Glossary · May 2026

What is OSINT (Open-Source Intelligence)?

OSINT (open-source intelligence) is the collection and analysis of publicly available information — news, social media, public records, satellite imagery, online forums — for intelligence purposes.

Long definition

OSINT originated as a defense-intelligence discipline and has expanded into journalism, corporate security, fraud investigation, and competitive analysis. Practitioners use a stack of tools: search engines, social media APIs, public-records databases, and increasingly AI-powered monitoring to flag relevant new information. The best OSINT operators combine broad automated monitoring with disciplined manual investigation.

Examples

  • Journalists tracking a public figure's social media for changes in posting pattern.
  • Security teams monitoring threat-actor forum posts.
  • Investigators tracking court filings, corporate registries, and property records.

How Ayewatch handles it

AyeWatch is a workhorse for one-person OSINT desks: it watches the surface web continuously and surfaces only meaningful new items, freeing the investigator to focus on analysis instead of refresh-button work.

Related terms

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