MAIN ADVANTAGES OF OPEN SOURCES OVER CLASSIFIED SOURCES, AND OSINT'S ENHANCEMENT TO CLASSIFIED INTELLIGENCE PROCESSES
Intelligence exploitation of open source information (OSI) offers a more efficient intelligence process, as better return on investment, in:
- acquisition / collection
- collation, archiving and analysis
- security (for all aspects i.e., information, personnel and facilities)
- dissemination
- quality control
- training benefits
- recruitment pool
- tasking of resources
a. Acquisition / collection. Open sources are far more widely and cheaply accessible.
b. Collation, archiving and analysis. OSINT optimizes the institutional and individual knowledge base necessary for understanding all sources, including that appearing in more carefully guarded and controlled classified / sensitive material. Open sources offer more useful and diverse contexts with which to better understand a topic, and to associate intelligence products of all sources more broadly with thematic and categorization for retrieval by thematic or subject classes of location, organization, incident, personality, etc.
c. Security. Open sources can reduce if not eliminate the high costs of security involved in classified intelligence processes i.e., information secrecy, personnel vetting and other control, and source and facility protection .
d. Dissemination. OSINT offers a much broader potential client base than that available for classified intelligence product. Various government departments and educational bodies, private sector enterprises, and foreign and multinational entities may all become recipients of OSINT product without the risks such broadened access may cause for classified intelligence product.
e. Quality control. Greater access to open sources and OSINT product allows for broader and more practical avenues of critical scrutiny and feedback - crucial for identifying product errors and source deficiencies, and fitting the product to clientèle needs.
f. Training. Further to the potentially wider avenues of lay and expert feedback for on-the-job improvement, the more varied formats, registers and contexts of open sources, and their wider accessibility, allow for a faster and more thorough subject matter mastery by the more skilled and capable practitioners. Training processes and material need much less of the distance from workplace reality that arises due to security concerns in classified matter.
g. Recruitment. Wider source access and reduced security concerns allow for broader pool of practitioners, without the constraints and supervisory concerns traditionally associated with classified intelligence work e.g., nationality, lifestyle, ideological and other background checks. Open sources' potentially wider reach for exposure to intelligence processes and subject matter allow for a broader selection of talented and motivated personnel for strengthening the intelligence apparatus i.e., via competition and raised skill levels. Broader selection should help overcome any institutional tendencies to emphasize extraneous and potentially corrupting factors such as: party membership, family and other personal ties, ethnic / religious background, etc.
h. Tasking. Savings from resources spent on OSINT processes allow for a more sharply focused, better concentrated treatment of classified / sensitive sources. Classified / sensitive sources can be better applied to fill gaps and build greater detail around the foundation of knowledge constructed from OSINT processes.
Intelligence exploitation of open source information (OSI) offers a more efficient intelligence process, as better return on investment, in:
- acquisition / collection
- collation, archiving and analysis
- security (for all aspects i.e., information, personnel and facilities)
- dissemination
- quality control
- training benefits
- recruitment pool
- tasking of resources
a. Acquisition / collection. Open sources are far more widely and cheaply accessible.
b. Collation, archiving and analysis. OSINT optimizes the institutional and individual knowledge base necessary for understanding all sources, including that appearing in more carefully guarded and controlled classified / sensitive material. Open sources offer more useful and diverse contexts with which to better understand a topic, and to associate intelligence products of all sources more broadly with thematic and categorization for retrieval by thematic or subject classes of location, organization, incident, personality, etc.
c. Security. Open sources can reduce if not eliminate the high costs of security involved in classified intelligence processes i.e., information secrecy, personnel vetting and other control, and source and facility protection .
d. Dissemination. OSINT offers a much broader potential client base than that available for classified intelligence product. Various government departments and educational bodies, private sector enterprises, and foreign and multinational entities may all become recipients of OSINT product without the risks such broadened access may cause for classified intelligence product.
e. Quality control. Greater access to open sources and OSINT product allows for broader and more practical avenues of critical scrutiny and feedback - crucial for identifying product errors and source deficiencies, and fitting the product to clientèle needs.
f. Training. Further to the potentially wider avenues of lay and expert feedback for on-the-job improvement, the more varied formats, registers and contexts of open sources, and their wider accessibility, allow for a faster and more thorough subject matter mastery by the more skilled and capable practitioners. Training processes and material need much less of the distance from workplace reality that arises due to security concerns in classified matter.
g. Recruitment. Wider source access and reduced security concerns allow for broader pool of practitioners, without the constraints and supervisory concerns traditionally associated with classified intelligence work e.g., nationality, lifestyle, ideological and other background checks. Open sources' potentially wider reach for exposure to intelligence processes and subject matter allow for a broader selection of talented and motivated personnel for strengthening the intelligence apparatus i.e., via competition and raised skill levels. Broader selection should help overcome any institutional tendencies to emphasize extraneous and potentially corrupting factors such as: party membership, family and other personal ties, ethnic / religious background, etc.
h. Tasking. Savings from resources spent on OSINT processes allow for a more sharply focused, better concentrated treatment of classified / sensitive sources. Classified / sensitive sources can be better applied to fill gaps and build greater detail around the foundation of knowledge constructed from OSINT processes.
