In this section, you will find some differences and similarities between OSINT and similar terms and acronyms you might find. Note that there are multiple approaches to explain the differences between one field and the other, and the discussion about the difference between these terms is still open. The following table briefly defines each acronym:

In recent years, other subset versions of OSINT have been created that delve into specialized areas of Open Source intelligence such as “SOCMINT” (Social Media Intelligence). However, for the purposes of this material, we will refer to all publicly available information, including material collected from social media as Open Source Intelligence or “OSINT”.

If you want to discover more insights about the difference between these and other terms, we invite you to visit one of our 2024 webinars, “Building Open Source Information Collection (OSIC) Frameworks featuring Alex Bruce.