Definition
OSINT is the use of publicly available material to build a verifiable picture of an event. The defining feature is reproducibility: the inputs are public, the reasoning is documented, and a sufficiently motivated reader can check the work.
Sources used
- Satellite imagery (commercial: Planet, Maxar, Airbus).
- Social media (videos, photos, livestreams, with metadata).
- Maritime tracking (AIS — MarineTraffic, VesselFinder).
- Aviation tracking (ADS-B — ADS-B Exchange, FlightRadar24).
- Sanctions lists (OFAC, EU Council, UK Treasury).
- Court filings, customs records, corporate registries.
- Government press releases and official transcripts.
What makes it different from journalism
- Reasoning is documented in detail. A reader can follow the chain from input to conclusion.
- Methods are publishable. The same technique can be applied to the next incident.
- Conclusions are limited to what the inputs support. Strong OSINT investigators routinely flag what they could not determine.