HC3 Analyst Note TLP White: OSINT How-To, August 9, 2022

Executive Summary

Open-Source Intelligence (OSINT) is the act of obtaining intelligence from publicly available resources. It has been around for a long time and was even used as a collection method in World War II. With the advancement of technology and more specifically the internet OSINT has become a valuable tool for many security and intelligence organizations. It can produce effective results with a reasonably low cost. Resources being utilized can come from many places including newspapers, court filings, and of course the internet. Activity on the internet can be more active or passive in nature and investigators should be aware of the wealth of information that exist on the deep and dark web. These layers are estimated to be about 95% of the information available on the internet. Social Media Intelligence is also an important branch of OSINT that has risen over the years which has the potential to reveal information such as a user’s geolocation. Tools used to leverage OSINT can be free to use or a paid service and many of them don’t require any technical knowledge.

What is Open-Source Intelligence?

Open-source intelligence is the data and information that is available to the public. Its not just the information that we can access online from a search engine. It can come from many sources and it’s a valuable tool for security professionals and intelligence organizations, but it’s also important to be aware that threat actors leverage OSINT for their own benefit as well. Information available to the public isn’t necessarily just free information either it can consist of proprietary or subscription-based information that is available such as a news journal. It could also be information and data that is only available upon request.

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