Kevin D. Reyes
Kevin D. Reyes (@KevinDReyes) is Senior OSINT Specialist at the Institute for Strategic Dialogue (ISD), where he leads methodology for open-source investigations and researches online hate, extremism, conspiracy theories, and disinformation. He also teaches digital open-source investigations as an adjunct instructor at the University of Southern California (USC) Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism.
His work at ISD has included:
analyzing the digital footprint of the January 6 attack on the US Capitol, and the use of OSINT in criminal cases;
discovering and preserving the hate- and conspiracy-filled digital footprint of domestic extremists from recent incidents of political violence in the US;
investigating how Russian state-affiliated media circumvented sanctions in the early days of the war in Ukraine by using alternative website domains;
investigating how a large network of pro-Kremlin websites impersonated news organizations to spread disinformation related to the war in Ukraine; and
tracking down who was behind the infamous $16 million Squid Game cryptocurrency scam.
As part of ISD’s Digital Analysis Unit, Reyes leads methodology development and internal training to advance the use of open-source intelligence (OSINT) throughout the institute’s research.
A recognized digital investigator, Reyes was previously Director of Research & Intelligence at a consulting firm, where he conducted and managed hundreds of open-source and undercover investigations for Fortune/Global 500 clients; supported law enforcement and prosecutors on criminal investigations; partnered with online platforms’ trust & safety teams; and trained law enforcement, regulatory, and investigative professionals on best practices for open-source intelligence (OSINT).
In this role, he investigated networks in over 80 countries dealing in illicit trade and transnational crime, including pharmaceutical counterfeiting; opioid trafficking; COVID-19 treatment scams; money laundering; corporate and charity fraud; counterfeit food and coffee; and wildlife and antiquities trafficking; as well as disinformation and extremism. He also identified anonymous defendants for landmark, multimillion dollar lawsuits by using OSINT techniques such as social media attribution and geolocation.
Reyes also previously worked as a research associate at the Human Rights Center at UC Berkeley School of Law; researched Latin American civilian security issues and crimes against humanity as a research fellow at Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights; and has worked in law library management at American University Washington College of Law and UC Berkeley School of Law.
Reyes is highly engaged in the development of the open-source investigations field. At USC Annenberg, he is teaching the school’s first courses on OSINT for investigative reporting. In 2016, he helped launch the Human Rights Investigations Lab (#HRCLab)—the first university-based, open-source investigations lab of its kind to discover and verify human rights violations and potential war crimes—at Berkeley’s Human Rights Center. He was consulting editor of Digital Witness: Using Open Source Information for Human Rights Investigation, Documentation, and Accountability (Oxford University Press, 2020), the first book of its kind to teach the methods and best-practice of open-source research featuring contributions from other leaders in the field. He contributed to early work that led to the Berkeley Protocol on Digital Open Source Investigations (2022), the first-ever manual on the effective use of open-source information in international criminal and human rights investigations, published by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.
In addition to his publications at ISD, he has authored scholarly articles on US foreign policy and political economy, and has been a research and editorial consultant for works on national security, international law, global crime, and human rights. His research and expertise have been showcased in a variety of media outlets including ABC News, Euronews, The Hill, Politico, PolitiFact, Vice, El Pais, and NHK. He has contributed to work with organizations such as the White House National Security Council; the International Criminal Court; the European Commission; the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights; the High Court of Uganda; the US Senate Committees on Finance and Foreign Relations; and the US Departments of Homeland Security and Justice, among numerous other federal, state, and local law enforcement and regulatory agencies.
Reyes is the son of working-class Mexican immigrants and is a first-generation, low-income graduate of the University of California, Berkeley. He remains committed to mentoring and uplifting aspiring open-source investigators, especially those from underrepresented backgrounds.