5 Benefits of Using Open Source Intelligence

Open Source Intelligence is information and data that is publicly available to the public and that can be used to protect your business and employees, as well as prioritize your tasks and solve security issues. 

Open-source intelligence is a rather new concept that gained popularity as technology developed. Some many businesses and companies have open-source teams. These teams collect data from the internet and analyze it, making it possible to identify any possible threat of cyber-attack. This is essential for every business that wants to protect its data and gain trust from its customers. Because as technology develops, so do the teams of cyber hackers that wait for the perfect occasion to use those breaches in your security.  

Open-source intelligence comes with problems, not only with benefits. However, these can easily be counteracted by having more diverse projects and keeping up the pace with all these technological advancements. Open-source intelligence is a nice and helpful resource all companies and businesses can take advantage of. Let’s discover 5 benefits of using open source intelligence.  

1. It Does Not Involve Classified Information 

Now that almost everyone knows how to use and has access to the internet, a few rules should be respected. For example, you cannot use someone’s photos without his approval because of the copyright infringement rules. You cannot use sensitive information obtained from unknown and secret sources, which could be then eliminated from the web if the person does not want it public. We have come to a certain level of protecting personal information, such as the GDPR rules in the UE, and not following them comes with sanctions. 

Open-source intelligence is represented by data collected from the internet. Here is not included classified information or any other information obtained from unknown sources. Also, there is no information that could be subject to proprietary constraints, as well as information gathered from sensitive and clandestine contacts. 

This way, open-source data is data that is available to the public without any constraints and it can be used in an intelligence context. Like this, companies and businesses can access, for example, parts of the source code they need to develop uni assignment help. Open-source data used in intelligence contexts is very helpful and can save many developers and team members from the struggle of searching for the data they need. If it is an open-source, everyone has access and can use it, which is time-saving. 

2. It Helps You Prioritize 

One of the most important benefits open-source intelligence comes with is that it helps you prioritize your time and tasks. Keeping in mind that open-source data is available to the general public in an accessible way, companies and businesses need to focus their efforts on protecting themselves. Taking security measures is important because open-source intelligence comes with a disadvantage too. 

Its data is collected not only from Google, Yahoo, Bing, or other search engines that give you access to tons of websites and data. These search engines cannot access and index the dark web in their searches, but people should know that the information on the dark web is open source. Meaning that it is readily available to the public. 

Having so much data public and available inevitably leads to its misuse. Even though companies and businesses around the world might use the data to develop intelligence projects or develop custom features, other actors involved might use it for a bad purpose. They might try to penetrate the security systems of important companies, steal important and confidential data, and even break into smart home security systems. 

And because all these are possible with the help of open-source intelligence, you can turn a disadvantage into an advantage. You can prioritize your time and tasks so that you will develop and ensure good protection measures. You can identify the threats in your security system and solve them. Open-source intelligence can show you what is not so secure and safe in your business and help you solve these issues. 

3. It Can Be Accessed Anytime and From Everywhere 

One of the most important benefits of using open source intelligence is that it can be accessed anytime and from everywhere. Forget about the traditional methods of gathering and analyzing data. Open source provides you with public data that can be used to support decisions within the company. 

This makes it easy to use and incorporate in your internal process. At the same time, it comes with the flexibility many companies and businesses are looking after. Especially during these times when most of them have shifted their activities online and people are working remotely. 

4. It Is Cheap

Another benefit of using open source intelligence is the fact that it is cheap. When a business or company like assignment help needs to collect data on specific topics, using traditional information collecting tools might turn out to be more expensive than using an open-source. 

Among the traditional information collecting tools are surveys, questionnaires, focus groups, case studies, observation, and so on. Besides the high costs of organizing these opportunities for collecting data, it also takes a lot of time to collect, group, and analyze the data you gather. 

On the other side, open-source offers you the information you need without having these high costs involved. Which is awesome, especially for businesses that want to save some money. 

5. It Offers Protection 

Open-source intelligence is not only about breaches in the security of software systems but also about protection. The protection of your business, data, information, and employees too. Businesses and companies are usually sending some of their employees in a delegation to other countries or cities. Or maybe the CEO of the company has a business meeting in another country, so keeping him and other employees safe is mandatory. 

Open source gives you access to all the data you need to plan a safe and secure business trip. For example, you can see if the airports had issues in the last time or if they are closed. You can get information about fires in the city or events that might affect the business trip. You can get information on whether someone follows your devices, steals information, and publicly uses it on the dark web. 

Even though it comes with disadvantages too, open-source intelligence has some indispensable benefits. 

Conclusion 

With the rise of technology and software, open-source intelligence was born. We all know that data that is secret, leaked, or obtained from clandestine sources cannot be used freely. So, open-source data is free to use by everyone and it is public to anyone interested. The data is collected from search engines such as Google, but also the dark web. 

And using open source intelligence comes with benefits. It helps you protect your business and employees, plan safe and secure business trips, and it can be accessed from anywhere, a detail very important in the coronavirus pandemic context. At the same time, open-source intelligence helps you prioritize your tasks and time and identify possible security breaches to solve important and essential issues. 

Businesses and companies need to keep in mind the fact that open-source intelligence is available to anyone, and some people might want to use it with a bad purpose. Be one step ahead of them.