Plain definitions for the terms that appear in our reporting. Written for readers who follow this work without doing it for a living, and kept deliberately short.
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| OSINT | Open-source intelligence. Analysis produced from lawfully accessible, publicly available material — records, imagery, broadcasts, publications — rather than from covert collection. |
| Open source | In this field, information anyone may lawfully obtain. It has nothing to do with open-source software licensing, which is a separate use of the same phrase. |
| Primary source | The record itself: a filing, a judgment, an image, a dataset. Preferred over reporting that describes it. |
| Secondary source | An account of a primary source, such as a news report about a court ruling. Useful for direction, weaker as evidence. |
| Corroboration | Independent confirmation of a claim. Independence means independent origin — twenty outlets repeating one press release is still one source. |
| Provenance | The traceable history of a piece of material: where it came from, who handled it, and whether it is what it appears to be. |
| Attribution | Identifying who is responsible for an action, or naming who made a claim. Both senses appear in reporting and the distinction matters. |
| Geolocation | Establishing where an image or video was captured, by matching terrain, buildings, signage, and other fixed features against known references. |
| Chronolocation | Establishing when material was captured, using shadow angles, weather records, vegetation state, or construction progress. |
| EXIF | Metadata embedded in an image file, such as camera model, timestamp, and sometimes coordinates. Trivially edited or stripped, so treated as an indicator rather than proof. |
| AIS | Automatic Identification System. Position and identity data broadcast by ships, publicly receivable, and widely used to track maritime movement. Can be switched off or spoofed. |
| ADS-B | Automatic Dependent Surveillance–Broadcast. The aviation equivalent of AIS, broadcast by aircraft and collected by public receiver networks. |
| SAR | Synthetic-aperture radar. Satellite imaging that works through cloud and darkness, valuable where optical imagery is unavailable. |
| Change detection | Comparing imagery of the same location across time to identify construction, movement, damage, or activity. |
| Confidence level | How strong the basis for a judgement is — high, moderate, or low. Distinct from how probable the judgement is. |
| Estimative language | Fixed vocabulary for probability, such as “likely” or “very unlikely,” each tied to a stated numeric range so readers and analysts mean the same thing by them. |
| Analytic line | The through-argument of an assessment: the conclusion, the evidence it rests on, and the assumptions it depends on. |
| Key assumption | A proposition taken as true without direct evidence, on which a judgement depends. Stated explicitly so readers can see what would overturn the conclusion. |
| Structured analytic technique | A formal method for testing reasoning and reducing bias, such as analysis of competing hypotheses or a key-assumptions check. |
| Analysis of competing hypotheses | A technique that lists all plausible explanations and scores evidence by how well it discriminates between them, rather than by how well it fits a favoured answer. |
| Red teaming | Deliberately arguing the opposing case against a draft assessment to expose weak evidence and unexamined assumptions. |
| Confirmation bias | The tendency to weigh evidence that supports an existing view more heavily than evidence that undercuts it. |
| Misinformation | False information circulated without intent to deceive, often by people who believe it. |
| Disinformation | False information created or circulated deliberately to mislead. The difference from misinformation is intent, which is itself an analytic judgement. |
| Information operation | A coordinated effort to shape perception or behaviour through the deliberate spread of selected or fabricated material. |
| Sock puppet | A fake online identity operated to manufacture the appearance of independent support or independent corroboration. |
| Sanctions designation | The formal listing of a person, entity, or vessel by a government or international body, restricting dealings with them. |
| Beneficial owner | The natural person who ultimately owns or controls an entity, as distinct from the nominal shareholder recorded on a filing. |
Terms describing how we grade sources and phrase uncertainty are defined in full on the methodology page.