Scribd
Upload
153 views12 pages

Ghid Osint en

The document discusses open source intelligence (OSINT). It defines OSINT and related terms like open source data and open source information. It describes classic open sources like publications, broadcasts, and government reports as well as new media sources like social networks, blogs, and online videos. The document outlines the OSINT process including planning, collection, processing, production, and dissemination. It notes that while OSINT has limitations like information overload and manipulation, it also has advantages over classified intelligence like lower costs, shorter collection time, and access to certain types of expertise. The document concludes by discussing the need to share information between intelligence services and with the public to strengthen security and democratic values.

Uploaded by

silviudumitrescu68
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
153 views12 pages

Ghid Osint en

The document discusses open source intelligence (OSINT). It defines OSINT and related terms like open source data and open source information. It describes classic open sources like publications, broadcasts, and government reports as well as new media sources like social networks, blogs, and online videos. The document outlines the OSINT process including planning, collection, processing, production, and dissemination. It notes that while OSINT has limitations like information overload and manipulation, it also has advantages over classified intelligence like lower costs, shorter collection time, and access to certain types of expertise. The document concludes by discussing the need to share information between intelligence services and with the public to strengthen security and democratic values.

Uploaded by

silviudumitrescu68
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 12

Centrul Surse Deschise

OSINT
HANDBOOK
Introduction

Types of Open Sources

OSINT Flow

OSINT Advantages and Limits

Security Culture

... amid the globalization of information and


communication means, the so-called Open Source
Intelligence has acquired increasing importance in
managing current security risks.

George Cristian Maior


Director of the Romanian Intelligence Service

Centrul Surse Deschise

I. INTRODUCTION

Definitions: OSD - OSINF - OSINT - OSINT- V


m Open Source Data (OSD) - radio/television shows, printings,

raw signals, photographs, tape recordings, satellite imagery,


and personal letters.

mOpen Source Information (OSINF) - data which can be put

together and processed in order to elaborate generic


information documents - news reports, books, newspapers.

m Open Source Intelligence (OSINT) - results of a complex OSD

and OSINF processing, implying identification, source


validation, collection, corroboration and analysis, in order to
elaborate national security-relevant products meeting
intelligence requirements.

mValidated Open Source Intelligence (OSINT-V) - information

with a high degree of certainty, being either elaborated by a


professional analyst or originating in reliable open sources.

History

Source: http://www.opensource.gov

Relevance
OSINT is estimated to account for 80% - 95% of all data
used by the intelligence community worldwide.
It ensures:
- strategic historical and cultural knowledge;
- relevant operational information on infrastructure and
current developments;
- tactically relevant commercial geospatial
information, which cannot be obtained through other
means.

Centrul Surse Deschise

II. TYPES OF OPEN SOURCES

Classic
m

periodical publications - newspapers, magazines, books (specialty


literature, directories), documentaries, leaflets, studies, maps,
photographs;

on-air broadcast radio and television stations;

official data - government reports, budgets, demographic statistics,


hearings, parliamentary debates, press conferences, speeches;

data and information from professional and academic circles conferences, symposia, documents elaborated by think-tanks,
academic papers and works of experts from different fields of activity;

geospatial data - (printed) satellite imagery, maps, atlases, geodetic


and topographic data, environment data;

gray literature.

New Media
Any digital media product which is interactive and
disseminated through IT networks or all computer-processed
texts, sounds, images, and graphical elements gathered in
data bases (encyclopedias, libraries, blogs, fora, virtual worlds,
social networks, online editions of classic media, information
portals, file sharing portals, etc.).
Social media (the content generated by the users and the tools
used to create and post it) is one of the most important new media
segments.
Social media categories:
m

communication (blogs, microblogs);

collaboration (wikis, answer websites);


recommendation (social news sites, bookmarking
services);

multimedia websites (audio, picture and video sharing,


livecasting etc.);
virtual worlds (Second Life, World of Warcraft).

Social networks can be considered a special media


category, as they can be used:
m

Centrul Surse Deschise

to generate content;
as recommendation tools;
to share multimedia files.

III. OSINT FLOW


The OSINT management implies the following stages:
m planning and direction;
m research, search and collection; information

processing and exploitation;


m production; dissemination and feedback.

This process consists of several steps of a major


importance:
m identifying the necessary information to meet the

assigned tasks, observing the principles know who


knows and know where to look for;
m selecting from the reliable and unreliable sources, the

valid and invalid ones, the relevant and irrelevant ones


(know what's what);

m filtering information (know what's hot);


m disseminating the resulted information (know who's

who) in due time, under secure conditions, in a


customer-friendly format.

The open sources, similar to the classified


sources, must be processed and analyzed
in order to extract important, timely,
relevant, and trustworthy information as the
translation and human assessment
represent one of the most important ways to
exploit and process information.

The classification and access level represents an issue of


particular interest as far as the open source exploitation and
intelligence product elaboration are concerned.
To understand the need to classify information, a difference
should be made between the information per se and its
collection method:

IF
Information
Source

THEN
Collection
Means

open

Metadata
Collector

classified

classified

or controlled

or controlled

classified

classified

unclassified

unclassified

information

or controlled

or controlled

unclassified

confidential
clandestine

Intelligence
Report

Source
Metadata

classified

classified

Collected
Information

unclassified

controlled

classified,

unclassified

controlled

open
unclassified

unclassified

open

unclassified

classified
unknown

or
or controlled
unclassified
unclassified

Source: http://info.publicintelligence.net/fmi2-22-9.pdf

Centrul Surse Deschise

IV. OSINT ADVANTAGES AND LIMITS


Although OSINT does not substitute the traditional intelligence
disciplines, it entails distinct advantages supporting them.

OSINT product advantages:


m imply relatively low costs as well as a short collection time;
m support the multisource intelligence analysis by guiding the

collection process;
m play a guiding role in the analysis stage, identifying some

necessary elements to understand the context;


m provide data that cannot be always obtained from secret

sources;
m facilitate access to certain types of expertise, not always

available to an intelligence service;


m can also represent dissemination channels.

Using open source information can lower the risk of


compromising sensitive sources.
OSINT product limits:
m information overload;
m manipulation.

V. SECURITY CULTURE

As far as the relation among the


intelligence services and that between
intelligence and society are concerned,
the 'need to share' syntagma, which has
replaced the 'need to know' principle,
highlights that every citizen should
acknowledge that the state becomes more
secure and the information more powerful
only if shared.

Centrul Surse Deschise

Similar to the training efforts in the intelligence


field undertaken in the US (Henley Putnam
University) and Great Britain (King's College),
which promote, in their curricula, the
exploitation of open sources, the Faculty of
Sociology and Social Work within the
University of Bucharest, in partnership with
the Romanian Intelligence Service, has been
organizing, since 2008, the Master Course in
'Information Analysis', whose goal is to
improve the society's analytical expertise.

The superior knowledge acquired through the


intelligence private sector/ academic circles
cooperation fundamentally contributes to
strengthening democratic values and
improving the response to national security
challenges and opportunities to promote
national interests.

Centrul Surse Deschise

ROMANIAN INTELLIGENCE SERVICE


Public Relations Office,
Bucharest,
14D Liberty Boulevard, 5th district
Phone:(+40)21.410.60.65
Fax:(+40)21.410.25.45

www.sri.ro

You might also like