete Mathematics and Computer Science (DIMACS), New Brunswick, NJ, USA

Journal of Homeland Security and Emergency Management, 2020, vol. 17, issue 1, 9

Abstract: We discuss a Red Team-Blue Team (RT-BT) study conducted to examine the formation and efficacy of social networks in self-organizing, ad hoc, or crowd-sourced intelligence and counter-intelligence operations in grassroots, improvised communities. Student volunteers were sorted into two teams: one team (Blue) was asked to find puzzle pieces using clues provided by the organizers, with the goal of reconstructing a message contained therein, while the opposing team (Red) was tasked with disrupting this process. While the Blue Team quickly organized into an efficient, centrally-governed structure, the Red Team instead adopted a decentralized, distributed operational network to hinder puzzle completion, using creative and diverse infiltration and disruption methods to interfere in the more centralized, hierarchical organization of their opponents. This exercise shows how untrained, unaffiliated individuals may self-organize into different types of social organizations to accomplish common tasks when aware of potential adversarial organizations, and how these choices may affect their efficacy in accomplishing collaborative clandestine goals.

Keywords: clandestine networks; communication networks; counterintelligence; counterterrorism; emerging organization; emerging social network (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
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DOI: 10.1515/jhsem-2018-0027

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