What is the difference between information and intelligence? Where does OSINT fit in?
Information is simply raw data in any form, whether a newspaper article, a website, photographs, phone records etc. The unprocessed data gleaned from any source on its own is simply information.
Information becomes intelligence when it is actually processed and pieced together to form a bigger picture. The information itself is put together in a fashion that allows it to be analyzed with a a specific outcome in mind. The various pieces of raw data are put together to allow a purposeful investigation or mission to be planned from the information that wouldn't have been possible based on the separate pieces of the "puzzle" alone.
OSINT fits into the equation in the sense that all OSINT data is initially information, and the vast majority of the population consider it simply to be only information. However, an analyst can take the vast amount of material available via open sources and put it all together to form actual actionable intelligence. To me OSINT is the perfect example of how information becomes intel. Most individuals tend to think of intelligence as highly classified information gleaned via covert methods such as those portrayed by movies and books, however proper OSINT collection and analysis is a prime example of how seemingly innocuous information can be used to form highly actionable intelligence.
No comments:
Post a Comment