Board Member | Strategic Advisor | Keynote Speaker | Applying insights gained over the course of a lengthy career in national security to help strengthen America's competitiveness on the world stage.
Not a day passes without someone asking me about the future of open source intelligence (OSINT). It is true that the world of publicly and commercially available information (PAI and CAI, respectively) is dynamic and rapidly changing, and the days of linguists sitting in an office monitoring foreign radio broadcasts or translating foreign press articles are long gone. Today, OSINT is all about digital innovation. It’s a story about artificial intelligence, machine learning, automation, natural language processing, human language translation models, data analytics, and much more. And the same people who ask me about the future of OSINT are usually surprised to learn how the Open Source Enterprise, which is aligned within CIA’s Directorate of Digital Innovation, has undergone a dramatic transformation in recent years, building the foundation for a near future were OSINT truly is our INT of first resort. CIA’s open source mission builds upon a long and proud legacy, one from which I benefited for many years as a consumer while serving around the world as a US official. But that legacy model was never going to scale in this world of ubiquitous connectivity, with exponentially increasing volumes of PAI available quite literally at our fingertips. Our new model maximize agility, enhances integration across all the various types of intelligence collection (or INTs, as we call them), and exploit cutting-edge technologies. Indeed, OSE is an Intelligence Community leader in the use of advanced AI/ML technologies to automate and transform data-driven workflows, a key capability to help us meet new challenges in the rapidly expanding open source environment. You might ask, what’s next? How do we build upon the progress made to date and truly realize OSINT’s incredible potential? Of course, it will require continuing investments in technological innovation, but more urgently, we must invest in partnerships. Partnerships across the Intelligence Community to create a true federation of OSINT professionals. Partnerships with the US private sector to leverage their expertise and insights. And partnerships with allied foreign intelligence services around the globe to help us achieve scale against our common national security challenges. I can think of no more exciting time to be an expert — whether in government or private industry — working on open source intelligence. It’s a world of nearly limitless opportunity. #nationalsecurity #intelligence #innovation #ai #ml #data #machinelearning #artificialintelligence #digital #opensource #digitalinnovation #intelligencecommunity #publicprivatepartnerships
Julie Jensen
1y
Central Intelligence Agency … do you really think 🤔 that any in-house open source code you have could plausibly be shared with the outside world 🌎? That makes no sense to me. I highly doubt you will share your code. It’s a matter of government security. Unless it’s talking to the coffee ☕️ pot. Or something as mundane as that.
Yes Jennifer Ewbank please fully leverage the billions invested in commercial R&D & Productization of Globally Publicly Available datasets & Open Sensors combined with AI Based Analytics for near real time insights & foundational intelligence across all mission sets. Graphika Whitespace Geollect Dun & Bradstreet Seerist RANE (Risk Assistance Network + Exchange) Interos Inc Babel Street etc. Supply Wisdom
Well said and couldn't agree more. Also love Dave's picture. There are definitely pockets of excellence across the IC/USG in utilizing PAI/CAI for various mission sets. Ultimately the maturity of this space and the full application comes down to leadership, authorities, policies and privacy considerations. Each Department/Agency has often had to go it alone, with varying results. Leverage your position to capture best practices, lessons learned, and technologies available across priority requirements that can then be shared more broadly. Best of luck!!!
Dona Jones
1y
I just told you the REAL PATHWAY TO Obtain🦉
Kang Kim
1y
Strongly Agree. Most important factor in the fast digitizing era.
Landon W.
1y
Fantastic. There is a lot of alignment in OSINT today, particularly in private and public partnerships, that have overlaps with traditional HUMINT, SIGINT, and GEOINT. It's amazing what's commercially and publicly available. Very exciting times.
Gregory Sims
1y
Agree...partnership is the real secret sauce.
I couldn’t agree more! So much untapped potential
Donna Payne
1y
Thank you , Secrets can not hide forever ... just hope we live to tell them all . I am 76 years old worked for FBI when JFK was killed . Kept my mouth shut ...
All views are my own, and do not represent those of my employer in any way.
1yThis is a great effort, and very encouraging news! Next to you should collaborate with DIAs Open Source Center and take this entire effort to the next level!