OSINT, Commercial Data USNP

3 Credits · Level: Graduate

The world of data has exploded—opening up new opportunities in open-source intelligence (OSINT) and commercial data use, creating new privacy and security threats, and challenging long-held assumptions about US national security policy. This course will dive into the worlds of OSINT and commercial data, examining new technologies and information sources and how they impact and intersect with US military, intelligence, and national security policy and strategy. It will expose students to industries ranging from data brokers to mobile ad networks to commercial satellite providers. It will cover case studies across counterterrorism, cyber defense, war crimes analysis, and nuclear weapons tracking. And it will explore how foreign adversaries such as China and Russia are leveraging OSINT, including in an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven era—and challenge students to think critically, deeply, and originally about this frontier of technology, data, and national security policy. Students will be evaluated through written assignments, briefings, and in-class exercises. No prior technical knowledge is required to take this course. For those who have taken or are interested in taking the hands-on OSINT class ( SEST 6650 ), this course, rather than a hands-on-the-keyboard focus, will focus more on strategy, policy, and operational case studies.