Expert System has just joined AFCEA –Armed Forces Communications and Electronic Associations, Rome - an international association that aims to promote “active communication between the government, the military, the media, and other types of industry associated with the world of (tele)informatics.”
OSINT, one important kind of intelligence
What is OSINT?
OSINT, the acronym of Open Source INTelligence, is one of the ways to acquire data useful for intelligence: it regards the monitoring and analysis of contents found in accessible public sources.
Until recently, this was a typical activity of information agencies, carried out manually, as well represented in the famous 1975 movie “Three Days of the Condor”.
The leading character, Robert Redford, reads books and newspapers from all over the world, in the attempt to find information to be passed onto the CIA.
Doing OSINT on the Web
The Information Age in the late 1970’s and early 1980’s, saw the development of information systems in general, and also of the communication and directory systems of the internet. These systems have made available a huge quantity of data, yet all those data must be gathered, grouped, measured, and in the end analyzed.
OSINT means more than just monitoring all the available information: it is indispensable to define specific criteria to create priorities and achieve goals. This implies a constant selection process, to find and monitor reliable sources.
The power of the Net
The Web is the main open source of information, where first-hand news and data can be found about science, technology, journalism, finance and business.
The Web is also a place where countries, institutions, corporations, and public interest groups can influence public opinion. Nowadays, it is also where everyone can freely express their opinions, and spread them worldwide in an instant.
These opinions are now recognised to be valuable, representing a new and important input to measuring political unrest for diplomats and defence professionals. Similarly, they also represent the voice of the customers to businesses and institutions, providing a valuable complement to formal surveys, focus groups and other more established market research methods.
