Join the fastest-growing field in intelligence with an OSINT career.
OSINT may be free to do, but there’s big money in doing it. As the Open Source Intelligence (OSINT) market skyrockets in value – up to approximately $14.4 billion, and projected to reach $58bn by 2033 – an OSINT career is becoming a lucrative option for those with the skills required. This boom in OSINT jobs isn’t likely to change anytime soon, either. The OSINT market has seen a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 15.93% in 2024; for comparison, cybersecurity boasts a CAGR of only 7.6%
Today, 80-90% of law enforcement agencies use OSINT as a part of their investigation process. This puts demand for OSINT practitioners - skilled analysts with this intel at their fingertips - at an all-time high.
Industry hunger for OSINT skills isn’t only rising in law enforcement and cybersecurity; modern organizations prioritize proactive threat detection and data-driven decision-making, triggering an explosion of career opportunities for professionals adept in OSINT. From corporate intelligence to journalism and beyond, the future is open-source.
How can an OSINT-savvy analyst take advantage of these opportunities? Let’s go through the essentials of pursuing a career in OSINT.
Who is an OSINT Professional?
An OSINT professional is a practitioner actively pursuing an OSINT career. OSINT professionals are those with a firm grasp of OSINT; skilled investigative analysts who leverage publicly available information to answer complex questions and solve problems at the highest level. An OSINT professional is a professional digital investigator who specializes in uncovering insights from existing data sources.
What sets OSINT professionals apart from casual cybersleuths and OSINT hobbyists is their honed expertise in systematically collecting, analyzing, and interpreting data.
Professional-grade OSINT work goes beyond surface-level searches, combining advanced technical work online with impressive offline skills in analysis and pattern recognition. These human skills are as important as computer know-how. Professional OSINT work demands a high level of patience, critical thinking, and meticulous attention to detail; skills that take years of specialized training and practical experience to gain.
The range of OSINT jobs out there is diverse and dynamic - data analysis, cybersecurity, or investigative roles. There's a world of opportunities waiting for skilled OSINT professionals, each with their open specialisms and requirements.
OSINT Careers: Law Enforcement
Law enforcement use OSINT every day to uncover hidden networks, track criminal activity across borders, and collect evidence. From identifying fraud schemes to disrupting organized crime, OSINT is presenting solutions to previously unsolvable cases.
An OSINT career in law enforcement allows you to embody #OSINT4Good. OSINT professionals in law enforcement will gather, analyze, and interpret publicly available data to make the world a better place. If you’re seeking an impactful OSINT job with the capacity to change lives, law enforcement OSINT careers will allow you to employ the following techniques to get justice for victims, wherever they may be.
Social Media Intelligence (SOCMINT)
Law enforcement regularly use SOCMINT processes – leveraging platforms from Facebook to Instagram to Telegram – to identify suspects and gather evidence. For example, following the U.S. Capitol riot, federal and state police departments used social media posts to identify the culprits, showcasing a textbook application of OSINT techniques to enforce the law.
Tracking Digital Footprints
Every online activity contributes to a digital footprint — an extensive trail of information that a smart OSINT analyst can use to track or even hunt down a suspect. OSINT analysts working in law enforcement will leverage this data to construct detailed profiles of suspects. These footprints become a code to crack by systematically connecting what appears (to the untrained eye) as disparate pieces of information, to build a comprehensive case.
Advanced Pattern Identification
OSINT professionals in law enforcement possess the highest grade of pattern recognition skills. These are vital in complex cases like human trafficking or terrorism. OSINT analysts working with law enforcement draw on this pattern-spotting skill to facilitate the identification and apprehension of likely extremists; a great example of how law enforcement requires OSINT practice not just to build a case, but to intercept tragedies before they occur.
OSINT Careers: Cybersecurity
Cybercriminals are always finding new ways to attack, and OSINT can play a crucial role in proactively defending against their digital slings and arrows. Consequently, OSINT practitioners are becoming a hot property in the cybersecurity jobs market.
OSINT careers in cybersecurity will see you detect fraud, prevent data breaches, and safeguard digital infrastructures – even those of national value. An OSINT career in cybersecurity is all about protection: protecting organizations and individuals from digital threats that can be devastating to lives and livelihoods. If you’re passionate about stopping cybercrime and the future of cybersecurity, an OSINT job here will see you employing the following techniques.
Threat Intelligence
OSINT is an essential tool for proactive monitoring of cybercriminals. An OSINT analyst in cybersecurity can gain threat intel, tracking adversary techniques and potential attacks, and mitigating risks.
Vulnerabilities within computer systems often show up in publicly available information like chatrooms. Like inspecting a security perimeter for gaps an intruder could squeeze through, OSINT practitioners are uniquely placed to pinpoint blind spots organizations need to reinforce before they’re exploited by bad actors.
Incident Response and Digital Forensics
OSINT can help investigate and respond to cyberattacks. When a breach or attack occurs, OSINT practitioners working in cybersecurity can trace the digital steps left by perpetrators – public data, IP addresses, and more – to determine the attack’s origin, method, and impact. With this intel, organizations can find who’s responsible, quickly contain and remediate threats, and build an evidence packet for potential legal action. This is high-stakes, fast-paced work.
Coding and Automation
If you’re equally skilled in OSINT and coding, automation can manage the vast amounts of data generated in cybersecurity investigations. Code-minded analysts can create and implement systems to analyze large datasets at unparalleled speeds, allowing human analysts to concentrate on strategic decision-making, problem-solving, and catching cybercriminals.
OSINT Careers: Corporate and Financial Investigations
In a corporate OSINT career, you’ll drive strategic decisions, generate risk management strategies, and guard against reputational and financial harm. This career offers the chance to contribute to both an individual business’s organizational security and growth, and a more open and honest business environment as a whole. This is a role for those who care about enhancing financial integrity, fighting scams, protecting valuable assets, and staying ahead of evolving trends in a competitive, dog-eat-dog financial landscape.
If you take the route of financial investigation, you’ll be fighting fraud, spearheading anti-money laundering (AML) operations, hunting down crypto-fuelled criminality and even investigating narcotics and organized crime activity. The following skills and techniques will be required in either corporate or financial OSINT jobs, and often cross over.
Enhanced Due Diligence
Background checking is big business. Organizations preparing to partner with a new company, or hire a new employee can task OSINT professionals with digging deeper into their background. Investigating social media, public records, and online databases, analysts seek out red flags that could cause complications. OSINT due diligence like this protects companies from potential risks, bad publicity or financial woes going forward.
Fraud Prevention
OSINT helps fraud detection specialists spot suspicious activity online. By analysing online behaviour and stringing together patterns, OSINT can help businesses identify potential fraud. This is perfect for anything from catching money launderers in the act, to exposing financial links with terrorism.
Crypto Investigations
Cybercriminals and scammers use the decentralized and anonymized nature of the blockchain to obscure the origin of their ill-gotten gains, utilizing complex transaction patterns, multiple wallets, mixers and privacy coins to launder funds. There is, however, a pathway through OSINT to solving these complex cyberfraud crimes; this is the job of an OSINT practitioner.
Competitive Intelligence and Market Analysis
By following rivals on social media and collecting news data, OSINT can help companies better understand competitors’ moves and strategies, and analyse market trends to identify what’s hot - and what’s not. This can provide a measurable boost to profits. OSINT can also help corporations find potential threats, like corporate espionage, from outside (and inside) their companies too. Plus, OSINT helps companies keep watch on supply chains, making sure everything's running smoothly.
OSINT Careers: Journalism
OSINT is carving out a niche in journalism, with many reporters breaking OSINT-led stories. A tool that can overcome challenges for journalists in the developing world and oppressive regimes, the democratizing power of OSINT can uncover hidden truths and speak them to power. From tracking disinformation campaigns to identifying sources of corruption, OSINT provides the tools to uncover narratives that would otherwise remain unheard.
An OSINT career in journalism allows a practitioner to use skills in gathering, analysing, and interpreting publicly available data to bring transparency to the world. OSINT jobs in investigative journalism are about truth-telling and real-world impact, perfect for analysts who care about fighting fake news and holding the powerful accountable.
Geospatial Intelligence (GEOInt)
The heart of the international investigator’s toolkit, GEOInt involves analyzing geographic data, such as satellite imagery, maps, and location-based data to locate events or incidents. OSINT-powered journalists will constantly employ this skill to verify the location and timeline of news stories and track movements, particularly in conflict zones or for environmental investigations.
Fact-Checking and Verification
In the age of misinformation, OSINT is on the frontline against fake news. OSINT jobs in journalism can specialize in fact-checking and verifying claims from various sources, and stem the flow of lies before they spread. Publicly available data, images, and videos are ideal for cross-referencing; OSINT can determine the authenticity of information, ensuring that news stories are credible and accurate before publication. It can also be deployed to counteract disinformation campaigns, including those by state bad actors.
How Do I Become an OSINT Professional?
Becoming an OSINT practitioner is a dynamic and rewarding career path. If you’re ready to take advantage of opportunities brought by the OSINT boom and embark on one of these OSINT career paths, this journey requires a blend of education, skill development, and hands-on experience.
- Step One: Research
Begin by familiarizing yourself with the finer points of OSINT through online resources, blogs, and communities. Join forums, participate in challenges, and learn the basics before committing to formal training. - Step Two: Hone Your Skills
Refine your technical and analytical skills as much as possible, including pattern recognition, search engine strategies, SOCMINT, and specialized OSINT tools like OSINT Industries. Perfect your Operational Security (OpSec) to stay safe online. - Step Three: Training
Never neglect formal OSINT training. Ideally, pursue a relevant degree (e.g., cybersecurity or intelligence studies) and undertake training programs and OSINT-specific credentials to boost your credibility. - Step Four: Get Practical
Continually develop your OSINT understanding and acquire hands-on professional experience through workshops, internships, or volunteer projects. Build a professional-grade portfolio to showcase your OSINT investigations. - Step Five: Build a Career
At this point, consider committing to one of the paths above. Network within the OSINT community, attend conferences, and highlight your skills on your resume to secure your first role in the OSINT field. From here, you’ve finally made it!
See OSINT in action in our Case Studies.
‘[I] used OSINT to expose a crime group in the Dominican Republic, and tracked down a scammer using only a Strava account…’ - Aidan [Source: OSINT Industries]
Discover law enforcement OSINT in How OSINT Cracks Cases, OSINT for financial investigation in Fighting the Fakers, and many more.
