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Home > Security Information > Intelligence > CIA Open Source Center
The CIA is monitoring information found on the Internet and in social media in its intelligence gathering effort. The agency's Open Source Center monitors all sorts of Internet activity to include social media (Facebook, Linked In, Twitter, blogs), newspapers, news web sites, chat rooms, and more. A remarkable amount of intelligence found in classified reports can also be found in open sources such as newspapers, television, radio, and the Internet. This type of intelligence gathering is not new and is usually referred to as OSINT or Open Source Intelligence. See WikipediA for more information about "open-source intelligence". The CIA also has a good description of OSINT. The Open Source Center was set up as a result of the 9/11 Commission for the purpose of gathering information on counterproliferation and counterterrorism. The value of OSINT is that it is very accessible (via the Internet) and there is lots of it. OSINT can point analysts to early breaking news and allow the agency to target their more classified intel gathering methods (HUMINT, SIGINT, IMINT, GEOINT, etc.) against the situation. On the flip side OSINT can help verify or confirm information collected by more classified means - giving the analyst a higher degree of confidence in the information. Many of the analysts are conversant in the language of the country they are monitoring. The analysts resemble computer nerds more than a James Bond and most speak a foreign language (or their native language). The information obtained is cross-reference with information gathered from more sophisticated and classified methods. The analysts likely use persona management software to hide their identity as they roam the Internet. You can view a CIA recruitment document for an "Open Source Officer" here. There seems to also be an entity called the "Open Source Works". This organizaton is " . . . an independent CIA unit that draws on the expertise of uncleared analysts with in-country experience and advanced, often native language skills to mine open-source information for new insights on intelligence issues. Open Source Works products are based on unclassified information and do not represent the coordinated views of the Central Intelligence Agency". 1. The CIA is reluctant to acknowledge the existance of the Open Source Works. 2. In fact, if you navigate their website (www.cia.gov) you will not find a reference to the entity. However, there are unclassified CIA documents that refer to the "Open Source Works" - click here for an example found on the Federated American Scientists web site. The "Open Source Center" can be accessed at www.opensource.gov. This organization is the successor to the Foreign Broadcast Information Service (FBIS) and comes under the direction of the Director of National Intelligence (DNI). See WikipediA for more information about FBIS.
December 12, 2011. "Charter of Open Source Org is Classified, CIA Says". Secrecy News. November 7, 2011. "Gasp! The CIA uses open-source intelligence!". Google News. November 4, 2011. "CIA following Twitter, Facebook". Yahoo! News. August 27, 2009. "For Intelligence Officers, A Wiki Way to Connect Dots". The Washington Post. November 21, 2008. "When Everyone Can Mine Your Data". Forbes.com. September 12, 2008. "Spy Agencies Turn to Newspapers, NPR, and Wikipedia for Information". US News and World Report. April 14, 2007. "Sailing the Sea of OSINT in the Information Age". CIA. November 3, 2006. "Remaking U.S. Intelligence - Part V: The Analysts". US News and World Report. April 18, 2006. "CIA mines 'rich' content from blogs". The Washington Times. March 17, 2006. "Intelligence units mine the benefits of public sources". Government Computer News. November 8, 2005. "Establishment of the DNI Open Source Center". Central Intelligence Agency. November 8, 2005. "ODNI Announces Establishment of Open Source Center". Director of National Intelligence.
1. See a document entitled "Afghanistan: Lessons of the Soviet War", OSW-2008-0009, 27 March 2009 posted on the publicintelligence.net web site. Accessed here January 2012. 2. See letter from CIA refusing to provide any information under the FOIA about the Open Source Center posted on Federation of American Scientists web site. Accessed here January 2012.
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