How social media is helping airport security

Social media is an ever-growing presence in the world of today, and as its presence grows, so does its impact on all the other parts of society, including threats and dangers.

Now, the government of India is taking this into account, especially concerning the security of the country’s most important assets. The Central Industrial Security Force (or CSIF) has been assigned to secure the country’s airports, nuclear installations, aerospace installations, and other assets that are vital to the country.

At their base in Arakkonam near Chennai, they have created a “media lab” and control room for monitoring social media, called the Pattern Research for Institutional Social Media (or PRISM).

A team of agents from the CSIF has been specially trained for the job of tracking trends, news, reports, and significant indicators on social media.

They must track these things across several platforms, collate them, and give them out to vital units as pieces of “actionable intelligence”. The parliamentary force will use platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube to keep a check on any activity that suggests suspicion or possible sabotage.

This platform was developed by the IIT Delhi, and it is used by the Intelligence Bureau (or IB) and the Mumbai police for keeping checks on security issues.

According to O. P. Singh, the Director General (or DG) or the CISF, this is being done on a purely experimental basis. The PRISM control room is currently at a small center in the southern part of the country, and it will be bolstered further based on experiences.

With this platform, the CISF will be able to prevent any threats toward the units covered by them, as well as any harm that a force personnel would inflict upon self or others.

Thus, with the ability to use this new facet of society to track potential threats, the CISF will be able to further ensure the safety of India.

Image Reference: TimesofIndia, IndiaToday