Using OSINT To Monitor The War In Ukraine
The role of open source intelligence in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has attracted significant interest and the US Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) has been relying on public and commercially available information to keep eyes on Russian attacks in Ukraine.
The DIA recently invited a group of reporters to see recovered remnants of unmanned aerial vehicles made in Iran and used by Russia in its war on Ukraine, and they said thsat open-source intelligence has played “an outsized” and “critical” role in gathering information.
“When we get a requirement, in this case, monitoring the Russian military and their aggression, the general public around the world is our source,” a senior defense intelligence official told reporters.
“There's a lot more data outside in the world than there is that the IC’s collected, and so we're getting better organised to use it, and it's paying great dividends to understand what's happening.”
The White House has shown that there are increased defense ties between Iran and Russia, and DIA confirmed Russia was using Iran-made drones earlier this year.
Iran said that in 2022 it sent Russia drones,but that was before the war started, and they have denied continued involvement, despite some statements that it was still sending materials and working with Russia to build a factory.
Analysts showed reporters drone parts from the Middle East and Ukraine that were known to be Iran-made and explained some of their classified intel with information that had already been made public.
News reports in April 2022 were the first indication, defense intelligence officials said. But one of the key uses of open-source intelligence is inspiration.
The data often comes from social media, news reports, and commercially available databases, among other sources with a focus on foreign military targets.
A growing constellation of researchers, from academia, civil society and commercial organisations to law enforcement and the UK government, offer regular assessments on everything related to the war using publicly available information.
The sharing of open-source intelligence on social media has raised ethical concerns, including over the sharing of graphic images of bodies and of potentially military-sensitive data.
Matthew Ford of the University of Sussex has noted that "Ukrainians fear such images will reveal their tactics, techniques, and procedures," and that Ukrainians have therefore undertaken a degree of self-censorship.
Concerns have also been raised about the potential dissemination of misinformation, such as through fake accounts posing as insider sources.
Defense Intelligence Agency: Defense One: Wikipedia: Forecast International: The Economist: RUSI
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