FIND IT, VET IT, SHARE IT: THE US GOVERNMENT’S OPEN-SOURCE INTELLIGENCE PROBLEM AND HOW TO FIX IT
Brian Cheng, Scott Fisher and Jason C. Morgan | 03.24.23
When Russia launched its latest invasion of Ukraine early in the morning of February 24, 2022, we were serving as information operations planners for the US European Command Information Operations and Special Activities Division. Army reservists, we had arrived at EUCOM in September 2021 and soon after were assigned to help develop response plans in case of a Russian invasion. When that invasion occurred, our task shifted to rapidly operationalizing those plans. These efforts included working with interagency partners both before and after the invasion to combat Russian disinformation and help inform international audiences of Russian activities, in what some considered a “ramped up” US information warfare effort.
Throughout this process we routinely faced challenges in maximizing the value of open-source information. More specifically, we encountered problems in three areas: collection, vetting and analysis, and sharing content. We attempted several methods to address these deficiencies, with varying degrees of success, but our experiences laid bare a fundamental truth: better solutions are required to ensure US and ally information warfare capabilities are prepared for future crises.
Open-Source Challenges
As the war began it was critical to collect, rapidly vet, and then share open-source content that would support US and partner messaging efforts. A subset of this task came through our work with members of EUCOM’s judge advocate general—collecting, vetting, and properly storing content that could serve as evidence of possible Russian war crimes. Using online content as evidence in international legal tribunals is relatively new, and collecting it quickly became an interesting, but often disgusting, part of our work. Teaming with the judge advocate general also assisted us as we navigated the Geneva Conventions’ messaging-related restrictions, which our leadership had strongly emphasized.
As we set out to collect, vet, and share information, we quickly realized the scope of the challenges we faced in each of those three areas.
https://mwi.usma.edu/find-it-vet-it-share-it-the-us-governments-open-source-intelligence-problem-and-how-to-fix-it/
