The OSINT Library

On this page we collect academic and professional books, articles and papers that can be relevant or interesting to read on the (wider) topic of Open Source Intelligence. Some are already a bit older and maybe do not contain current content (anymore). Those remain on the list for historical purposes to show the development of OSINT within the intelligence studies discipline. Others may have a title in which the word OSINT does not appear, however, rest assured, all articles and books relate to the (historical) use of OSINT in some form or way.

You will also notice resources that focus more on intelligence analysis. These are added with a view to balance the predominant focus on the (technical) collection challenges as usually found in publications on OSINT.

Obviously, this page is never finished, so you may want to revisit sometimes (pro tip: use VisualPing or Versionista to monitor this page for changes). Suggestions for titles to include are welcome, especially from before the year 2000 when OSINT was still emerging and especially in languages other than English as the list (and the OSINT field) currently seems somewhat Anglocentric.

Where possible we will include a link to the original source and otherwise the articles / books are available via your (university) library or a proper search. If you really cannot find a specific article, feel free to contact me. [last updated: 15 September 2024]

Techniques

This section contains the publications which are focussed more on collection techniques, often with an overlap into digital forensics.