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Lesson 12 min 20 XP

The OSINT Revolution

How open-source intelligence from satellite imagery, social media, and public data is democratizing intelligence analysis and transforming accountability.

Intelligence for Everyone

Open-source intelligence (OSINT) is the collection and analysis of publicly available information: social media posts, satellite imagery, shipping data, court records, corporate filings, and anything else that can be accessed without hacking or classified access. While intelligence agencies have always used open sources, the revolution is that these capabilities are now available to journalists, researchers, civil society organizations, and ordinary citizens.

Bellingcat, founded by Eliot Higgins in 2014, pioneered the use of OSINT for investigations of global significance. Using social media posts, satellite imagery, and phone metadata, Bellingcat identified the Russian military unit responsible for shooting down Malaysian Airlines Flight MH17 over Ukraine in 2014, killing 298 people. They also identified the Russian intelligence officers who poisoned Sergei Skripal in the UK in 2018. These investigations achieved results that rivaled or exceeded those of national intelligence agencies.