A Note From Our President & Founder Jim Garrettson
Open source intelligence (OSINT), as described in a previous Weekly Round Up column, is an incredibly powerful research methodology that is already being used by forward looking companies and agencies. In the last column I examined the opportunities presented by utilizing OSINT gathering techniques, as well as the potential roadblocks, such as irrelevant information being captured, one may experience when gathering open source intelligence. This week, I would like to expand on the benefits and opportunities provided by utilizing OSINT.
As a recap, OSINT is a term used to refer to data or information that is overtly gathered from publicly available sources and used in an intelligence context. Publicly available information can be anything ranging from academic journals and newspapers to blogs and social media posts. When these publicly available pieces of information are used in an intelligence gathering context, it is considered OSINT.
OSINT is not a new concept, but recent advances in information technology have enabled more organizations, agencies and individuals to project their voices, creating a spike in the amount of open source information available. The increased amount of information and perspectives shared is strengthening OSINTâs capability to address new and more complex intelligence-related questions.
OSINT provides an opportunity to discover unvarnished truths within a sea of big data. However, finding those truths is no simple undertaking, especially given the explosive rate of growth in data produced each day. Yet, the ever-growing amount of data can be turned into an advantage for the OSINT practitioner. With the exponential increase in data comes a myriad of different perspectives on just about any topic, which can be used to obtain a birdâs eye view.
For the GovCon industry, this means that OSINT can greatly assist organizations, companies and government agencies in creating holistic projections of the current and future initiatives and policies. Instead of being constrained by a single narrative, OSINT practitioners are able to distill the information into actionable intelligence and make timely decisions based on the vast mosaic of differing perceptions that open source intelligence provides. Furthermore, the all-encompassing net cast by OSINT can be used as a means of monitoring trends and forecasting where those trends may lead.
The profound capabilities of OSINT are built upon the foundations of its highly versatile nature: OSINT is not limited to a single industry, field or subject; it can be integrated into any type of organization and can be adapted to capture any type of information.
If your organization is interested in learning more about OSINT and leveraging its capabilities, consider the ArchIntel Daily Intelligence Briefing. The ArchIntel Daily Intelligence Briefing is a completely customized, human-intelligence powered daily briefing service built upon a sophisticated open source information gathering platform. Delivering only the most relevant and actionable intelligence to you and your team, the ArchIntel Daily Intelligence Briefing can be customized to deliver everything from industry trend monitoring to competitive intelligence and situational awareness.
THIS WEEKâS TOP NEWS STORIES
Weekly Contract Awards This week’s top GovCon contract awards. Cyber Apex Solutions, BAE, DynCorp International, Lockheed Martin, Boeing, HII-Honeywell, Jacobs Engineering Group & more.
Hortonworks Makes New Leadership Appointments in Line With Growth Strategy
Hortonworks has appointed Chief Financial Officer Scott Davidson and Senior Vice President Scott Reasoner as well as hired Hewlett Packard Enterprise software business Chief Operating Officer Alan Fudge to assume new leadership roles.
NASA Issues RFP for $145M HQ IT Support Services III Contract
NASAÂ has released a request for proposals for a potential five-year, $145 million contract to provide information technology services to all mission directorates and support offices at the agencyâs headquarters.
7 Firms Land Spots on $115M EPA IT Solutions-Business Info Strategic Support III IDIQ
The Environmental Protection Agency has awarded seven companies positions on a potential five-year, $115 million contract that covers information technology support services to EPAâs environmental information, national program, administrative, field and regional offices.
Mission Space Acquisition, a blank check company based in Cape Canaveral, Florida, intends to raise $100 million through an initial public offering, MarketWatch reported Thursday. The special purpose acquisition company disclosed its IPO plans in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing Wednesday. The newly incorporated SPAC in the Cayman Islands intends to focus on acquiring
Tyto Athene, a portfolio company of Washington, D.C.-based private investment firm Arlington Capital Partners, has closed its purchase of software development firm Microtel for an undisclosed sum as part of a push to broaden its customer relationships and space system capabilities. Microtel is a systems engineering firm that develops mission-critical flight software used to operate
NASA has awarded Intuitive Machines, Lunar Outpost and Venturi Astrolab positions on a potential $4.6 billion contract to develop a lunar terrain vehicle for the space agency’s Artemis moon exploration program. The agency said Wednesday it plans to procure the LTV as a service from industry through the Lunar Terrain Vehicle Services program, a milestone-based