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49-512: OSINT sources can be divided up into six different categories of information flow: OSINT is distinguished from research in that it applies the process of intelligence to create tailored knowledge supportive of a specific decision by a specific individual or group. Collecting open-source intelligence is achieved in a variety of different ways, such as: OSINT is defined in the United States of America by Public Law 109-163 as cited by both

98-459: A need-to-know basis in order to protect the sources and methods from foreign traffic analysis. Analysis consists of assessment of an adversary's capabilities and vulnerabilities. In a real sense, these are threats and opportunities. Analysts generally look for the least defended or most fragile resource that is necessary for important military capabilities. These are then flagged as critical vulnerabilities. For example, in modern mechanized warfare,

147-403: A continuously-updated list of typical vulnerabilities. Critical vulnerabilities are then indexed in a way that makes them easily available to advisors and line intelligence personnel who package this information for policy-makers and war-fighters. Vulnerabilities are usually indexed by the nation and military unit with a list of possible attack methods. Critical threats are usually maintained in

196-656: A country. Photointerpreters generally maintain catalogs of munitions factories, military bases and crate designs in order to interpret munition shipments and inventories. Most intelligence services maintain or support groups whose only purpose is to keep maps. Since maps also have valuable civilian uses, these agencies are often publicly associated or identified as other parts of the government. Some historic counterintelligence services, especially in Russia and China, have intentionally banned or placed disinformation in public maps; good intelligence can identify this disinformation. It

245-413: A financial connection with a company the corporation had funded. In-Q-Tel's current president and CEO is Steve Bowsher. Original members of the board include Lee A. Ault, III, Norman R. Augustine , John Seely Brown , Stephen Friedman , Paul G. Kaminski , Jeong H. Kim , Alex J. Mandl , John N. McMahon , and William J. Perry . The chairman of the board is Michael M. Crow . The company lists

294-506: A foreign military or intelligence agency is considered espionage in most countries. Of course, espionage that is not treason (e.g. betraying one's country of citizenship) has been a tool of statecraft since ancient times. The OSINT Foundation is a professional association for OSINT practitioners in the United States Intelligence Community. It is open to U.S. Citizens and seeks to raise the prominence of

343-487: A nation may be unavailable from outside the country. This is why most intelligence services attach members to foreign service offices. Some industrialized nations also eavesdrop continuously on the entire radio spectrum, interpreting it in real time. This includes not only broadcasts of national and local radio and television, but also local military traffic, radar emissions and even microwaved telephone and telegraph traffic, including satellite traffic. The U.S. in particular

392-479: A prioritized file, with important enemy capabilities analyzed on a schedule set by an estimate of the enemy's preparation time. For example, nuclear threats between the USSR and the U.S. were analyzed in real time by continuously on-duty staffs. In contrast, analysis of tank or army deployments are usually triggered by accumulations of fuel and munitions, which are monitored every few days. In some cases, automated analysis

441-721: Is a powerful OSINT tool that provides access to numerous websites and both open source and proprietary software tools that are either purpose-built for open source information collection or which can be exploited for the purposes of either gathering of open source information or to facilitate analysis and validation to provide intelligence. A cottage industry of both for-profit and not-for-profit investigative and educational groups such as Bellingcat , IntelTechniques SANS and others offer indices, books, podcasts and video training materials on OSINT tools and techniques. Books such as Michael Bazzell's Open Source Intelligence Techniques serve as indices to resources across multiple domains but according

490-445: Is an intentional reference to Q , the fictional inventor who supplies technology to James Bond . Originally named Peleus and known as In-Q-It, In-Q-Tel was founded by Norm Augustine , a former CEO of Lockheed Martin , and by Gilman Louie , who was In-Q-Tel's first CEO. In-Q-Tel's mission is to identify and invest in companies developing cutting-edge technologies that serve United States national security interests. According to

539-618: Is commonplace for the intelligence services of large countries to read every published journal of the nations in which it is interested, and the main newspapers and journals of every nation. This is a basic source of intelligence. It is also common for diplomatic and journalistic personnel to have a secondary goal of collecting military intelligence. For western democracies, it is extremely rare for journalists to be paid by an official intelligence service, but they may still patriotically pass on tidbits of information they gather as they carry on their legitimate business. Also, much public information in

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588-712: Is focused on support or denial of intelligence at operational tiers. The operational tier is below the strategic level of leadership and refers to the design of practical manifestation. Formally defined as "Intelligence that is required for planning and conducting campaigns and major operations to accomplish strategic objectives within theaters or operational areas." It aligns with the Operational Level of Warfare, defined as "The level of warfare at which campaigns and major operations are planned, conducted, and sustained to achieve strategic objectives within theaters or other operational areas." The term operation intelligence

637-464: Is focused on support to operations at the tactical level and would be attached to the battlegroup. At the tactical level, briefings are delivered to patrols on current threats and collection priorities. These patrols are then debriefed to elicit information for analysis and communication through the reporting chain. Tactical Intelligence is formally defined as "intelligence required for the planning and conduct of tactical operations", and corresponds with

686-597: Is known to maintain satellites that can intercept cell-phone and pager traffic, usually referred to as the ECHELON system. Analysis of bulk traffic is normally performed by complex computer programs that parse natural language and phone numbers looking for threatening conversations and correspondents. In some extraordinary cases, undersea or land-based cables have been tapped as well. More exotic secret information, such as encryption keys, diplomatic message traffic, policy and orders of battle are usually restricted to analysts on

735-465: Is performed in real time on automated data traffic. Packaging threats and vulnerabilities for decision-makers is a crucial part of military intelligence. A good intelligence officer will stay very close to the policy-maker or war fighter to anticipate their information requirements and tailor the information needed. A good intelligence officer will also ask a fairly large number of questions in order to help anticipate needs. For an important policy-maker,

784-502: Is used within law enforcement to refer to intelligence that supports long-term investigations into multiple, similar targets. Operational intelligence, in the discipline of law enforcement intelligence, is concerned primarily with identifying, targeting, detecting and intervening in criminal activity. The use within law enforcement and law enforcement intelligence is not scaled to its use in general intelligence or military/naval intelligence, being more narrowed in scope. Tactical intelligence

833-719: The CIA 's previously existing Foreign Broadcast Information Service (FBIS), originally established in 1941, with FBIS head Douglas Naquin named as director of the center. Then, following the events of 9/11 the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act merged FBIS and other research elements into the Office of the Director of National Intelligence creating the Open Source Enterprise . Furthermore,

882-594: The Director of National Intelligence announced the creation of the DNI Open Source Center . The Center was established to collect information available from "the Internet, databases, press, radio, television, video, geospatial data, photos and commercial imagery." In addition to collecting openly available information, it would train analysts to make better use of this information. The center absorbed

931-552: The Internet or provided by a human source, others are obtained after U.S. or allied forces have taken control of a facility or site formerly operated by a foreign government or terrorist group.” Former Assistant Director of Central Intelligence for Analysis Mark M. Lowenthal defines OSINT as “any and all information that can be derived from overt collection: all types of media, government reports and other documents, scientific research and reports, commercial vendors of information,

980-754: The SOCOM - DIA operation Able Danger ], and to adapt the technology that online booksellers use and convert it to scour millions of pages of documents looking for unexpected results. In-Q-Tel sold 5,636 shares of Google , worth over US$ 2.2 million, on November 15, 2005. The shares were a result of Google's acquisition of Keyhole, Inc , the CIA-funded satellite mapping software now known as Google Earth . In August 2006, In-Q-Tel reviewed more than 5,800 business plans and invested approximately $ 150M in more than 90 companies. As of 2016, In-Q-Tel listed 325 investments, but more than 100 were kept secret, according to

1029-512: The Washington Post . The absence of disclosure can be due to national security concerns or simply because a startup company doesn’t want its financial ties to intelligence publicized. In-Q-Tel is a Virginia-registered corporation, legally independent of the CIA or any other government agency. The corporation is bound by its Charter agreement and annual contract with the CIA , which set out

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1078-550: The intelligence cycle . In-Q-Tel In-Q-Tel ( IQT ), formerly Peleus and In-Q-It , is an American not-for-profit venture capital firm based in Arlington, Virginia . It invests in companies to keep the Central Intelligence Agency , and other intelligence agencies, equipped with the latest in information technology in support of United States intelligence capability. The name "In-Q-Tel"

1127-595: The CIA. In-Q-Tel now engages with entrepreneurs , growth companies, researchers, and venture capitalists to deliver technologies that provide superior capabilities for the CIA , DIA , NGA , and the wider intelligence community . In-Q-Tel concentrates on three broad commercial technology areas: software , infrastructure and materials sciences . Former CIA director George Tenet said, We [the CIA] decided to use our limited dollars to leverage technology developed elsewhere. In 1999 we chartered ... In-Q-Tel. ... While we pay

1176-706: The Intelligence Community's senior intelligence officer for open source and to provide strategy, guidance and oversight for the National Open Source Enterprise . Mr. Jardines has established the National Open Source Enterprise and authored intelligence community directive 301 . In 2008, Mr. Jardines returned to the private sector and was succeeded by Dan Butler who is ADDNI/OS and previously Mr. Jardines' Senior Advisor for Policy. The web browser

1225-416: The Internet, and so on. The main qualifiers to open-source information are that it does not require any type of clandestine collection techniques to obtain it and that it must be obtained through means that entirely meet the copyright and commercial requirements of the vendors where applicable." OSINT practices have been documented as early as the mid-19th century in the United States and early 20th century in

1274-652: The Tactical Level of Warfare, itself defined as "the level of warfare at which battles and engagements are planned and executed to achieve military objectives assigned to tactical units or task forces". Intelligence should respond to the needs of leadership , based on the military objective and operational plans. The military objective provides a focus for the estimate process, from which a number of information requirements are derived. Information requirements may be related to terrain and impact on vehicle or personnel movement, disposition of hostile forces, sentiments of

1323-730: The U.S. Director of National Intelligence and the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD), as intelligence "produced from publicly available information that is collected, exploited, and disseminated in a timely manner to an appropriate audience for the purpose of addressing a specific intelligence requirement." As defined by NATO, OSINT is intelligence "derived from publicly available information, as well as other unclassified information that has limited public distribution or access." According to political scientist Jeffrey T. Richelson , “open source acquisition involves procuring verbal, written, or electronically transmitted material that can be obtained legally. In addition to documents and videos available via

1372-439: The U.S. military, Joint Publication 2-0 (JP 2-0) states: "The six categories of intelligence operations are: planning and direction; collection; processing and exploitation; analysis and production; dissemination and integration; and evaluation and feedback." Many of the most important facts are well known or may be gathered from public sources. This form of information collection is known as open-source intelligence . For example,

1421-711: The United Kingdom. OSINT in the United States traces its origins to the 1941 creation of the Foreign Broadcast Monitoring Service (FBMS) , an agency responsible for the monitoring of foreign broadcasts. An example of their work was the correlation of changes in the price of oranges in Paris with successful bombings of railway bridges during World War II . The Aspin-Brown Commission stated in 1996 that US access to open sources

1470-470: The Washington Post, In-Q-Tel started as the idea of then CIA director George Tenet . Congress approved funding for In-Q-Tel, which was increased in later years. Origins of the corporation can also be traced to Ruth A. David , who headed the Central Intelligence Agency's Directorate of Science & Technology in the 1990s and promoted the importance of rapidly advancing information technology for

1519-672: The area in question, such as geography , demographics and industrial capacities. Strategic Intelligence is formally defined as "intelligence required for the formation of policy and military plans at national and international levels", and corresponds to the Strategic Level of Warfare, which is formally defined as "the level of warfare at which a nation, often as a member of a group of nations, determines national or multinational (alliance or coalition) strategic security objectives and guidance, then develops and uses national resources to achieve those objectives." Operational intelligence

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1568-733: The author, due to the rapidly changing information landscape, some tools and techniques change or become obsolete frequently, hence it is imperative for OSINT researchers to study, train and survey the landscape of source material regularly. A guide by Ryan Fedasiuk, an analyst at the Center for Security and Emerging Technology , lists six tools open-source analysts can use to stay safe and utilize operational security ( OPSEC ) when conducting online investigations. These include VPNs , cached webpages, digital archive services, URL and file scanners, browser sandbox applications, and antivirus software . Numerous lists of aggregated OSINT content are available on

1617-486: The bills, In-Q-Tel is independent of CIA. CIA identifies pressing problems, and In-Q-Tel provides the technology to address them. The In-Q-Tel alliance has put the Agency back at the leading edge of technology ... This ... collaboration ... enabled CIA to take advantage of the technology that Las Vegas uses to identify corrupt card players and apply it to link analysis for terrorists [ cf. the parallel data-mining effort by

1666-435: The commander's information requirements are first identified, which are then incorporated into intelligence collection, analysis, and dissemination. Areas of study may include the operational environment, hostile, friendly and neutral forces, the civilian population in an area of combat operations, and other broader areas of interest. Intelligence activities are conducted at all levels, from tactical to strategic, in peacetime,

1715-500: The detailed act and carry it out. Once hostilities begin, target selection often moves into the upper end of the military chain of command. Once ready stocks of weapons and fuel are depleted, logistic concerns are often exported to civilian policy-makers. The processed intelligence information is disseminated through database systems, intel bulletins and briefings to the different decision-makers. The bulletins may also include consequently resulting information requirements and thus conclude

1764-404: The hierarchy of political and military activity. Strategic intelligence is concerned with broad issues such as economics, political assessments, military capabilities and intentions of foreign nations (and, increasingly, non-state actors ). Such intelligence may be scientific, technical, tactical, diplomatic or sociological , but these changes are analyzed in combination with known facts about

1813-405: The intelligence officer will have a staff to which research projects can be assigned. Developing a plan of attack is not the responsibility of intelligence, though it helps an analyst to know the capabilities of common types of military units. Generally, policy-makers are presented with a list of threats and opportunities. They approve some basic action, and then professional military personnel plan

1862-438: The local population and capabilities of the hostile order of battle . In response to the information requirements, analysts examine existing information, identifying gaps in the available knowledge. Where gaps in knowledge exist, the staff may be able to task collection assets to target the requirement. Analysis reports draw on all available sources of information, whether drawn from existing material or collected in response to

1911-403: The logistics chain for a military unit's fuel supply is often the most vulnerable part of a nation's order of battle. Human intelligence, gathered by spies, is usually carefully tested against unrelated sources. It is notoriously prone to inaccuracy. In some cases, sources will just make up imaginative stories for pay, or they may try to settle grudges by identifying personal enemies as enemies of

1960-499: The open-source intelligence discipline. Process of intelligence Military intelligence is a military discipline that uses information collection and analysis approaches to provide guidance and direction to assist commanders in their decisions . This aim is achieved by providing an assessment of data from a range of sources, directed towards the commanders' mission requirements or responding to questions as part of operational or campaign planning. To provide an analysis,

2009-559: The overall intelligence value after careful analysis. The tonnage and basic weaponry of most capital ships and aircraft are also public, and their speeds and ranges can often be reasonably estimated by experts, often just from photographs. Ordinary facts like the lunar phase on particular days or the ballistic range of common military weapons are also very valuable to planning, and are habitually collected in an intelligence library. A great deal of useful intelligence can be gathered from photointerpretation of detailed high-altitude pictures of

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2058-566: The period of transition to war, and during a war itself. Most governments maintain a military intelligence capability to provide analytical and information collection personnel in both specialist units and from other arms and services. The military and civilian intelligence capabilities collaborate to inform the spectrum of political and military activities. Personnel performing intelligence duties may be selected for their analytical abilities and personal intelligence before receiving formal training. Intelligence operations are carried out throughout

2107-537: The population, ethnic make-up and main industries of a region are extremely important to military commanders, and this information is usually public. It is however imperative that the collector of information understands that what is collected is "information", and does not become intelligence until after an analyst has evaluated and verified this information. Collection of read materials, composition of units or elements, disposition of strength, training, tactics, personalities (leaders) of these units and elements contribute to

2156-625: The private sector has invested in tools which aid in OSINT collection and analysis. Specifically, In-Q-Tel , a Central Intelligence Agency supported venture capital firm in Arlington, VA assisted companies develop web-monitoring and predictive analysis tools. In December 2005, the Director of National Intelligence appointed Eliot A. Jardines as the Assistant Deputy Director of National Intelligence for Open Source to serve as

2205-639: The relationship between the two organizations. In-Q-Tel's mission (to support the Intelligence Community's technical needs) is promoted by the In-Q-Tel Interface Center (QIC), an office within the CIA that facilitates communication and relationships between In-Q-Tel and government intelligence organizations. While In-Q-Tel is a nonprofit corporation, it differs from IARPA and other models in that its employees and trustees can profit from its investments. A Wall Street Journal investigation found that in 2016, nearly half of In-Q-Tel's trustees had

2254-454: The requirement. The analysis reports are used to inform the remaining planning staff, influencing planning and seeking to predict adversary intent. This process is described as Collection Co-ordination and Intelligence Requirement Management (CCIRM). The process of intelligence has four phases: collection, analysis, processing and dissemination. In the United Kingdom these are known as direction, collection, processing and dissemination. In

2303-550: The state that is paying for the intelligence. However, human intelligence is often the only form of intelligence that provides information about an opponent's intentions and rationales, and it is therefore often uniquely valuable to successful negotiation of diplomatic solutions. In some intelligence organizations, analysis follows a procedure. First, general media and sources are screened to locate items or groups of interest, and then their location, capabilities, inputs and environment are systematically assessed for vulnerabilities using

2352-509: The web. The OSINT Framework contains over 30 primary categories of tools and is maintained as an open source project on GitHub . A main hindrance to practical OSINT is the volume of information it has to deal with (" information explosion "). The amount of data being distributed increases at a rate that it becomes difficult to evaluate sources in intelligence analysis . To a small degree the work has sometimes been done by amateur crowd-sourcing. Private individuals illegally collecting data for

2401-606: Was "severely deficient" and that this should be a "top priority" for both funding and DCI attention. In July 2004, following the September 11 attacks , the 9/11 Commission recommended the creation of an open-source intelligence agency. In March 2005, the Iraq Intelligence Commission recommended the creation of an open-source directorate at the CIA. Following these recommendations, in November 2005

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