OSINT with ShadowDragon & Digital Tools For Modern Investigations

S04 E05: Melisa Stivaletti, the Queen of OSINT, on Elevating OSINT with AI, Private-Public Synergy, and More

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  • Guest introduction & background

    • Melisa describes how the 2010–11 Arab Spring revealed the power of social-media data while she was a Department of the Army civilian in Afghanistan.
    • Since then she has worked across academia, federal agencies, and the private sector to professionalize open-source intelligence, currently serving as OSINT Director at Guidehouse and chair of AFCEA’s Emerging Professionals in the Intelligence Community (EPIC) committee.

    • Why OSINT matters now

      • Every modern investigation—military, law-enforcement, or corporate—relies on publicly available information (PAI); skipping it “short-changes” the mission.
      • Recent unclassified U.S. DoD, ODNI, and Army OSINT strategies publicly signal a whole-of-government commitment and an invitation for industry partnership.
      • Congress has underscored this shift with the first House Subcommittee dedicated to open-source intelligence.

      • Public-private synergy & funding gaps

        • Dual-use commercial tools and venture-backed research and development give the U.S. an edge, but the Intelligence Community still allocates less than 1% of its budget to OSINT despite the discipline providing roughly 30% of material in the President’s Daily Brief.
        • Cloud storage, advanced data sets, and continuous tool development make OSINT “cheap relative to satellites” but far from free; chronic underfunding risks hollowing out capabilities.

        • Generative AI opportunities & cautions

          • Large language models accelerate sense-making (summarization, triage, translation) amid an ever-expanding data ocean.
          • Analysts must demand rigorous sourcing and bias evaluation—“every AI-generated sentence needs a footnote”—and should favor secure, controlled models over public chatbots.
          • The real value lies in “a collector who knows how to use AI,” not in AI replacing human tradecraft.

          • Operational vs. strategic OSINT

            • Tactical users (SOF, JSOC) need rapid, geotagged, mission-ready insights; strategic analysts focus on long-term trends, indications & warnings, and partner sharing.
            • Both require advanced skills—data science, cyber forensics, provenance verification—not just “having an internet connection.”

            • Professionalization & future skills

              • Formal tradecraft standards, dedicated career paths, and prompt-engineering expertise are emerging to match HUMINT, SIGINT, and GEOINT.
              • Melisa urges the next generation of intel professionals to embrace OSINT’s complexity, continuous learning curve, and growing strategic impact.

              • Persistent misconceptions debunked

                • Myth #1: OSINT is “free.” Reality: tooling, storage, and talent are expensive and scaling.
                • Myth #2: OSINT is inferior to classified sources. Reality: it often provides the first, fastest, and sometimes only vantage point—and stands on equal analytic rigor.

                  • Special Guest: Melisa Stivaletti .

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                  OSINT with ShadowDragon & Digital Tools For Modern InvestigationsBy Daniel Clemens from ShadowDragon, LLC
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