As you may already know from our previous blogs, open source intelligence, or OSINT, is intelligence derived from sources that are free, public, and legally accessible. It’s not only a growing field—expected to have a vast increase in 2024 and beyond—but one that is quickly becoming more integrated into a multitude of professions. Many different types of users, from a variety of professional fields, utilize OSINT to help make important decisions (in areas such as public safety, academic research, court cases, and business decisions). Then, they take actions based upon the information that they gather. This blog focuses on some of the major types of OSINT users, including government users, business users, cybersecurity professionals, investigative journalists, and academic researchers.
Government Agencies OSINT Users
Government employees make up one of the largest segments of OSINT users. Many members of the national security community, military, and law enforcement use it for their online missions. In fact, according to this research paper, eighty to ninety percent of all intelligence activities carried out by US law enforcement agencies (LEA) and intelligence services come from OSINT. They gather OSINT research for investigations, court cases, and to stay ahead of potential security threats. OSINT helps government agencies understand the public’s views on domestic and foreign policy, and it supplies policymakers with the data they need to influence policy.
Business OSINT Users
There are a variety of OSINT users in the business world. From researching new markets to competitive analysis, the possibilities are endless. Business users gather OSINT data to help them plan future marketing efforts. Also, they use it to learn more about their customers and monitor their competitors. Additionally, some businesses use OSINT to analyze consumer behavior, assess business requirements for software development, and make strategic business decisions.
Cybersecurity OSINT Users
Cybersecurity professionals need to assess the vulnerabilities of their company or government agency network on a regular basis. The best place to do that is online of course, with help from OSINT research. OSINT is usually the first step when planning penetration testing and when gathering intelligence about a specific target or adversary online. Cybersecurity teams may also use OSINT to conduct internal social engineering attacks and simulated phishing attacks that aim to assess any potential security leaks. Also, they use it to look for and ensure that they are on alert and prepared to prevent attacks from external adversaries.
Investigative Journalist OSINT Users
Many investigative journalists utilize OSINT to research a topic, a person, or an event. They review information on social media platforms, in other news articles, public records, videos, images, audio files, and databases. Journalists may find topics like business trends, crime reports, and so on. They use their OSINT data to drive investigations, verify information, and to help them fight against misinformation and deliberate disinformation. It’s not a replacement for traditional journalism—such as talking to a source or being present at a newsworthy event—but rather a complementary tool for them to get to the truth of the topic they are researching.
Academic Researchers
Many in the academic field rely on OSINT for their jobs. Academic researchers analyze social and economic trends. Then, they gather information about a variety of topics, and get insights from public opinion on their research focus areas. Researchers use that OSINT data to write research papers, contribute to their thesis, and for published materials. On the other side of the coin, academics post many of their publications online, which in turn provides information for other OSINT researchers to utilize.
Evolving Types of People Who Perform OSINT
A variety of people from many different fields perform OSINT as part of their day-to-day work. The user types described in this blog are only a few of the various categories of OSINT users. As the OSINT market continues to evolve and grow, so too will the types of OSINT users. The evolution of machine learning (ML), visual forensics, and artificial intelligence (AI) is enabling all types of users to gather OSINT in a faster, more automated way every day. Thus, with the rapid explosion of AI in the OSINT field, the types of jobs that involve OSINT, are predicted to increase in the years ahead.
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