Compared with other types of intelligence work, the value of open source intelligence work is reflected in three aspects.
- 1 The cost of intelligence collection is small and the risk is low
(1) The economic cost of open source intelligence is low. Some experts [3] even believe that compared with other intelligence tools such as satellites, investment in open source intelligence can achieve greater returns. Therefore, for countries with tight intelligence budgets, , it is completely possible to use open source intelligence to replace traditional secret intelligence work.
(2) Reduce the workload of intelligence collection. Traditional intelligence work requires professionals to collect intelligence, which is costly. By using Web2.0 mechanisms such as Wikipedia, all personnel within the organization and those in society who are interested in the topic can be mobilized to jointly collect intelligence, and the cost of intelligence is greatly reduced.
(3) Open source intelligence work is almost risk-free. For enterprises and social institutions, open source intelligence can avoid the risks of illegal or ethical violations that may exist in other intelligence work; for countries, open source intelligence can avoid diplomatic disputes that often arise from other types of intelligence work.
- 2 Open source intelligence content is richer
(1) The ever-changing nature of intelligence forces intelligence personnel to understand foreign societies and cultures quickly and easily. Current threat sources are rapidly changing and geographically dispersed. Intelligence analysis work often switches from one topic to another quickly. Intelligence experts need to quickly digest social, economic and cultural information about a country. Open source intelligence can provide these details.
(2) Intelligence personnel need to use open source intelligence to understand those secret intelligence. Although intelligence personnel create a large amount of secret information, the amount of secret information related to a certain topic is always limited. The secret information obtained by intelligence agencies is often just a fragment of information. If only based on the content of these secret information, without sufficient context, it is often difficult for intelligence personnel to understand the meaning of a certain piece of information. Open source intelligence can provide supplements, allowing intelligence personnel to have a grasp of relevant intelligence and truly understand the content of a certain secret intelligence.
(3) Open source intelligence helps study long-term problems. Because secret intelligence is often fragmented and only serves specific needs, it is often inconsistent. Open source intelligence can be continuously obtained through public channels and can form a long time series of information, so long-term patterns and trends of something can be studied from it.
- 3 Open source intelligence work is concealed
(1) It can protect intelligence sources and intelligence methods [4].
Sometimes people obtain intelligence from secret intelligence channels, but when explaining it to the public or negotiating with opponents, they can explain it as obtained from open source intelligence channels, which can avoid exposing secret intelligence sources and intelligence channels.
(2) It can protect its own strategic intentions.
Traditional intelligence work often requires the use of various manual or technical means to conduct intelligence spying on the other party’s system. Once traces are discovered by the other party, the other party can infer one’s intentions based on the intelligence search content. However, open source intelligence work is completely conducted within one’s own country or organization. , the other party cannot detect it, and naturally there is no way to infer its own intentions.
Of course, due to the source of open source intelligence, it also has many shortcomings:
(1) The amount of information is large and information overload requires a lot of energy to filter out useful information. Although there are many IT products for information extraction and filtering, in actual work, a large amount of manpower is still needed to engage in open source intelligence screening.
(2) The authenticity of the information is difficult to determine. First of all, information on public media such as newspapers and the Internet is often very arbitrary, mixed, and unreliable. Secondly, some countries and social institutions may deliberately spread false information for certain purposes. For this reason, open source intelligence work often requires confirmation of the intelligence obtained from different sources.