The Significance of Open Source Intelligence for Retailers

By CIOReview | Friday, May 31, 2019

FREMONT, CA: Open Source Intelligence (ONSIT) involves the collection and analysis of information obtained from open or overt sources. ONSIT is used for law enforcement, national security, and business intelligence purposes.

Retail organizations are using ONSIT to filter across billions of online posts to gain insights for their security purposes. With an increase in cyber threats, retailers are preparing themselves to protect their valuable data from the attackers that seek to steal sensitive information for commercial gains.

ONSIT and Retail Enterprises

According to a study by Zion market research, by 2026, the ONSIT market is expected to be worth upwards of $26 billion. Retail enterprises are planning to leverage it for asset protection, safety and security, event monitoring, internal and external fraud, and brand reputation.

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The Role of Social Media

Bloggers, consumers, newsmakers, and social media users generate billions of publicly available content every day. It's essential to use such insights for understanding the public sentiment in case of adverse incidents, or for identifying threats in parking lots or within the stores. Security teams can combine geographic area monitoring with keyword and image detection, and provide advanced filtering tools for crisis preparedness and response, multiple news source monitoring, workplace violation prevention, and consultative intelligence.

Dark Web Access

It is critical for retailers to access the dark web safely to collect the information to identify, investigate, and act on malicious activity. Most of the IT security teams do not have safe access to dark web tools, while others are not sure where to begin. Thus it’s essential to take help from an expert search engine like Beacon that removes the limitations mentioned above and provides safe access to over six million dark web posts per month. 

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Instant Visibility with Open Source Data

Using ONSIT tools to detect brand names and key individuals online on the dark web is critical. The application of ONSIT goes much beyond asset protection and loss minimization. Other applications include protecting executives and employees during travel, sourcing operations, and situational awareness during the shareholders meeting.

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