Open source intelligence (OSINT)–it sounds official, but it is really not that complicated. It is basically summed up as information that is publicly available. This publicly available intelligence includes information gathered from radio, television, newspapers, commercial databases, electronic mail networks, portable electronic media and more. OSINT has various advantages and disadvantages, but it is arguable that taking advantage of this publicly available information brings around more benefits than not. Businesses did not always have the relationship with OSINT as they do now. At first, it was viewed as competition. Then, businesses realized that open data was available, but not built to analyze all the data. Thus emerged an opportunity. Since then, businesses have found that as the technology behind OSINT becomes more sophisticated, it is best to work with and leverage it. This article will share a few OSINT tips with you that will help provide your company with a competitive advantage.
Tip 1: Make sure you are feeding the right information into your artificial intelligence machines.
It can’t do all the work for you. In essence, you have to train the AI with sets of data so it can recognize what to pick up and what not to pick up.
Tip 2: Know what signals you are looking for.
Open source intelligence is leveraged best when there is a specific set of criteria set up for it.
That way, harvesting, entity tagging and data curation runs smoother altogether and everything is organized the way you deem fit. Knowing what signals you are looking for is basically the OSINT version of having all your ducks in a row.
Tip 3: Be proactive.
This is a common tip amongst any topic, but OSINT monitoring is definitely not something you want to get behind on.
Thresholds and rules should be established for OSINT harvest, then a system can start pulling data and a dashboard can be set up to stay ahead of issues instead. Ongoing and active monitoring is a must to generate the insights that you wish to see.
Tip 4: Evaluate your options to find the proper tool for your needs.
OSINT can be tricky to navigate, but the proper tools to help you do so can make all the difference.
To translate information into intelligence, a solution can help you unlock the potential that OSINT offers.
Tip 5: You can expand your knowledge of people and use that in meeting planning.
It is arguable that any business meeting will go better if both parties find something to (even small) talk about that they both enjoy, outside of business matters. Imagine a CEO going into a meeting with the CEO of a prospective customer and them having a common interest, such as football or a specific restaurant, to talk about.
The personal connection can make all the difference from any business meeting to a meeting to remember that person you got along with. Instead of only working with the information you found on a public company profile, you can pull information about personal interests through open sources. This opens doors for professionals to plan meetings and even organize group activities adhering to everyone’s interests.
Tip 6: Stay up to date with where companies (and competitors) are doing business.
Some business information is inherently attempted to keep under wraps. However, with the amount of open source content that is available, OSINT solutions can process and extract bits of insight and beneficial knowledge.
You may think that you’ll be fine without open source data and intelligence, but the fact is that there is an abundance of information about your customers and company out there that will make life a lot easier if harvested properly.
