What is Open Source Intelligence & how is it used?

What Is Open Source Technology?

Next time you Google a brand, upload your photo, gift someone online or send a client your company presentation, or simply share demos on how to use your products or their relevance; you are adding to Open Source Data. This data and information available freely on public domains like forums, blogs, videos, and websites, and other information platforms are thrashed out to derive more focussed data, set in intelligent context to meet a specific need. Such processed data is Open Source Intelligence. OSINT – Open Source Intelligence is compiling and analysis of data that needs to meet two specific parameters.

• It must be available in the public domain
• It must be free and legal

Public domain entails News, Media, Magazines, Journals, Academic and Trade Publications, Company Demos and Presentations, Online Discussion Groups, Blogs, User Generated Content, Government Data, Budgets, Press Conferences, Directories, Speeches, Business Documents, Working Papers, Technical Reports, Patents, and Newsletters. All of this is in varied formats including Oral, Observed Print, Video, or Online; which forms a quantum of open-source data.
All content published for an audience or available for the public by request, subscription, or purchase or accessible in open meetings is also open-source data.

Why use Open Source Intelligence?

It’s a daunting task to collect, scrutinize and manage open source data due to its sheer volume. The staggering amount of data on open source hinders any form of filtering or processing manually. It’s both a time-consuming activity and one that creates burnout easily. To manage data with such complexities and diversities one needs Open Source Intelligence technology. Open Source Intelligence Technology can achieve a high level of performance as it proficiently extracts keywords that are relevant to you. It delivers useful information that delivers reliable, efficient, and expected results for you.

How do we use Open Source Intelligence?

Open Source Intelligence is innate to our daily activities on the internet. When you get a question answered on the internet, when you research the best possible way to complete your daily activity or map the latest news and trend on products and services; you are using Open Source Intelligence.
Organizations consciously employ Open Source Intelligence to increase conversations with their website traffic and merely enhance the effectiveness of their services to their customers.
The usage and benefits of the Open Source Intelligence are usually mapped to meet a specific intelligence need of the client and adds a razor edge to one’s cyber-security needs. With the world moving to digital space, cyber-security is no longer an option but a necessity. It’s easy for anyone to converge all publicly available information and exploit the weak point to their benefit.
One, Open Source Intelligence is primarily used in security to build oneself strongly and two, to detect and fight any outside threats. Technically speaking Open Source Intelligence help Ethical Hacking & Penetration Testing.

Testing Networks with Penetration and Ethical Hacking

Open Source Intelligence helps corporate and customers intrude or penetrate their systems and friendly networks to figure out threats and weaknesses that malicious attackers could exploit and cause damage like loss of data, financial loss, or other major damage to the company or businesses alike. Common weak points that are plugged in include:
• Sensitive information leaks, accidental or otherwise in Social Media
• Exposed assets – Important crucial information left open
• Unpatched software products – mostly continued usage of the old version of popular CMS products
• Unsecured internet-connected devices or open ports that allow inside accessibility to the attacker
• Identify external threats and plug them to fortify cyber-security

Detect and Plug External Threats

Open Source Intelligence supports the core purpose of improving security and defending the systems. It can not only spot the weak link but also help by intercepting it and avoiding further exploitation. Open Source Intelligence empowers the cyber-security team to understand and prioritize their time and resources to work on current threats to mitigate damage.

Open Source Intelligence is best used along with other intelligence from closed sources; as one needs to validate a threat across multiple data points. It’s a one-stop solution for those who need to extract important information from the web full of data.

For more queries about Open Source Intelligence and its effective usage, please visit us or contact us through our email address, sales.sunartek.com