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With the development of the times and the deepening of globalization, the constituent elements of national security are constantly enriched, the factors affecting and threatening national security are also increasing, and traditional security and non-traditional security issues coexist and alternately rise.
On the one hand, the use of open source intelligence to deal with non-traditional security issues can obtain asymmetric advantages, thereby making up for the shortcomings of secret intelligence in dealing with such problems; on the other hand, when dealing with traditional security issues, open source intelligence can also be used as an information support and verification tool for secret intelligence.
At the same time, in the information age, more and more information and materials are digitized and shared in cyberspace, and the advantages and value of open source intelligence (low cost, high efficiency, strong secrecy, etc.) are gradually highlighted, and the status in national security intelligence work is rising, and it has become an important part of national security intelligence.
At present, most of the world's governments or militaries have incorporated open source intelligence into their intelligence work systems and set up specialized agencies for management and operation. The open source intelligence gathering approach focuses on monitoring the global or national open media, and can serve many fields such as international politics, national strategic decision-making, and counter-terrorism.
Below, Fu Yunjun will introduce the specific situation of open source intelligence agencies in various countries in detail.
U.S. open source intelligence agency
The United States has been formally practicing open source intelligence for at least 70 years. In February 1941, the United States established the Foreign Broadcast Monitoring Service (FBMS), which is the earliest open source intelligence research institution in the United States, mainly collecting and analyzing military intelligence.
In 1947, FBMS was incorporated into the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and renamed the Foreign Broadcast Information Service (FBIS). For a long time to come, although osint was discussed one after another, its core values were never recognized.
Image source: irp.fas.org
The 9.11 incident was a turning point in the development of the US military's open source intelligence work, and the US intelligence community realized that the traditional intelligence work model could no longer meet the needs of modern counter-terrorism and began to actively promote open source intelligence research. In November 2005, the Director of National Intelligence Open Source Center (OSC) was established and FBIS was included. It is administered by the CIA and is subordinate to the Director of National Intelligence.
The Centre aims to obtain information from publicly available sources such as the Internet, databases, print media, radio, television, video, geospatial data, photographs, commercial photographs, etc.
In 2006, U.S. legislation launched the National OpenSource Enterprise Program (NOOSE), which focuses on the collection, sharing, and analysis of open source information and stipulates that any intelligence effort must include an open source component.
In 2012, the long-brewed "big data research and development plan" of the United States was officially released, with the purpose of improving the ability to timely grasp intelligence and obtain knowledge from massive and complex open source data, and the US military's open source network intelligence work officially entered the era of "big data".
On October 1, 2015, osc changed its name to Open Source Enterprise and was incorporated into the CIA's Digital Innovation Council.
In addition to government-related open source intelligence agencies, the U.S. military also has specialized OSINT forces, such as the U.S. Army Asian Studies Detachment (ASD).
Stationed 40 kilometers west of Tokyo, Japan, the unit is part of the 500th Military Intelligence Brigade under the U.S. Army Intelligence and Security Command, and is mainly engaged in the collection and collation of public information.
In addition to the Attaché Of Staff of the U.S. Embassy in Asia, the Asian Research Task Force is the only unit in the U.S. Army that uses and synthesizes a large amount of public information in the form of intelligence information reports, forms special topics, or comprehensive analysis reports. To-be intelligence products include Intelligence Information Reports (IIRs), which are strategic intelligence and report to the Ministry of Defence or the highest levels, and FPSAR, which provides all public information about security protections primarily for troops and travelers in the Asia-Pacific region.
Uk open source intelligence agency
Britain's most famous open source intelligence agency is the BBC Monitoring, founded in 1939, with the largest shareholder being the Cabinet Office, and the main donors being the Foreign and Common wealth Office, the Defenceintelligence staff and intelligence agencies. The organization is primarily responsible for the selection and translation of mass media around the world, and its reports are widely referenced by UK governments and commercial clients as important open source intelligence.
Australia's open source intelligence agency
As early as 2001, Australia established the National Open Source Intelligence Centre (NOSIC, http://www.nosic.com.au/) to provide open source intelligence monitoring, research and analysis support for the federal government, state government departments and business agencies in the fields of social security, transnational crime, terrorism, and activism.
Image source: nosic
At the same time, some national security agencies such as The Office of National Assessments (ONA) have established open source intelligence centers. Independent of defence and foreign affairs, ONA is directly accountable to the Prime Minister, assisting the Australian Government in strategic decision-making and ensuring that the Government receives comprehensive early warning of domestic and foreign threats, covering topics such as international politics, national strategies and economic development.
Japan's open source intelligence agency
Japan has always used open source intelligence gathering research as its main source of intelligence. The Second Analysis Section of the International Intelligence Agency of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs attaches particular importance to open source intelligence work, mainly through the development of journalists, scholars and civil society in sending countries to collect a wide range of open source intelligence information.
In 2016, the Security Bureau of the Japanese National Police Agency established the "Internet Open Source Intelligence Center", focusing on collecting terrorism-related information from social networking platforms and online forums to prevent "lone wolf" terrorist activities.
While building an official intelligence agency, Japan has also made full use of its civilian intelligence forces. In addition to purchasing information from think tanks, news agencies, information service companies, and other sources, Japanese officials have also entrusted intelligence gathering tasks to civilian investigation agencies in the form of "commissioned investigations."
Usually undertaken by non-governmental intelligence organizations such as general trading companies and think tanks, it has been collecting political, diplomatic, military, scientific and technological intelligence as a focus for many years. Japan has the world's largest comprehensive trading company with the ability to collect, process and transmit intelligence, which has both information, financial and trade functions, and its intelligence capabilities have even far exceeded that of the Japanese government.
There are six largest general trading companies in Japan, namely Shuangri (Nissho Iwai and Nichimian), Sumitomo Trading Company, Marubeni Corporation, ITOCHU Corporation, Mitsubishi Trading Company, and Mitsui & Co., Ltd. The companies have about 180 offices around the world, employ about 10,000 people, and collect up to 100,000 pieces of information every day.
Israel's open source intelligence agency
Israel's intelligence agencies are mainly composed of the Institute for Intelligence and Special Operations (commonly known as "Mossad"), the Israeli National Security Agency (commonly known as "Simbett"), and the Israeli Military Intelligence Agency (commonly known as "Oman").
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Unit 8,200 under the Israeli Military Intelligence Service has a team specializing in open source network intelligence, namely Hatzav. The unit monitors and collects information related to military intelligence from television, radio, newspapers and the Internet. According to media reports, the department provides more than half of the overall intelligence information to the Israeli intelligence community. In 2016, the then director of military intelligence made adjustments to The Hatchav force, which is now headed by a major officer.
European open source intelligence agency
Although European countries have not set up independent open source intelligence agencies like the United States and other countries, governments also attach great importance to open source intelligence work.
Taking Switzerland as an example, the Swiss federal government has established a cross-departmental open source network intelligence working group, and the Strategic Intelligence Service (SND) and the Military Intelligence Service (MND) under the Federal Ministry of Defense have established an institutionalized open source network intelligence work system. The National Intelligence Centre under the Ministry of Police also established a dedicated open source cyber intelligence working group in 2001.
In addition, Europol, under the "Stop Child Abuse – Tracking Objects" initiative, uploads images of victims' clues on its website and asks the public for help. A large number of cases have been solved through open source intelligence.
Open source intelligence efforts are not limited to government intelligence and military agencies. In the case of limited government resources and unmet technical needs of intelligence services, cooperation models with non-governmental organizations such as "business outsourcing", "technical customization" and "market procurement" are very common.
Looking at the intelligence operation mode of various countries in the world, the intelligence community is generally involved by many parties, including governments, militaryes, enterprises and academia. Private open source intelligence agencies are mainly enterprises, universities and non-profit organizations (such as Bellingcat), and their main business generally includes various types of commercial investigations, open source intelligence skills training, and various special investigation projects.
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