# Open-Source Intelligence The practice of collecting and analyzing **publicly available information** — anything from social-media posts, photos, and videos to public records, satellite imagery, corporate filings, leaked databases, and metadata — to produce intelligence. OSINT is the discipline of assembling a revealing picture out of pieces that are each, individually, open and legal to access. It is profoundly **dual-use**: the same toolkit serves accountability journalists and human-rights investigators, military and corporate analysts, and — pointed the other way — doxxers, stalkers, scammers, and the reconnaissance phase of a cyberattack. ## The investigative, accountability side OSINT has become a pillar of modern open investigation. The collective [[Bellingcat]] is the flagship example, using geolocated photos, flight data, and social-media traces to reconstruct events states would rather obscure — identifying the Russian military unit behind the 2014 downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17, naming the GRU officers involved in the 2018 Salisbury Novichok poisoning, and documenting war crimes through verified open footage. In this mode OSINT is a *counter-power*: a way for journalists, NGOs, and citizens to hold states and militaries accountable using nothing but public evidence and rigorous verification. ## The offensive, predatory side The identical methods enable harm. Before a [[Spearphishing]] or [[SIM Swapping]] attack, an intruder uses OSINT to profile the target — employer, colleagues, habits, security questions, the personal details that make impersonation convincing. Harassers use it for [[Doxxing]] — assembling a target's home address, workplace, and family from scattered public traces to enable intimidation, swatting, or violence. The reconnaissance phase of nearly every targeted intrusion is, at bottom, OSINT. ## Right-wing-KB relevance OSINT runs through several of this knowledge base's central tensions. It is simultaneously the **best tool of accountability** (Bellingcat-style exposure of state crimes and disinformation) and a **weapon of the harassment-and-intrusion ecosystem** the vault tracks (doxxing of journalists, activists, and election officials; target reconnaissance for influence operations). It also marks the blurring line between state surveillance and the open web: as more of life is documented publicly, OSINT lets both [[Surveillance State]] actors and freelance harassers build dossiers without ever needing a warrant or a breach. Which face OSINT shows — sunlight or stalking — depends entirely on who is wielding it and against whom. ## Distinct from neighbors - **[[Doxxing]]** — the *malicious publication* of identifying info; OSINT is the broader *collection-and-analysis* method (doxxing is one hostile application). - **Surveillance / wiretapping** — accessing *non-public* communications; OSINT works strictly from *publicly available* sources. - **SIGINT / HUMINT** — signals and human intelligence (covert collection disciplines); OSINT is the *open-source* member of the intelligence family. - **Social-media monitoring** — a *subset* of OSINT focused on platform data. ## See Also - [[Bellingcat]] - [[Doxxing]] - [[Spearphishing]] - [[SIM Swapping]] - [[Surveillance State]] - [[Cybersecurity Lexicon]] - [[Disinformation Hub]]