Who needs open source intelligence?
Open source intelligence can be used by different actors with different motivations.
1. Business organization
Integrating open source
intelligence mechanisms into corporate processes will bring enormous benefits and
increase overall business efficiency in countering internal and external threats. We
can recognize the following benefits:
Early data breach
detection: Criminals sell or expose hacked data on the dark web after a
successful breach. By using open source intelligence techniques, affected
organizations can learn about data breaches early on and respond with the necessary
protective measures to protect their confidential information and IT systems.
Protect brand and enhance business reputation: By
monitoring social media platforms for brand mentions, companies can respond to
customer complaints or negative reviews about a product/service or workplace and
address it quietly and professionally before it becomes a public story. This
effectively prevents the issue from escalating in the media and protects the
company's brand name.
Vendor Risk Management: Businesses do
not work in isolation, for example, most businesses use third-party contractors to
provide additional services. Open source intelligence helps organizations identify
potential vulnerabilities in third-party processes and work to counter it before it
becomes a threat.
Detect enterprise data breaches: Open
source intelligence is used to search the surface, deep and dark web for any leaked
data. This enables businesses to investigate issues and determine the source of
leaks.
Protecting Physical Facilities and Employees: For
companies operating in troubled regions around the world, it is critical to have
situational awareness of possible hazards that threaten the safety of their physical
assets and even their employees. Open source intelligence can be used to research
social media platforms, blogs, media sources, and even the dark web for indicators
of possible threats.
All organization types can use open source intelligence
to gain useful insights about future market trends or competitors, and to better
understand public perception in a particular geographic area before launching a
particular product or service. This reduces risk and helps organizations make more
informed decisions.
2. Law firm
Lawyers and private
investigators can ethically and legally utilize open source intelligence techniques
(especially information found on social media platforms) in legal and litigation
intelligence to gather evidence and research about any suspect or potential juror.
3. Law Enforcement Agencies and Security Services
Open
source intelligence provides critical capabilities to law enforcement agencies and
other security services to enhance their intelligence capabilities to fight crime
and protect citizens, forces, communities, businesses and public services from
organized crime, terrorism and a variety of cyber-related threats . Since most
Internet users have at least one social media account, a great deal of personal
information can be collected from social media platforms and Internet-based
communications to gather intelligence about criminals, understand their ideology,
and identify criminals before they commit crimes . Even enforcement protections are
often established by analyzing open source intelligence information.
4. Black hat hackers and terrorist groups
Criminals
and black hat hackers use open source intelligence tactics and techniques in the
same way that good guys leverage gathering intelligence about a target before
launching an attack. A social engineering attack starts after gathering enough
information about the target. The information gathered is used to customize the
attack to each individual, increasing the chances of a successful intrusion.