Open Sources Intelligence

OSINT, involve covert colletion methods. It is worth pausing to consider the wide range of information that is openly available and which can be utilised as OSINT before it is necessary to resort to covert collection methods:

• News media: Newspapaers, magazine, radio, television and computer based information.
• Web-based comminities and user-generated content: Social networking sites, video-sharing sites, wikis, blogs, and folksonomies.
• Public data: government reportts, official data (such as budgets), demographics, hearings, legislative debates, press conference, speeches, marine and aeronautical safety warnings, environmental impact statments, contract awards.
• Observations and reporting: Amateur airplane spotters, radio monitors, and satellite observers.
• Professional and academic: Conference, symposia, professional associations, academic papers, and subject matter experts.
• Commercial data: Insurance companies, international aviation organizations, transportation and shipping companies.

As a source, OSINT is particulary inportant for intelligence costumers with limited budgets and /or technological capabilities, although, working on the basisi that the most important secrets are also the most closely guarded, not all information that a customer might want is likely to be openly available. some collection will, therefore, inevitably involve more expensive, and questionable, covert methods.

Last Update 27.04.2021