Open Source Intelligence
Open Source Intelligence (OSINT) is publicly available information regarding a subject of interest. This information is obtained from numerous resources such as:
Information gathered from OSINT resources can identity a subjects activities, location, character, and financial status. This is especially useful for monitoring bad actors targeting individuals and organizations.
Another aspect of OSINT investigations can reveal insider threats, unknown data breaches, and identify opportunities previously unseen. OSINT investigations can also reveal market trends, impacts of regulations, and legislation. OSINT reports provide value in that they add context to data points that appear meaningless at first.
We are typically asked to perform OSINT to identify data exposures, as an input to SWOT analysis, and PEST analysis.
