The Advantages of Performing OSINT for Threat Intelligence
Contents
The Advantages of Performing OSINT for Threat Intelligence#
As the world of threat intelligence continues to grow, so does the need for open-source intelligence, or OSINT. OSINT is the process of collecting data from publicly available sources to be used in an intelligence analysis. This type of intelligence gathering can be used to supplement other intelligence sources or to stand alone as the primary source of intelligence. There are many advantages to using OSINT for threat intelligence, which we will explore in this blog post.
Benefits of OSINT#
Open-source data sources, as the name indicates, are freely available to the public. All you need is certain skills and additional work to access them. As a result, they are now an appealing source of threat intelligence for all types of security firms.
The following points illustrate the primary benefits of the OSINT :
Increased ROI: Data sources and feeds from security and CTI suppliers are costly and may be out of reach for organizations on a limited budget. While delivering considerable technological value, open-source intelligence streams reduce money and provide a possibly greater Return on Investment (ROI).
Public maintenance: The majority of open-source threat intelligence data is managed by the global information security industry. Experts and specialists are constantly upgrading and improving OSINT systems for basic goals such as combating cybercriminals and protecting assets.
Safety: Obtaining intelligence via OSINT channels is less harmful and dubious when opposed to other kinds of intelligence, such as hiring security operatives to gather information on a specific organization.
Ease of access: OSINT is available to everyone. This implies that security experts can always rely on them. The majority of them may be accessed via application programming interfaces (APIs) or by simple enrollment and downloading. OSINT such as social networks, internet sites, and personal contacts are constantly available. The goal of OSINT is to enable the information security community to exchange threat data, weaknesses, attacks, intrusions, lessons learned, and other topics This advantage enables firms to implement preventative steps.
Legal accessibility: OSINT materials are acquired solely from public sources, with no violations of intellectual restrictions.
Financial fraud: OSINT can provide key info about organizations implicated in tax evasion offenses during a financial fraud case. Tracking a celebrity’s Facebook profile, for example, might reveal crucial financial data about the target individual. Analyzing social networking intelligence will provide useful information to any government investigator pursuing a target body for undisclosed money.
Combating counterfeit: OSINT methods could be used to find illicit websites selling fraudulent items and encourage law enforcement personnel to close them down or alert others about them.
Threat identification: Cyber dangers can be predicted by monitoring open forums, social networks, media organizations, and web traffic. On the dark web, black hat hackers trade vulnerabilities and sensitive information (or darknet). The dark web, as OSINT, can be utilized to discover previous breaches or potential information spills.
Outcome#
Many institutions, such as security agencies, law enforcement agencies, and organizational security executives, are increasingly depending on open sources to construct intelligence plans. After reading this blog, you should understand the critical role that OSINT performs in many intelligence fields, particularly in increasing the data gathering capacities of security services and law enforcement organizations.
See also
Want to learn practical Open-Source Intelligence skills? Enrol in MCSI’s MOIS - Certified OSINT Expert Program