Intelligence Research for Practitioners
Free, in-depth research on intelligence tradecraft, OSINT methodology, and the disciplines that underpin the work.
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We publish free, in-depth research on intelligence methodology through The Intelligence Fundamentals Project on Substack. The series covers the intelligence cycle, analytic standards, intelligence disciplines, collection management, and more, written for practitioners across military, law enforcement, and private sector contexts.
The 4x4 Intelligence Grading System
The 4x4 system is a compressed evaluation framework that rates the source of information on a four-point letter scale and the information itself on a four-point number scale.
Read Article →Finding Your Way into OSINT: A Career Map
Happy National OSINT Day! To celebrate, my article for you all today is a career map. One of the best things about OSINT is how many different directions you can take it, and one of the most common questions from people interested in the…
Read Article →The 5x5x5 System
UK law enforcement grades intelligence using a framework called the 5x5x5, which evaluates three things at once: the source that provided the information, the information itself, and the rules governing who can see it and what they can do…
Read Article →The Admiralty Code / NATO 6x6 System
When a report arrives tagged B2, an analyst knows three things before reading a word: the source has a strong track record, the information is logically consistent with other reporting, and no one has independently confirmed it yet.
Read Article →Source Reliability & Information Credibility
Every piece of information that reaches you arrived through someone or something: a person reported it, a system collected it, a platform published it, a database stored it.
Read Article →Sourcing for OSINT: ICS 206-01
Until ICS 206-01, the IC had no sourcing standard written specifically for open-source work. Intelligence Community Directive 203 sets analytic standards. ICD 206 sets sourcing requirements.
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