
Maria de Benito Rodriguez
- Consultant and researcher on Border issues and Trafficking in human beings
- Spain
Maria de Benito Rodriguez is a former member of the Spanish National Police (2004-2023), specializing in human trafficking, migration, and border security. Throughout her career, she has worked on the development and democratization of police forces in peacekeeping and political missions. She served in the United Nations Police Division at the Standing Police Capacity (2020-2021), was a Migrants/Refugees Security Advisor for the OSCE Mission to Skopje, North Macedonia (2017-2020), and acted as an asylum instructor for the European Asylum Agency in Italy (2016).
Maria holds a university degree in Teaching from Universidad de Málaga, Spain, along with master’s degrees in Migration Management from ESNECA Business School, Spain and Project Management from ENEB, Spain.
Sessions
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OSINT (Open Source Intelligence) at the Border
How do we disrupt or prevent travel of bad actors?
Information sharing between some governments is good, but any gaps will be exploited. Interpol and ICAO are starting to provide greater access to what were previously government access only systems. But is there a role for non-government actors, including industry, to deter or prevent travel of criminals, victims of modern slavery, traffickers and terrorists.
The use of OSINT (Open-Source Intelligence) is not new and has been used by the military and national intelligence agencies for many years, but advances in AI, communications technology and the growth in the use of social media and communications apps, means that publicly available data can not only help border law enforcement begin to map out and identify linkages in the wider criminal networks behind smuggling and trafficking. But it can also now provide actionable insights to border agents in real time.
How can border and intelligence agencies and their partners in industry cooperate in delivering optimum results from OSINT.