Kristin Wood on the Intelligence Value of Open Source Data

March 8, 2023·47 min·3 clips

In the mid-1990s the U.S. chose cyber dominance over information dominance — Russia made the opposite choice, and we're seeing the results everywhere.

The question is institutional, not trendy. Morrell introduces Wood as a former CIA operations and analysis officer who later helped lead innovation and technology work at CIA's Open Source Center. Her subject is the possibility of an open source revolution, but the conversation does not treat that phrase like a bumper sticker. It asks what public data, commercial data, and private sector assessment can really add for intelligence officers and decision makers. COVID gives the discussion its clearest example. Wood describes Google searches for symptoms, including loss of smell, loss of taste, and bright red toes, as early clues about where the disease was spreading. That lands. Groups mapping those searches, she says, were in many cases ahead of the CDC on both symptoms and geographic spread. Morrell knows the impulse. He remembers collecting website data himself during the early COVID period because he wanted to understand what was happening. From there, Wood moves into commercially available information, meaning information someone can buy and use to build insight. The examples include person-related data such as phone tracking, car telematics, speed, and stops, all of which can be pulled together for intelligence analysis. Morrell keeps asking for the concrete layers: public information that might surprise listeners, commercial sources, and private sector work that turns raw material into assessment. The pace is careful. Open source is not sold here as a magic fix. The sharper question is whether intelligence can move quickly enough to use evidence that is already visible outside classified channels. The excerpt leaves the sense that open source is not replacing traditional intelligence. It is a reminder that open signals can already carry operational value.

As heard by us

A grounded case for why open source data now matters to intelligence work.

Kristin Wood and Michael Morrell treat open source intelligence as a practical government capability, not a buzzword. Wood, a former CIA officer who worked in operations, analysis, and open source innovation, is strongest when she moves from definition to use case.

Read the full review in PlayNext →

Why you'd press play

Want to hear how open source intelligence turns public data into analysis?

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

Listen to the show on

Apple Podcasts Spotify

Play clips from this episode More from Intelligence Matters