The Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) unveiled its 2024-2026 Open Source Intelligence (OSINT) Strategy for the Intelligence Community (IC) last week, laying the path to modernize its approach to collecting, creating, and delivering OSINT.
“OSINT, or intelligence derived exclusively from publicly or commercially available information that addresses specific intelligence priorities, requirements, or gaps, is vital to the IC’s mission, providing unique intelligence value and enabling all other intelligence collection disciplines,” the March 8 press release says.
“The IC OSINT Strategy represents the beginning of a long-term process that will professionalize the OSINT discipline, transform intelligence analysis and production, and create new avenues for partnering with brilliant American innovators and like-minded foreign partners,” Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines said in a statement.
The 12-page strategy keys on four strategic focus areas for the IC:
- Coordinate open source data acquisition and expand sharing;
- Establish integrated open source collection management;
- Drive OSINT innovation to deliver new capabilities; and
- Develop the next-generation OSINT workforce and tradecraft.
In addition to the four focus areas, the strategy recognizes that effective and supportive governance and robust partnerships with industry, academia, and foreign counterparts will be essential for success in the OSINT mission and key enablers of the IC OSINT Strategy.
The OSINT functional manager, in partnership with the IC OSINT executive and the defense intelligence enterprise manager for OSINT, will lead the implementation of the strategy, including identifying concrete actions the IC will take to achieve the strategy’s objectives and measure outcomes.
“As the IC’s functional manager for OSINT, I know the critical role that OSINT plays in defending our country and values,” said CIA Director William Burns. “In this pivotal moment, when OSINT is increasingly important and growing in demand, an IC-wide OSINT strategy is key to helping the IC move forward in a coordinated and determined way.”
Given the fast pace of change in the open source environment, the strategy notes that the OSINT community will review the document on an annual basis and develop an iterative action plan each year to guide implementation efforts.
With the release of the Biden administration’s National Cybersecurity Strategy (NCS) one year ago, the open source security movement within the Federal government has flourished.
Following the aftermath of the Log4Shell vulnerability in 2021, the White House established the Open-Source Software Security Initiative (OS3I) interagency working group with the goal of channeling government resources to foster greater open-source software (OSS) security.
The NCS expands and matures the role of the OS3I under its goal “to invest in the development of secure software, including memory-safe languages and software development techniques, frameworks, and testing tools.”
In August 2023, the White House’s Office of the National Cyber Director, alongside the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, kicked off the OSS security initiative under the new NCS by publishing a request for information on OSS security and memory safe languages, which received more than 100 substantive responses.
