OSINT TREND 01

FACTORS Crowdsourced

OSINT
FORECASTS FOR
Horizon Trend type SCOPE Many ambitious projects have ultimately been

2023 AND BEYOND

short-term 2023-2024 technologica nich accomplished through the remarkable power of
( )

the hive mind, and even recognized brands have

mid-term 2025-2029 social professional industry-wide

Horizon
utilized the concept to generate new products of
( )

/ mid-term
huge popularity, boosting sales. Now it’s OSINT’s
long-term (2030 and beyond) cross-industry
turn. With zettabytes to sift through, open data

BY SOCIAL LINKS

gathering and analysis can represent an

Trend type
immense task. But the collective approach of
technological
crowdsourcing can make such work manageable.

Probability Impact
possible

local

Scope

industry-wide

probable

significan t

very likely industry-shifting Probability

probabl e

Interested in learning more about the benefits

of OSINT solutions? Book a demo with us and
we'll give you a personal tour of our products book a demo Impact

significant
while answering any questions you may have.

02 Horizon

short-term
‘ Amateur
OSINT
that they could assist the FBI with data collection
and analysis. Some then started studying more
advanced techniques. It seems that OSINT
’

In the wake of the Capitol Riot, regular folk realized

03 Horizon

mid-term
OSINT in

the Courts
Many doubt the value of OSINT in a legal
capacity, questioning its reliability as information
and evidence. However, OSINT tools help to solve
many criminal cases, with some solutions even
04 Horizon

short-term
ADeI
livers Next-Level
Au tomation
The break-neck speed of AI development is
providing huge opportunities for the OSINT
sphere, where the oceans of information an
practices are spreading organically among the providing court-ready reports. General trends analyst needs to filter and process is seriously
masses. Such movements are also being picked up show a rise in the use of OSINT solutions for CSR daunting. The manifold modes of automation
by mass culture, further popularizing amateur and ESG cases, and legal firms are increasingly that machine learning makes possible will make
Trend type

socia l/ OSINT projects and generating more enthusiasts. Trend type

socia l/ employing OSINT as a key tool for collecting

Trend type

technological AI an ever more indispensable part of the OSINT

p ro f essiona l p ro f essiona l
evidence and building legal cases. picture moving forward.

Scope
Scope
Scope

niche cross-industry cross-industry

Probability
Probability
Probability

probabl e possibl e very likely

Impact
Impact
Impact

local significant industry-shif ting

05 Mobile Apps:

06 07
Improved Intell igence
The Next Big Geopositioning
Community
Territory for
Tech Advances
Champions OSINT as
OSINT Analysts OSINT Tools All-Round Solu tion
Horizon

short-term
Where will OSINT spread to next? Our hunch
the realm of mobile apps. Apps and services
— Horizon

mid-term
Geolocation technologies are getting better and
better at extrapolating geoposition from photos Horizon

such as Clubhouse, Strava, and Spotify offer
deliver astonishing accuracy in a market which is
a mine of untapped open data. Meanwhile, ever
Trend type
more lifestyle apps are continually appearing
Trend type
intelligence takes on ever more importance, the
solutions allows these governments to run
technological
on the market. Usage data from such sources is
bound to become part of the average digital
footprint, and OSINT vendors will need to
long-term
In terms of cost-to-effectiveness ratio, OSINT
solutions are pretty hard to top. National
and videos, while satellite imaging is starting to intelligence services run up massive costs, and
for a lot of small states, keeping such bureaus in
expected to reach $7.08B by 2027. As geo- operation is prohibitively expensive. OSINT
Trend type
technological
advanced development of image recognition
socia l/
p ro f essiona l effective national intelligence services, improve
promises to be a new goldmine both for content their national security, and become valuable
creators and analysts alike.
members of the global intelligence community.

Scope

industry-wide
provide this data. Scope

niche
Scope

cross-industry

Probability
Probability
Probability

HIGH probable probabl e

Impact
Impact
G e o lo c at i o n t e c h n o lo g i e s
Impact

significant local industry-shif ting

market by year 2027

08 09 10
Chat bots OSINT Becomes Key to The Rise of

Employed for

Data Retrieval
Monitoring Gaming
With 8 out of 10 people having at some point
interacted with one, chatbots have become part

Pandemics
The World Health Organization’s Program for
Intell igence
Boasting 3.2B players around the world, the
Horizon

short-term of the online furniture. Companies use them to Horizon

short-term Monitoring Emerging Diseases already employs Horizon

mid-term gaming demographic is truly enormous. It is also

interface with clients, and developers to interact OSINT to detect new outbreaks, which it home to extremist recruitment, financial fraud and
with websites and other chatbots. Now, OSINT successfully does earlier than the local public money-laundering. The immense volumes of data
software can employ chatbots as information health institutions. In pandemics of the future, generated by the gaming sphere all represent
Trend type

technological harvesters, automatically retrieving website and Trend type

socia l/ governments, authorities, and public health Trend type

technological useful material for the analyst. Soon, gaming

app data, which can be used to enrich various p ro f essiona l
institutions will need to take OSINT seriously as a platform analytics will become an essential
investigations. Watch this space. resource for monitoring viral spread and figuring feature of open-source intelligence solutions.
Scope
Scope

out the most effective countermeasures. Scope

niche niche cross-industry

Probability
Probability
Probability

possibl e probabl e probable

Impact
8 out of 10 people Impact
Impact
p l ay e r s
a r o u n d

significant interacted w i t h c h at b ot s local industry-shif ting the world

11 Horizon

mid-term
OSINT Spearheads
Fake News
DetectionY
According to research by Ernst and
86% of internet users cannot distinguish between
oung,

12 Horizon

mid-term
A Tightening of
Data Privacy
Regul ations
This feels kind of inevitable. Afterall, 69% of the
world’s countries have data privacy and
13 Horizon

short-term
Leaked Conference
Call Data:

a New Hazard

and OSINT Source

Over 80% of the global workforce are now active
users of corporate chat apps such as Slack, and
72% of companies employ video conferencing tools
fake and genuine news. Today, phony articles are protection regulations already in place, and

effective tools in political campaigns, commercial like Zoom. Through sheer ubiquity, such platforms
battles, and even PsyOps. As impacted parties look a further 10% have draft legislations. At the same are bound to suffer breaches, and OSINT systems
Trend type

for an answer to such techniques, OSINT tools are Trend type

time, the average total cost of a data breach
Trend type
therefore need to offer ever more advanced tools
technological
coming to the fore as effective counterintelligence
socia l/
p ro f essiona l has now hit a staggering $4.35M, making technological
for video analysis and NLP, to swiftly detect such
solutions in the fight against disinformation.
organizations more concerned than ever about leaks and minimize their costs.

their data security policy.

Scope
Scope
Scope

69%
niche industry-wide industry-wide

Probability

probabl e

Impact

86%
o f i n t e r n e t u s e r s

c a n n o t d i s t i n g u i s h

b e t w e e n f a k e a n d

Probability

very likely

Impact

of the world’s
c o u n t r i e s h a v e

d ata p r i v a c y a n d
10% of the world’s
countrieS have
d r a f t l e g i s l at i o n s
Probability

very likely

Impact

80% 72%
of the global
workforce are active
of companies
employ video
conferencing
significant genuine news significant protection av e r a g e tota l c o s t significant u s e r s o f c o r p o r a t e

r e g u l at i o n s o f a d ata b r e a c h c h at a p p s tools

14 Horizon

long-term
Leaked Biometric
Data Meets

Digital Forensics
Leaks containing biometric information such as
facial recognition data could pave the way for more
advanced forms of OSINT investigation. Among the
various facial recognition systems out there, the
15 Horizon

mid-term
Data Vulnerabilities
Spiral Due to

IoT Popularity
There are now over 13B web-connected devices
globally, and this figure is set to hit 29B by 2030.
Yet, most IoT devices have extremely sketchy
security and are frequent sources of data leaks.
16 Horizon

long-term
Widespread

Cyber Security
Awareness
Nearly 85% of data breaches come about through
human error. And while most companies do already
indicate higher levels of cyber security awareness,
these are still a far cry from representing truly
most efficient now have an accuracy rate of over With data compromises becoming a perpetual effective safeguards. But with profit margins and
98%. These are impressive results, and OSINT issue, the relevance of OSINT will expand, helping capital at stake, there is a real incentive for
Trend type

systems will doubtless be under commercial Trend type

organizations promptly identify breaches to Trend type

awareness to grow, and with it the demand for

socia l/ pressure to incorporate algorithms that can match technological minimize losses.
socia l/ OSINT tools, which can help identify those who are
p ro f essiona l
such accuracy.
p ro f essiona l
most in need of cyber security training.
Scope
Scope
Scope

industry-wide industry-wide Cross-industry

85%
Probability
Probability
Probability

probabl e probabl e very likely

a c c u r a c y r a t e
o f d a t a b r e a c h e s

Impact
of THE MOST EFFICIENT Impact
web-connected web-connected Impact
c o m e a b o u t t h r o u g h

industry-shif ting fac i a l r ec o g n i t i o n significant d e v i c e s g l o b a l ly d e v i c e s g l o b a l l y

significant human error
systems now by 2030

17 OSINT-

18 OSINT Branches
Interested in learning more Hungry for more details?
about the benefits of OSINT We’ve posted an
into Fashion Trend solutions? Book a demo with extended version of
for-Hire Watching
The fashion industry has a CAGR of 9.14% and

us and we'll give you a

personal tour of our products
while answering any questions
OSINT trends on our blog.

OSINT analysts are highly sought after, and you may have. Just follow this
don’t come cheap. The average base salary is projected to reach over $1.5T by 2027.
link, or scan the QR code.
Horizon

for a US-based OSINT specialist is around Horizon

The companies on this market rely heavily on

mid-term $125k, making them just too expensive for a lot
of organizations. The natural solution to this is
outsourcing. So, we may well start to see
Trend type
platforms where organizations can reach out
long-term consumer sentiment and trend analysis to get an
edge on the competition. With its public sentiment
analysis methods, OSINT could well offer game-
Trend type

changing possibilities, especially in the fast fashion book a demo READ ARTICLE
socia l/ to OSINT professionals for specific projects.
socia l/ segment, which is fundamentally based on of-the-
p ro f essiona l p ro f essiona l
moment consumer preference.
Scope
Scope

industry-wide cross-industry

fa s h i o n i n d u s t ry C AG R
Probability

very likely
Probability

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Impact
Impact
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