Library of Parliament Document on Growing Importance of Open-Source Intelligence

The Library of Parliament in Ottawa recently published an explanation of The Growing Importance of Open-Source Intelligence to National Security:

"Until recently, open-source intelligence (OSINT) – publicly available information that has been processed into intelligence – was typically derived from foreign broadcasts and publications."

"Today, OSINT is a changed discipline. Social media platforms, smartphones and Internet of Things devices have exponentially increased the volume and variety of available information. Commercial cloud solutions have driven down the cost of data storage and created a market for 'machine learning as a service.' Finally, advancements in microchip design have augmented data processing power, with quantum computers promising more. Consequently, publicly available information is now collected in bulk, with the aim of applying big data analytics – including ML – to generate insight."

"CSE [Communications Security Establishment] is not the only government institution collecting and analyzing publicly available information. However, its legal mandate provides the only explicit definition of 'publicly available information' apart from existing privacy law."