OSINT

(OPEN SOURCE INTELLIGENCE)

By Dr. Bruce D. Tefft

Western Defense Studies Institute, Rome

 

CIA Director James Woolsey: "Whether economic or military, most US intelligence data came from open sources, he said. But "five percent is essentially secrets that we steal. We steal secrets with espionage, with communications, with reconnaissance satellites."

 

Al-Qaeda Jihad Training Manual (also known as Military Studies in the Jihad Against the Tyrants):

 

Information has two sources:

 

1. Public Source: Using this public source openly and without resorting to illegal means, it is possible to gather at least 80% of information about the enemy. The percentage varies depending on the government’s policy on freedom of the press and publication. It is possible to gather information through newspapers, magazines, books, periodicals, official publications, and enemy broadcasts.

Attention should also be given to the opinion, comments, and jokes of common people.

 

2. Secret Sources: It is possible, through these secret and dangerous methods, to obtain the 20% of information that is considered secret. The most important of these sources are:

 

A. Individuals who are recruited as either volunteers or because of other motives

B. Recording and monitoring

C. Photography

D. Interrogation

E. Documents: By burglary or recruitment of personnel

F. Drugging

G. Surveillance, spying, and observation

 

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Open Source Intelligence (OSINT) is a relatively new form of gathering and analyzing information to turn it into intelligence for a consumer.  The primary difference between OSINT and the other “INTs” (HUMINT, SIGINT, IMINT –or PHOTINT, etc) is that the information is from publicly available sources as opposed to secret, classified or clandestine (protected) sources.  OSINT encompasses the totality of information that is in the public domain; information that is not kept ‘secret’ and thus does not need to be purloined through espionage.  OSINT information is enormously vast in comparison to information that has been ‘classified’ or kept secret by government agencies, or even private individuals.  OSINT information consists of all the great body of knowledge obtainable from published (and unpublished) government reports, press articles, academic research, speeches and made available through the internet, libraries, books, and the media.  Unlike secret information where the problem is identifying and locating and then obtaining the data, OSINT is available for the taking.

 

It is important to understand that information from collection sources is information, not intelligence. Raw information is often incomplete or -- taken out of context or without understanding its origin and purpose -- possibly misleading. It can be subject to misinterpretation, or just plain wrong. Information becomes intelligence through processing, exploitation, and analysis.

 

Thus the challenge of OSINT is in its collection, analysis and dissemination.  OSINT must be subjected to the same intelligence process as any other type of information to become useable by the consumer.  The intelligence process itself provides the basic framework for turning information into intelligence.  The intelligence process consists of 5 basic steps:  1)  the collectors, analysts and consumers come to agreement on what intelligence is needed.  These conclusions become the intelligence ‘requirements’ that are collected against. 2) Collection – Collectors or researchers examine likely sources of the information needed and collect as much as possible from all available sources.  3) As the information is collected and provided to the analysts, who are subject matter experts in both the field of information being collected as well as in analytical techniques, the information is analyzed: that is to say it is absorbed, studied, examined, evaluated against known information or expectations, assessed for accuracy and relevance and then 4) gradually organized into a useable product for the decision maker or policy maker, often a written report or briefing.  5) The delivery of the processed information, now considered “intelligence” to the ultimate consumer is “dissemination”, the final step of the basic intelligence process.

 

The intelligence process is dynamic and never-ending since the collection and analysis continues as events unfold and new developments take place…the dissemination of the “final” intelligence product, often resorts in course of action, or decisions being taken, which in turn generate new requirements, thus starting the cycle all over again.