Author(s): Ainara BORDES PEREZ
Publication name: Romanian Intelligence Studies Review
Publisher name: Mihai Viteazul National Intelligence Academy
Publication type: Journal article
Publication date: June 30, 2024
Pagination:
Issue/ Volume: 1 (31)/2024
DOI:
Abstract:
The recent Ukrainian conflict has spurred innovative uses of Open Source
Intelligence (OSINT) and nurtured several academic articles on the topic. It is just the last
example of an overall rapid evolution of OSINT since the emergence of the Internet in the
‘90s, the arrival of smartphones, and the flourishing of social media and other openly
available sources online in the early 21st century.
This fast evolvement has encouraged researchers and practitioners to study the
validity, significance and legitimacy of this type of intelligence (OSINT) coming from openly
accessible sources. However, in spite of the increased use and investigation of OSINT, its
rapid evolution has hindered any universal definition of it. While practitioners and scholars
have tried to conceptualise it since the beginning of its institutionalisation, different
definitions shaped over the course of OSINT’s expansion are ambiguous at times, vague, or
incomplete. The latter has an impact on the creation of procedures for practitioners,
recruitment needs, development of regulations and research.
This article studies those nuances in terminology and extracts the main
conceptual differences present in some of the most prominent definitions offered by
practitioners, oversight bodies and academics on OSINT. It does so through a comparative
analysis of the definitions presented, which are not limited to one jurisdiction or body.
Offering a structured taxonomy of the different shades of OSINT is the novelty of this
article, which is a necessary first step towards a potential universal definition of the term.
Keywords: Open Source Intelligence, OSINT, definitions, conceptual
nuances, Intelligence Services, Law Enforcement.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic License.