OPEN-SOURCE INTELLIGENCE
What is OSINT?
From publicly available information to useful knowledge for decision-making.
OSINT —open-source intelligence— is the process of obtaining, organizing, verifying, contextualizing and analyzing publicly available information to address specific knowledge requirements.
The key is to distinguish between having access to information and producing intelligence from it.
Public information alone is not intelligence.
The internet, media, websites, social networks, public channels, documents, open databases and other sources produce large amounts of accessible information. But being public does not make information relevant, reliable or useful for a particular need.
Intelligence emerges when information is selected with a purpose, preserved with its provenance, cross-checked, contextualized, connected to other evidence and analyzed to answer a specific question.
TRANSFORMATION
From open information to intelligence.
- Open information
- Information requirement
- Collection
- Verification
- Contextualization
- Analysis
- Intelligence
OPEN SOURCES
Open sources are everywhere.
An open source is one whose information can be obtained legally from publicly accessible sources.
- Media and publications
- Websites
- Social media
- Video and public platforms
- Open channels and communities
- Public documents and records
- Accessible databases
- Geographic and statistical sources
METHOD
OSINT is a process, not a search.
- 01
Direction
Define what needs to be known, for what purpose and within what scope.
- 02
Collection
Obtain relevant information from selected open sources.
- 03
Verification and organization
Preserve provenance, timing and context; identify inconsistencies, duplicates or information that needs corroboration.
- 04
Analysis
Connect actors, events, narratives, signals and changes over time to interpret observations.
- 05
Production
Turn findings into understandable, useful knowledge for those who need to decide or act.
A KEY DISTINCTION
Observation is just the beginning.
Monitoring
- What was published?
- What was mentioned?
- How much discussion was there?
OSINT / Intelligence
- What is happening?
- Who is involved?
- How are the elements connected?
- How is it changing?
- What evidence supports it?
- What does it mean in relation to a specific need?
PSID
OSINT within a structured intelligence process.
PSID incorporates capabilities for using open sources within an environment focused on information requirements, evidence, traceability and analysis.
The platform helps organize monitoring around specific topics, actors and objectives; collect information from different open sources; preserve evidence and context; and support analysis of relationships, narratives, events and change over time.
PSID integrates OSINT capabilities into a structured cycle of intelligence on the digital environment.
- Need
- Sources
- PSID
- Evidence · Context · Analysis
- Knowledge
APPLICATIONS
What is OSINT used for?
The same techniques can support different needs depending on the mission, context and available sources.
- Government and the public sector
- Security and intelligence
- Cyberintelligence
- Business and risk
- Strategic communication
- Research and academia