Have you ever thought about how finance workers build their competitive edge? OSINT (Open-Source Intelligence) is an impressive set of techniques that can help.
A famous financial analyst Jane Doe said: “The successful finance professionals are the ones who can find the pearl at the end of the sea of public information.”
OSINT techniques are useful in helping finance professionals collect information from the internet, analyze it, and use it to gain a competitive advantage.
They are used in all manners and types of internet and offline information to extract important information that forms business-critical choices.
In this article, we’ll look into the world of OSINT and learn how finance professionals can apply it to their careers.
Tools and Tactics of OSINT
OSINT is how people can obtain information from the public domain, including websites, social media, and records searches.
The OSINT industries digital footprint assists finance professionals in finding useful information.
This could include things such as evaluating an organization’s social media presence or a task of discovering new data resources.
Bonus: Read more on our website to learn how this OSINT framework can change finance processes.
Open Source Intelligence
Open-source intelligence is learning with publicly available information. This information can come from many different places, for instance, from the internet, social networks, or government papers.
OSINT enables finance professionals to gather information about a particular area, which they can apply to finance by formulating better business decisions.
In 2023, the OSINT market was valued at over $5 billion, and it is anticipated to continue growing over the next several years.
The Role of OSINT in Finance
OSINT industries are helpful for those who work in the financial industry. It enables them to access information that can be challenging to come across.
They can apply OSINT to a company to learn how it performs in that particular sector. OSINT can also be used to discover new and different data sources from which the analyst can get a new perspective.
As of 2023, about 67% of financial professionals now incorporate OSINT in their decisions. It is useful in ensuring finance professionals compete better and make better decisions.
Web Scraping for Financial Data
Web scraping relies on complex software applications that can be used to pull data from websites.
They are capable of using web scraping to gather financial information, such as prices of a certain stock or earnings from a company.
OSINT techniques enable them to gather some information that might be difficult to obtain otherwise.
The web scraping market is expected to grow at a rate of 29% in the next few years following its worldwide forecast of approximately USD 6.7 billion in the year 2025.
Social Media Monitoring
Social media also fall under OSINT. Finance professionals can use it to figure out what people are saying about firms or sectors.
They can use it to search for trends, sentiment, and all that kind of stuff that could be beneficial. That is why they can follow important updates in the sphere of finance by keeping an eye on social media.
Social media in 2023 connected more than 3.5 Billion people worldwide, giving out huge amounts of real-time data.
Corporation Records and Official Papers
Another OSINT industries alternative method for finance is researching corporations and filing disclosures.
It consists of many details about companies, particularly their balance sheet and ownership structures.
This information will benefit finance professionals who want to research some companies and industries so that they can be in a position to make the right decisions.
Such a popular market as the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) registers and considers more than 10,000 filings per year, which creates a wealth of material for analysis.
Using OSINT Towards Risk Evaluation
OSINT is helpful in evaluating financial risks. With OSINT, targets like details regarding a company’s financial position or its legal troubles are identifiable by finance professionals.
They can analyze the digital presence of a company, search for other data sources, and scour the public records.
All the information enables them to familiarize themselves with the risk levels before making vital decisions.
By 2023, more than 80% of financial institutions claim to integrate OSINT tools into risk management and due diligence improvement.
Due Diligence Surveillance using OSINT
OSINT is also helpful for doing aml background checks, such as business or personal investigations.
By employing OSINT industries search, finance professionals can enhance firm or personal investigation or gather more information about specific transactions.
They can surf the Internet in search of some information, run criminal record checks, and spy on suspects on social sites. It helps them reveal key aspects that might be hidden to a layman.
Through this type of collection, they are provided with a fuller picture, which is necessary for strategic financial planning.
