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By Nick Heath, 23 September 2008 14:54

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Here is a rare glimpse at how UK law enforcers are picking apart terrorist gangs and criminal networks using the brute power of computing.

Mountains of news, intelligence and crime reports are being moulded into detailed maps of underground organisations within minutes, using data mining.

The UK TxtReveal system, made by Detica, is unravelling vital information in counter terrorism and intelligence gathering operations.

Head of technology innovation at Detica, Imam Hoque, demonstrated how an analyst knowing almost nothing about a breaking terrorist attack can rapidly pinpoint key insurgents, cells and relationships.

Starting with a fictional attack in the Philippines, Hoque pulls up every intelligence report from the country by dragging a box around its borders.

More than 100 reports are highlighted but common names and organisations are immediately flagged up and pulled together into a list of key words.

This can be further refined by dragging a box around trouble hotspots, where the largest number of intelligence reports are coming out of, as seen here.

Photo credit: Detica