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Intelligence gathering is an important way for intelligence agencies to obtain reliable and high-value information resources. This article introduces the main classifications of intelligence information collection, which can be roughly divided into three types according to their source attributes: open-source intelligence, human intelligence, and technical intelligence.

Human intelligence and technical intelligence are collectively referred to as secret intelligence.

Human intelligence refers to the role of individuals as collectors, transmitters, and analysts of intelligence, where people play an absolutely dominant role. As professional intelligence personnel, especially those engaged in human intelligence collection, the goal is to gather intelligence, but where does this intelligence come from?

"People are the core of human intelligence, which is people-oriented. Human intelligence is always the highest realm of intelligence; it is the killer weapon."
— Intelligence Analyst

During the U.S. invasion of Iraq, the U.S. military's excessive reliance on technology and lack of human intelligence led to a deficiency of human thought and rational thinking in intelligence analysis. They did not understand local sentiments or human thinking, resulting in U.S. forces winning the war but losing the battle.

Of course, this may be a bit far-fetched.

Today, as an intelligence officer engaged in human intelligence work, how do you "make" the next person?

Some might say to find weaknesses, such as greed or lust.

In fact, coercion and inducement are just one method. To truly make the next person, you need to understand them better than they understand themselves. For example, many spies in British history became Soviet spies due to their political ideals; similar historical stories have been introduced by teaching assistants.

If he stands before you, as naked as if he were not wearing clothes, would you still be afraid of not being able to make him? The fact is that he will find you more terrifying than the devil or more compassionate than God. Additionally, it is worth noting that any country pays close attention to the physical condition of leaders in important target countries. For instance, North Korea pays particular attention to the health of the Kim family, as this is extremely important intelligence for them.

To truly understand a person, what details do you need to know? The following analysis system will completely overturn your understanding of a person, and the analysis system includes 7 major categories and 70 subcategories:

1. Appearance

2. Height; 2. Weight; 3. Face shape (oval face, square face, etc.); 4. Eyes (big eyes, small eyes, mouse eyes, phoenix eyes, etc.); 5. Eyebrows; 6. Nose (high nose bridge, flat nose); 7. Mouth; 8. Ears; 9. Teeth; 10. Neck; 11. Skeleton; 12. Limbs; 13. Fingers (can indicate if they frequently use a gun); 14. Palm; 15. Feet (shoe size); 16. Tattoos; 17. Scars; 18. Size of sweat pores; 19. Nails;

3. Health

4. Past medical history; 21. Previous hospitalization records; 22. Regular medications (e.g., those with chronic diseases on long-term medication); 23. Current health status (healthy, sub-healthy, unhealthy, specific diseases); 24. Exercise frequency; 25. Preferred exercise methods; 26. Vision (nearsighted, farsighted, astigmatism, lens degree, corrected vision); 27. Hearing status; 28. Dental health; 29. Coordination of limbs;

5. Family

6. Parents; 31. Children; 32. Spouse (or partner, lover); 33. Immediate relatives and their professions; 34. Important extended relatives and their professions; including professions, emotional closeness, and economic status; 35. Position in the family;

7. Lifestyle

8. Hobbies (e.g., basketball, bar-hopping, reading. For bar-hopping, which bar do they like to go to, what kind of drinks do they prefer); 37. Favorite entertainment stars; 38. Preferred clothing (e.g., shirts or T-shirts in summer, styles, if they have a favorite clothing brand, which brand is it); 39. Preferred shoe types; 40. Preferred bags; 41. Preferred perfumes; 42. Daily routine (general wake-up and sleep times, whether they have a habit of napping); 43. Whether they frequently miss phone calls; 44. Preferred mobile phone brands (Samsung, Apple, Blackberry, etc.); 45. Mode of transportation (e.g., prefers to drive to work, rides a bike while shopping); 46. Favorite foods; 47. Favorite restaurants (similarly, favorite cinemas); 48. Favorite fruits; 49. Preferred entertainment methods; 50. Favorite websites and forums; 51. Preferred chat tools; 52. Whether they like taking photos; 53. Favorite types of books;

9. Psychology

10. When they seek fame; 55. What they care about most; 56. Unconscious expressions and actions (including when happy, angry, fearful, or nervous, including eye movements, mouth corners, hand and foot movements, all need to be observed in detail); 57. Personality trait assessment (petty or magnanimous, optimistic or pessimistic); 58. Whether they have any bad or perverse hobbies; 59. What they are most sensitive about; 60. Personal ideals and goals; 61. Things they like to do during various psychological emotions (e.g., happy people like to sing, sad people like to drink, etc.); 62. Whether they have other psychological issues or diseases; 63. Political beliefs;

11. Weaknesses

12. Family; 65. Power; 66. Money; 67. Beauty; 68. Self; 69. Personality; 70. Interests;

Here, let me explain what self-weakness means. For example, many South Korean and North Korean agents like to use the ethnic ties of being of the same Korean ethnicity to subvert North Koreans domestically. For instance, some people naturally identify with communism, and their concept of the country is very vague; this is their self-awareness. By doing this, their work can be very efficient. For example, some people are very keen on espionage work and enjoy this thrilling, blood-tasting job; asking them to help you become an intelligence officer makes them very happy (this is generally used to develop intelligence lines in their own country).

Personality weaknesses, for example, can use the opponent's suspicion to confuse and create discord.

7. Others

In fact, there are many things that need attention, such as how well someone writes, how they walk, etc., which can all be observed. The above are just some details worth noting and are not exhaustive.

Each of the above items has its significance. For example, analysis and research on appearance, in addition to basic external appearance, focuses on observing facial features, which can roughly guess a person's personality traits; observing limbs and other parts can roughly guess the type of work they do, especially whether they frequently use firearms; observing tattoos and scars is also an important characteristic for confirming a person's identity in the future.

Only by observing these details can many things be inferred, and they will be very useful in the future. For example, there are often rumors that some leaders like to use body doubles; you can observe using these methods. Here, I won't elaborate too much.

I just want to say that if you really understand a person according to the above requirements, then he will eventually be in your pocket, because whether it is ideological persuasion, emotional pulling, or coercion and inducement like the KGB, you can target the right remedy and hit the mark.

When it comes to the CIA, you must think of various assassination and intelligence theft activities. But you probably don't know that they are also the eyes of the U.S. military, the most mysterious elite force of the U.S. military. CIA personnel are divided into two categories: federal intelligence analysts and frontline agents, also known as frontline special reconnaissance forces.

These frontline agents have been using fake names, fake IDs, and fake passports since they entered the industry. Even their training takes place in a place in the U.S. codenamed "the Farm." They use intelligence tools to learn how to survive locally, etc., and receive training in foreign languages and military skills. Most of these people are selected elites from various conventional and special forces of the U.S. military.

The development trend of this elite force mainly has four points:

First, from "solo action" to "joint operations." From the beginning of its establishment, this unit has undertaken various tasks such as secretly infiltrating enemy territory to capture tongues, blowing up railways, destroying bridges, cutting off supply lines, and attacking command posts, all of which have obvious characteristics of solo action and do not require much coordination with other military forces.

With the continuous deepening of joint operations theory and practice, the actions of U.S. special forces are increasingly reflecting obvious joint characteristics.

Second, from a focus on "physical type" to an emphasis on "intelligent type." With the demands of actual combat, the tasks performed by U.S. special forces have far exceeded secret operations and sudden attacks, so their members often possess master's degrees and are high-tech "snake catchers," capable of engaging in various special intelligence activities.

During missions, special forces can skillfully use lasers, new radar sensors, computers, unmanned aerial vehicles, and advanced networks.

Third, from "small teams" to "large-scale" development. High-level decision-makers in the U.S. often assign unusual, urgent, and heavy combat tasks to special operations forces in specific situations against different combat targets, leveraging their role as "shock troops."

Fourth, from "subordinate status" to "strategic status." In the Afghanistan War, they made significant contributions to collecting intelligence, discovering clues, tracking targets, and cooperating in combat, playing a major strategic role in the implementation of the war on terror. In the Iraq War, this unit even entered Iraq in advance to launch intelligence warfare, psychological warfare, and public opinion warfare, gaining strategic initiative for the U.S. military to successfully occupy Baghdad.

Some even listed Pyongyang, the capital of North Korea, as an intelligence target, creating a false training ground for secret archives in Moscow. Some agents have secretly lived in countries like North Korea and Russia for nearly 20 years as seasoned operatives, and they know what to do if captured. Either they poison themselves with poison on their collar or self-harm.

Some even mix men and women to pretend to be couples living in other countries for intelligence, and some even secretly infiltrate other countries' military to gather intelligence, etc.

Their specific training content is said to include training in all usable weapons, including weapons from various countries, knives, and pencils that can be used as weapons. They also learn how to drug and incapacitate people, escape training, mixed martial arts training, and assassination training, among other anti-captivity training. The general training time lasts 5-6 years!

The most important skill that agents need to possess—situational awareness—whether disguising as an ordinary person, having excellent fighting skills, or using various cool high-tech weapons, is less important than this one skill. This skill is the most important one learned from the CIA and is an essential ability for agents that ordinary people can also possess.

To illustrate, I would like to quote a segment from the BBC version of "Sherlock Holmes." In this segment, Sherlock Holmes first meets Watson and immediately says: "I guess you just came back from Afghanistan or Iraq." Watson, who has never experienced Sherlock's deductive style, is of course taken aback and asks, "I just came back from Afghanistan, but how did you know?"

Sherlock's answer is even more astonishing: "I don't know, I just noticed."

You must know that this is their first meeting, and the two did not know each other before. Sherlock took one look at Watson and knew he had just returned from Afghanistan; behind this is Sherlock's extraordinary observation and reasoning ability. "From the moment I saw you, I began to observe you. Your hairstyle reveals your military identity; your conversation when you first entered indicates you are a doctor, so it is obvious you are a military doctor. Your skin is dark, but the area where your wrist is wearing a watch is white, indicating you did not get tanned while on vacation abroad. You walk with a severe limp, but when standing, you do not ask anyone to move a chair for you, indicating you have not yet healed, and you must have been injured not long ago. Moreover, the injury must have been very painful and occurred during an operation.

An injury during an operation that got tanned means it could only have happened during operations in Afghanistan or Iraq. So I asked you if you came back from Afghanistan or Iraq." Of course, Sherlock's story is not real, and his deductive ability is exaggerated, but this story is enough to illustrate one point: as a detective or agent, the most important and fundamental quality is the ability to observe and reason.

Therefore, the greatest enemy of agents is mobile phones, especially smartphones. Because once you focus on your phone, you will lower your observation of the surrounding environment and put yourself at risk. It is heartbreaking to say that today, in public places, 90% of people are looking down, engrossed in their smartphones, walking without looking up, and not noticing dangers. In fact, most of today's street robberies, thefts, and stalking are due to people not paying attention to their external environment.

Data shows that many victims, when interviewed, stated that they had no idea why they were targeted by thieves, robbers, or bad people. That is because you have been scrolling through your phone, lacking situational awareness. Any criminal has a pattern before they act, such as stalking you for a while, or focusing on you for a bit, or finding ways to distract you, etc. These are all factors that remind you to pay attention.

So he will try to minimize phone calls in public places, and most importantly, he has never sent a text message on his phone. Because sending a text requires looking down at the screen, making it impossible to pay attention to the surrounding environment or assess one's risk.

Therefore, to avoid becoming the next victim, you must put down your phone and practice situational awareness. In China, this advice can be simply changed to not look at your phone or scroll through social media on the street, otherwise, you are likely to become the next victim. Generally, criminals will target those who are less vigilant.

How to determine if you are being followed?

So how can you determine if you are being followed? There is a little trick: pay attention to the shoes of others. Because those who are following you can use sunglasses, coats, and other disguises; wearing sunglasses makes it hard to recognize if it is the same person, but shoes are not easy to change. By focusing on the shoes, you can determine if someone has been following you.

How to detect lies?

Testers start by asking very simple questions, such as your name, age, job, etc. Generally, when the test subject is hooked up to a polygraph, they feel quite nervous, so when they are suddenly asked these questions, they relax their guard and respond in the most normal state because they do not need to lie and can answer truthfully.

In this way, the testers can record their heart rate, blood pressure, muscle state, how much they sweat, etc., in their most genuine state. After a roundabout questioning, when the testers unexpectedly ask some key questions, the test subjects are likely to expose their abnormalities, such as increased blood pressure, tense muscles, accelerated heartbeat, etc., making it easy to identify whether the test subject is lying.

Thus, the key to the polygraph is to test the person's true state. Once they show any abnormal state, you can follow the clues and conduct a more in-depth investigation.

Of course, in real-life scenarios, there is no polygraph, and CIA agents cannot measure a person's blood pressure or heartbeat before investigating whether they are lying. So how do CIA agents detect whether a person is lying?

The principle is actually similar to the polygraph; CIA agents need to understand the person's true state. When Jason and others talk to a suspect, they do not do it like in TV shows or movies, where the person sits in a cold, windowless interrogation room with a big spotlight overhead, and the CIA agent asks very serious questions in a fierce manner.

Relationship Intelligence#

There are various types of interpersonal relationships, and their manifestations are quite complex. They can be classified differently based on different criteria.

According to interpersonal media, interpersonal relationships can be divided into blood relationships (parent-child, mother-daughter, etc.), kinship (spouses, in-laws, etc.), affinity relationships (friends, chess buddies, sports buddies, etc.), occupational relationships (teacher-student, comrades, colleagues, etc.), and geographical relationships (hometowners, neighbors, alumni, etc.).

According to stability, interpersonal relationships can be divided into fixed and non-fixed relationships. Fixed interpersonal relationships refer to more stable and longer-lasting relationships (such as parent-child relationships, teacher-student relationships, comrade relationships, etc.), which have greater significance and deeper influence, and people are more dependent on them. Non-fixed interpersonal relationships mainly refer to relationships that change with time, place, and conditions (such as temporary travel companions, one-time business relationships, etc.), which are maintained for a short time, are unstable, and are prone to change. Of course, fixed or non-fixed is relative, and under certain conditions, they can also transform into each other.

In summary, if one can correctly recognize the social roles of others, they can more accurately estimate and infer the behavior of others.

Interpersonal communication behavior also follows several exchange rules, mainly including the following six types.

(1) Success Rule. The more often a person's actions are rewarded, the more likely they are to take that action. In other words, anyone is more likely to engage in behaviors that are frequently rewarded; in interpersonal communication, the frequency of interaction is directly proportional to the rewards received.

(2) Stimulus Rule. If a specific stimulus in the past rewarded a person's actions, the more similar the current stimulus is to that specific stimulus, the more likely the similar past actions will be repeated.

(3) Value Rule. The more valuable the outcome of a person's actions is to them, the more likely they are to repeat the same actions. Therefore, in interpersonal communication, people will always choose behaviors that can obtain higher rewards.

(4) Deprivation/Satisfaction Rule. If a person has recently received a specific reward frequently, then in the future, the value of that reward will decrease for them.

(5) Attack/Approval Rule. On one hand, when a certain action does not receive the expected reward (or receives an unexpected punishment), they may become angry and take aggressive actions; on the other hand, when a certain action receives the expected reward, or even a reward greater than expected (or does not receive the anticipated punishment), they will feel happy and are more likely to take approving actions.

(6) Rational Rule. When deciding what action to take, people will not only consider the value of the action but also the likelihood of success.

The above six rules illustrate that in the process of interaction, both parties pursue fairness, that is, judging the cost and reward of the interaction, the various possibilities of input and output; and under the same cost and input, they always expect to receive fair rewards. The "fairness" standard mainly has two points: one is to compare past experiences, that is, in similar actions, whether the past "input-output ratio" is higher or lower; if it was more advantageous in the past, then it will feel unfair; the second is to compare with other groups, that is, compared to the group one identifies with, if their "input-output ratio" is lower, then it will feel unfair. In real life, people will compare more with surrounding groups.

Here are several methods that everyone should pay attention to:

Method 1: You should observe their feet

Many people believe that facial expressions are the most revealing of a person's inner thoughts; whether they are lying, facial expressions reveal everything, which is why the American drama "Lie to Me" is so popular. However, in fact, observing a person's feet may reveal more information.

For example, when you are chatting with someone about trivial matters, you notice that they do not shake their crossed leg, but when you mention some key issues, such as the company recently losing a lot of things, they start to shake their leg uncontrollably, then this person is highly likely to be lying.

Another example is that we subconsciously point our feet in the direction we want to go. You may have experienced this: at a party, if you are chatting with someone and that person's feet are occasionally pointing toward the door, you can probably feel that they want to sneak out of the party.

Customs officers have also received similar training; they can tell whether a person is lying by observing their feet. Generally, normal people, when stopped by customs and questioned, face the customs officers, and their feet will turn toward them; however, smugglers, when stopped, often turn their faces away but their feet still point toward the exit. These subconscious body states are uncontrollable when a person is very nervous.

Method 2: Staring at you excessively

Generally, we think that if a person is lying, they should not be able to look you straight in the eye and should avoid others' gaze to prevent their anxious eyes from revealing themselves. A person who is lying is more likely to stare at the person questioning them; this is to make the other party believe that they are not lying. Therefore, when someone is talking about something and is staring at you excessively, there is an 80% chance they are trying to hide something.

The suggestion is that if you really want to hide something, you can look at the other person moderately and then slightly lower your head; this makes it easier to gain trust.

Method 3: Overreacting

Similar to staring at the other person, liars are often more easily angered and more prone to overreacting than normal people. They do this to completely crush you, making you feel how could you ask such a ridiculous and stupid question, trying to dissuade you from asking them this question through such an extreme reaction. Therefore, when you ask someone a question and their reaction is very abnormal, it is worth digging deeper.

Method 4: Lighter Punishments (This can be referenced by business managers)

There are many ways to discover if a person is lying; the key is to carefully observe a person's abnormal behaviors, in what situations they react differently than usual, or how their reactions differ from most people; this is the key to the problem.

CIA Agents' "Weapons" They Carry

Here are some items they might carry with them, common household items including safety pins, small knives, handcuff keys, tape, etc. One item they particularly love as a self-defense weapon is the tactical pen.

We need to know what intelligence sources are. Theoretically, any form of carrier that can generate, hold, store, or transmit intelligence, including organizations, individuals, or objects, can become a source of intelligence.

According to the form of the intelligence source, intelligence sources can be divided into five aspects:

1. Literature Intelligence Sources

2. Network Intelligence Sources

3. Human Intelligence Sources

4. Institutional Intelligence Sources

5. Physical Intelligence Sources

Although these five types of intelligence sources differ, there are extensive and complex connections between them. Through one type of intelligence source, clues about another type of intelligence source can be obtained, thus linking them together to ultimately meet intelligence needs.

Due to the different fields involved, different types of intelligence information sources have their own special characteristics, which require intelligence collection to have certain professional characteristics. Here are a few examples:

1. In the military intelligence field, reconnaissance methods are often used for intelligence collection, and its intelligence sources include espionage and reconnaissance, military reconnaissance, mass reconnaissance, radio technical reconnaissance, satellite reconnaissance, etc.;

2. In the medical field, intelligence sources available to doctors include specialized magazines, association reports, instructions, pharmaceutical collections, printed materials from pharmaceutical companies, advertisements, and exchanges between peers, etc.;

3. In the library and information field, literature, networks, physical objects, discourse, visuals, and service organizations are often used as intelligence sources.

Episode 1: Literature Intelligence Sources

Literature intelligence sources have always played an indispensable role in the intelligence collection process. Literature, as a traditional source of intelligence collection, is also the most basic source. Each type of literature plays its unique importance. Now let's focus on discussing the classification and utilization of some literature intelligence sources.

1. Books

In the 1970s, a young student studying economics at Harvard University wrote a technical report titled "How to Make a Nuclear Bomb" using those very ordinary public books and materials in the library. This report was called "the most detailed and comprehensive information on making a nuclear bomb" by American nuclear expert Taylor.

In addition to obtaining intelligence through the content of books, intelligence personnel should also pay attention to the citations at the end of the literature to find more clues for further research. Besides being used for research on national strategy and international relations, literary works can also serve as evidence.

2. Newspapers and Journals

The intelligence covered by newspapers includes various fields such as domestic and foreign politics, economy, culture, academia, and society, serving as a "window to the world." U.S. embassies abroad usually subscribe to various major local newspapers and highlight relevant information from those countries, compiling related information in the form of clippings, thus forming part of intelligence reports to support government decision-making.

In American news, it has even been stated that "Spy agencies turn to newspapers, NPR, and Wikipedia for information," indicating that intelligence agencies have begun to turn to publicly available channels dominated by news reports for intelligence collection, highlighting the importance of newspapers as intelligence sources.

The April 2023 issue of Defense Magazine

3. Technical Reports

The content of technical reports involves military, national defense, cutting-edge technology, important projects, new materials, new processes, and other new fields and technological frontiers. Some of these are confidential and can only be made public once they are no longer classified.

Every country has its own technical reports, among which the four major reports from the United States have the largest quantity and variety.

The National Technical Information Service (NTIS) involves various fields such as energy, aerospace, and military. Its published reports collect, organize, and utilize secret technical data from key countries.

The Armed (AD) report is primarily based on research reports from various cooperating units of the U.S. Department of Defense.

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) report focuses on aviation and space science technology, while also involving many basic disciplines.

The Department of Energy (DOE) report mainly concerns energy development research activities, covering almost the entire energy field and its applications.

Among the four major reports in the U.S., the publicly available and declassified AD, NASA, and DOE reports are collected and published by the National Technical Information Service, with an annual issuance of over 60,000 copies, accounting for about 80% of the total global technical report volume.

On May 9, 2023, the U.S. Department of Defense released the National Defense Technology Strategy 2023.

4. Government Publications

Countries such as the UK, the US, France, Japan, Germany, and Canada all have systematic government publications, which are important materials for in-depth research on the political, economic, cultural, social, and technological conditions of other countries and have significant reference value.

For example, the "National Security Strategy Report" submitted by the U.S. President to Congress is a very reliable basis for studying and understanding U.S. national security strategy, from which one can study the key points and evolution of its national strategy.

Japan has a large number of government publications, including "Official Gazette," "Economic and Financial White Paper," "White Paper on Maritime Disputes," "Report of the National Language Council," and various other types of publications, which are important channels for foreigners to understand official information about Japan.

To facilitate the retrieval and utilization of government publications, various countries publish catalogs, monthly reports, and other literature, such as:

• The U.S. compiles the "Monthly Catalog of U.S. Government Publications";

• The "Index to Publications of the U.S. Congress";

• The UK compiles "A Guide to British Government Publications," etc.

The October 2022 release of the U.S. National Security Strategy

5. Archives

Archival materials are an important resource for studying a country's diplomatic and military policies. When discussing how to obtain intelligence, American Cold War strategist George Kennan stated in a New York Times article on May 18, 1997: "Of the things we need to know, more than 95% can be obtained through careful and thorough research of the vast amount of literature and archives we have mastered."

Archives contain a wealth of content and clues, and conducting systematic research on them can yield many key intelligence pieces. In April 2002, the U.S. National Security Archive released secret documents from the Cuban government, including internal reports, memoranda, and handwritten samples of telegrams. This information can promote the U.S. understanding of Cuba's role in international events.

In addition to the aforementioned forms of literature, there are also patents, standards, conference literature, theses, product samples, gray literature, and other types of literature that play varying roles in the intelligence collection process.

In determining intelligence sources, intelligence personnel should select based on the characteristics of various types of literature in relation to specific issues in the security field.

Intelligence collection not only emphasizes the comprehensive use of multiple intelligence sources but also places great importance on obtaining intelligence from open sources. Thomas Fingar of the U.S. National Intelligence Council pointed out that open channels can provide up to 90% of information for most U.S. intelligence agencies, so fully utilizing this information is very important and should be part of our work.

In fact, the effectiveness of obtaining intelligence through open sources has been confirmed over time. Robin Winks pointed out that 90% of the required foreign intelligence can be obtained from open intelligence sources. Arthur S. Hulnick believes that in a typical analytical report, about 80% of the content comes from open intelligence sources. From these figures, it can be seen that open-source intelligence has become the main source of intelligence acquisition.

Regarding the classification of open-source intelligence, the "U.S. Army Battlefield Manual 2-22.9 Open Source Intelligence" broadly categorizes numerous open sources into:

• Academic institutions;

• Government and non-government organizations;

• Commercial and public information service agencies;

• Libraries and research centers;

• Individuals and groups;

• Dividing first-hand open-source media into public speaking forums;

• Public documents;

• Public broadcasts;

• Websites (Internet sites).

According to classification, open-source intelligence is divided into printed media, electronic media, display media, outdoor media, object media, Web 2.0 era media, and other media (government data, etc.).

The American Information Security Association categorizes open intelligence sources into: media, web-based communities and user-generated content, public data, and professional and academic categories. Different bases have different classification methods, and currently, open intelligence sources have not formed a widely recognized classification.

In addition to open intelligence sources, according to the FBI's intelligence collection theory, intelligence sources also include human intelligence sources, signal intelligence sources, image intelligence sources, measurement and characteristic intelligence sources.

Among them, human intelligence sources are one of the commonly used intelligence sources in competitive intelligence and public security intelligence, while other intelligence sources involve covert means.

Before the advent of the Internet, the main sources of open-source intelligence were books, magazines, newspapers, journals, broadcasts, television, radio, news media, and publicly available information and data from government and non-government organizations. As the Internet gradually developed, it became the primary means of obtaining open-source intelligence.

Internet intelligence sources can be obtained in the following three ways:

1. Networked products containing the aforementioned traditional intelligence;

2. Geospatial intelligence websites and services represented by Google Earth;

3. Online communities—social media websites, video websites, encyclopedias, blogs, forums, shopping websites, etc.

As early as 2006, the U.S. launched the National Open Source Initiative, focusing on collecting publicly available information related to national military, defense, social, and economic aspects. In the military field, security departments and intelligence agencies from various countries have invested significant human and material resources in researching and applying computer network intrusion and counter-intrusion technologies, mainly including computer acquisition technology and computer penetration technology.

The rapid development of the Internet has made it possible for individuals and groups to conduct global research. In addition to the exponential growth of Internet users, the frequency of use of Internet-connected devices has also increased significantly, thus providing intelligence personnel with immense intelligence value.

1. Search Engine Intelligence Collection

Search engines are one of the important channels for people to obtain information in the Internet era and are also the simplest and quickest way to gather intelligence in a specific field. Due to the vast amount of information, some companies use crawlers to gather information from the Internet and provide services in the form of keyword searches based on established indexes.

In summary, using regional search engines to gather intelligence in specific regional languages often yields better results than global search engines.

1. Global General Search Engines

Google

Website—http://www.google.com

Bing

Website—http://www.bing.com

Search engines are tools for finding information via the Internet. Google and Bing are the most widely used search engines globally, and their search results cover almost all fields of information, from news to science, from life to work, even including competitive intelligence in the industry.

As an intelligence analyst, you must frequently use these two search engines to obtain the intelligence you need, analyze market trends, and competitors' strategies. At the same time, they also provide many useful tools and features, such as Google Maps, Google Translate, Google Docs, etc., facilitating collaboration and sharing results among analysts.

DuckDuckGo

Website—https://duckduckgo.com

A privacy-focused Internet search engine. "When you look at a gorilla in the zoo, the gorilla is actually looking at you." Similarly, when you obtain information through a search engine, the website records your search history through cookies and other means. This historical information can be used to provide more accurate search results, but it also exposes your intelligence-gathering intentions.

With the popularization and development of the Internet, people increasingly rely on web search engines for information. However, this comes with the risk of privacy leaks. For users, they may not want to be tracked by search engines, which record their search history and personal information, which is precisely what DuckDuckGo emphasizes.

The anonymity of this search engine can protect users' privacy and somewhat alleviate privacy leakage issues. In addition to protecting privacy, DuckDuckGo has other advantages. Compared to other search engines, its search results are more neutral.

On the search results page, it does not give priority to advertisements or specific websites but sorts results based on the relevance of search keywords. Additionally, DuckDuckGo offers some extra features, such as encrypted searches and blocking intrusive ads.

However, DuckDuckGo also has some shortcomings. Since it does not record users' search histories, it cannot provide personalized search results like other search engines. Moreover, compared to the user base of other search engines, DuckDuckGo's user numbers are still relatively small, and the content it covers is also relatively limited.

While these issues are not fatal flaws, they do limit DuckDuckGo's application scenarios and audience. Overall, DuckDuckGo's anonymity is its biggest feature and the main reason users choose it. Whether for privacy-sensitive users or those seeking neutral search results, it is a search engine worth trying.

2. Regional Search Engines

China

These two search engines do not need much introduction, as everyone is very familiar with them.

Baidu http://baidu.com

Sogou http://sogou.com

To meet the growing data demands of domestic internet users, domestic internet companies are continuously developing and launching their own search engines, such as Baidu Search, 360 Search, Sogou Search, etc.

These search engines have localized characteristics and can more accurately meet the needs of domestic internet users, thus being very popular. In our daily work, we often need to use search engines to query relevant information, especially in fields that require study and research, where search engines are indispensable.

Through search engines, we can quickly find information and materials related to our work, thus accelerating work progress and improving work efficiency. At the same time, search engines also help us acquire a broader range of knowledge and information, thereby expanding our horizons and thinking.

Russia

In Russia, Yandex has some unique features. For example, it offers an online shopping comparison platform called Yandex.Market, allowing users to find and compare prices and products from different merchants.

Additionally, Yandex provides a map service similar to Google Maps, enabling users to find and navigate to destinations while also checking local weather conditions and nearby landmarks and restaurants. Yandex also offers a voice assistant service that can query information, play music, and control home devices using voice commands, similar to Siri or Alexa.

Although Yandex's main market is in Russia and neighboring countries, it also has a certain user base in other countries, such as Turkey and Eastern Europe.

In the search engine market for Russian speakers, Yandex has long been the market leader, with some data showing that it holds about 50% of the search market in Russia. Additionally, Yandex went public on NASDAQ in 2018, becoming one of the first Russian tech companies to be listed in the U.S.

Yandex

Website—http://www.yandex.ru

South Korea

Naver

Website—http://www.naver.com

Naver holds about 70% of the search market in South Korea, and its search results and service quality are widely recognized and trusted. In addition to basic search functions, Naver also provides various services such as finance, shopping, entertainment, and social networking, making it an important part of internet life in South Korea.

Moreover, Naver has its own email system, news, and knowledge Q&A platform, providing users with comprehensive services. Especially its Q&A platform is the largest knowledge-sharing community in South Korea, with a large user base and a professional intellectual community, often referred to as "the Baidu Zhidao of South Korea."

Naver has also launched its own mobile applications, such as maps, music, translation, voice recognition, and smart assistants, performing outstandingly in the mobile market. At the same time, Naver is also deeply cultivating overseas markets, such as launching the "LINE" social application in Japan, becoming one of the most popular communication tools locally, and successfully entering markets in neighboring countries like China.

Overall, Naver is one of the leaders in South Korea's internet sector, with a strong user base and extensive service coverage, holding an important position and influence in the internet market in South Korea and even Asia.

Japan

Goo

Website—http://goo.ne.jp

Goo is the regional search engine for Google in Japan. Goo is Japan's internet search engine and portal site, primarily providing search services and is affiliated with the NTT Group.

In addition to search, maps, dictionaries, transfers, news, and shopping services, Goo also offers many other tools and features, such as translation, coupons, stock information, weather forecasts, recipes, and medical information. The translation feature supports multiple languages, including Japanese, English, Chinese, Korean, French, German, and Spanish, allowing for easy text, voice, and image translation.

The coupon feature provides discount coupons, vouchers, and free trial coupons for various brands for users to claim and use online. The stock information feature provides the latest news, K-line charts, and market analysis related to stocks, helping users stay updated on stock market dynamics.

The weather forecast feature supports real-time weather condition queries and forecasts for multiple cities, including temperature, humidity, wind speed, atmospheric pressure, and precipitation.

The recipe feature provides various delicious recipes for users to reference and learn. The medical information feature provides knowledge and health advice related to medical issues, helping users prevent diseases and maintain health.

In summary, Goo is a very practical and comprehensive online service platform that can provide users with various assistance and support in their daily lives, work, and studies.

France

Qwant

Website—http://qwant.com

Qwant is a rapidly developing search engine in Europe and the only one with its own index. The characteristic of the Qwant website is its emphasis on protecting user privacy and never collecting user information. During each search, it only generates temporary cookies, and data is not stored, meaning it is an anonymous search engine that also provides versions in 13 languages.

3. Meta Search Engines

Meta search engines, also known as aggregated search engines, are characterized by combining multiple individual search engines into one, providing a unified search page that submits the user's search query keywords to multiple independent search engines and retrieves multiple databases. It then processes the search results from multiple independent search engines (deduplicating, sorting, etc.) and finally outputs the results to the user.

Info

Website—http://www.info.com

Info is a meta search engine, ranking as the 10th search engine, providing search results applicable to Google, Yahoo!, Yandex, Ask, Kanoodle, etc.

Due to space constraints, the following content will be updated in detail later, providing detailed introductions and usage methods for each category of internet intelligence collection.

4. Special Search Engines

SearchCode

Website—https://searchcode.com

SearchCode is a free source code search engine that indexes repositories of source code (free software) and provides search services. The site offers search services for 200 billion lines of code from 7 million projects, including real examples of functions, APIs, and libraries from over 90 languages from more than 10 sources. Users only need to enter the search keyword, and the interface will display relevant matching results. You can search using function names, constants, variable names, or referenced package names.

ZoomEye

Website—https://www.zoomeye.org

ZoomEye is a search engine for retrieving nodes in cyberspace. Through a distributed crawling engine in the backend, it analyzes global nodes and determines the characteristics of each node, thus obtaining information such as device type, firmware version, distribution location, and open port services. ZoomEye positions itself as a cyberspace search engine.

5. Other Search Engines

WorldWideScience (Scientific Literature Search Engine)

Website—https://worldwidescience.org

WorldWideScience is a global scientific search engine (academic database and search engine) aimed at accelerating scientific discovery and progress by speeding up the sharing of scientific knowledge. Through multilateral partnerships, it enables anyone with internet access to conduct single-query searches across national scientific databases and portals from over 70 countries or regions, covering all inhabited continents and three-quarters of the world's population.

WorldWideScience implements joint searches to cover global scientific research results. Joint search technology allows information sponsors to search multiple data sources in real-time through a single query. It provides synchronous access to "deep web" scientific databases that are typically not searchable through commercial search engines. In June 2010, WorldWideScience implemented multilingual translation capabilities. Using Microsoft's Bing Translator, WorldWideScience enables users to search databases in 10 languages and then translate results into the user's preferred language. It can perform "one-to-many" and "many-to-one" machine translation for Arabic, Chinese, English, French, German, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Russian, and Spanish.

WorldWideScience provides scientific search through various functions, including:

1. Clustering results by topic or date to help users determine search targets;

2. Results related to user search terms from Wikipedia;

3. Scientific news results related to user search terms;

4. Marking and sending options to email results to friends and colleagues;

5. Enhanced information related to users' real-time searches;

6. Alert services;

7. Multilingual translation.

II. Social Media Intelligence Collection#

With the popularity of social media, more and more people use it not only for social interaction but also as a tool for intelligence collection. On social media, users can convey information to the outside world through activities such as posting content, liking, and commenting.

This information may contain personal information about certain individuals, news in specific fields, social hotspots, etc., all of which are valuable resources for intelligence collection. First, to obtain valuable intelligence, it is necessary to choose the appropriate social media platform.

Today, major social media platforms each have their unique characteristics and user groups. Choosing the right platform can make it easier and more accurate to obtain valuable intelligence. Secondly, it is essential to establish a clear intelligence collection goal. This can help us focus more on collecting information related to the target.

For example, if we want to understand the opinions, preferences, or whereabouts of a specific group, we can follow their social media accounts or search for relevant topic tags, allowing us to collect intelligence about that group more precisely.

Most importantly, we must pay attention to protecting personal information and privacy. On social media, personal information can be leaked at any time. Therefore, when collecting intelligence, we must comply with relevant laws and regulations and not violate others' privacy rights and human rights. At the same time, we should also protect our own privacy and avoid excessive exposure. We can choose to use pseudonyms, conceal personal information, and other methods to protect our privacy.

Global Major Social Networks

Facebook

Website: https://www.facebook.com/

Meta Platforms, Inc. (commercial name: Meta) is an American internet technology company that operates social networking services, virtual reality, metaverse products, etc., headquartered in Menlo Park, California. It owns social software such as Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp.

Founded by Mark Zuckerberg and his roommates, Harvard students Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin Moskovitz, and Chris Hughes, the original name was TheFacebook.com, later simplified to Facebook, and on October 28, 2021, Zuckerberg announced the name change to Meta.

In addition to social networking services, Meta offers other products and services, including Facebook Messenger, Facebook Watch, and Facebook Portal. It has also successively acquired Instagram, WhatsApp, Oculus, Giphy, and Mapillary, and holds a 9.9% stake in Jio Platforms.

Meta is one of the most valuable companies globally and is considered one of the five major tech companies alongside Microsoft, Amazon, Apple, and Alphabet.

Meta (formerly Facebook)

Web version: https://about.meta.com/

Meta (the metaverse) is one of the largest social media websites in the world, formerly known as Facebook, founded by Mark Zuckerberg, headquartered in Menlo Park, California. As a social networking service center, Meta generates a massive flow of information daily, with about 900 million users covering different age groups and identities.

On the Meta platform, users can share information in various forms, including text, photos, and voice, while also achieving real-time location sharing through built-in map functions. The birth of Meta has ushered in the era of the metaverse, allowing people to interact and communicate in a virtual world, exploring infinite possibilities.

Twitter

Website: https://twitter.com/home

Twitter is a microblogging social platform that has conquered the globe, headquartered in San Francisco, USA. Its main function is to allow users to publish and share information in no more than 140 characters. Both ordinary users and government agencies and officials have found their stage on Twitter.

As of 2018, Twitter had over 350 million active users, with a staggering 400 million tweets published daily, fully demonstrating Twitter's powerful influence in information dissemination and social interaction.

On October 27, 2022, Elon Musk acquired Twitter for $44 billion, gaining control of the platform. Since the acquisition, the platform has faced criticism for promoting content that includes hate speech.

On December 20, 2022, Musk announced that he would resign as CEO once a replacement was found. On May 12, 2023, Musk announced that he would step down as CEO in about six weeks, with Linda Yaccarino, former advertising sales chief at NBCUniversal, becoming the new CEO.

LinkedIn

Website: https://www.linkedin.cn/

LinkedIn is the world's largest professional social platform, headquartered in Mountain View, California, USA. It aims to provide a one-stop career development platform for individuals and businesses. As of 2020, LinkedIn had over 600 million users spread across more than 200 countries and regions.

In China, LinkedIn has over 40 million users and has formed deep cooperation with Chinese companies in high-tech, internet, finance, manufacturing, communication, and other industries. LinkedIn has now become an essential social tool for professionals in China, helping them expand their networking resources and career development opportunities.

Discord

Web version: https://discord.com/

Discord is a free online real-time communication software and digital distribution platform designed for communities, primarily targeting gamers, educators, friends, and business people. Users can communicate through messages, images, videos, and audio in the software's chat channels. This software can run on Microsoft Windows, macOS, Android, iOS, Linux, and the web.

As of 2021, the service had over 350 million registered users and over 150 million monthly active users.

In the intelligence leak incident in April of this year, the Discord social site was involved.

Instagram

Web version: https://www.instagram.com/

Instagram, also known as "photo wall," is a mobile-focused social application and platform primarily for sharing photos, acquired by Facebook in 2012. Instagram has a massive user base, surpassing 1 billion users by 2018.

Instagram also contains many social elements; in addition to establishing friendships and general functions like replying or sharing, it also has features like name tagging for quick interaction with strangers.

Pinterest

Web version: https://www.pinterest.com/

Pinterest is a globally renowned image-sharing social website headquartered in Palo Alto, California, USA. It allows for multi-tag classification by theme and serves as a highly creative personal image collection and visual exploration tool.

Similar to Twitter, users can save images they are interested in on Pinterest and share them with other netizens. This has made Pinterest a popular social application, attracting millions of users worldwide with its innovation and interactivity.

VKontakte

Web version: https://vk.com/

VKontakte, abbreviated as VK, is a well-known online social website originating from Russia, headquartered in the Virgin Islands. It is one of the largest websites in Russia, with the majority of its users being citizens of Russian-speaking countries.

VK's functions are very similar to Facebook, allowing users to post their dynamic blogs, which can include images, videos, audio, and location information, while also allowing other users to leave public comments or messages.

Tumblr

Web version: https://www.tumblr.com/

Founded in 2007, Tumblr is one of the largest microblogging websites globally, headquartered in New York, USA. It combines the strengths of traditional blogs and microblogs, characterized by stream-of-consciousness narratives, allowing users to record their daily lives in short blogs and share multimedia and other content.

In addition to common functions like comments and sharing, bloggers can enjoy many interesting features in Tumblr's dashboard. In this innovative way, Tumblr has played a very important role in the establishment and development of microblogging websites.

Snapchat

Web version: https://www.snapchat.com/

Snapchat is a multimedia social instant messaging application focused on mobile devices. Users can easily use it on Android and iOS platforms. One of its most attractive features is its "self-destruct" function, limiting the lifespan of each message to within 10 seconds.

Initially, Snapchat was dedicated to photo sharing between users; now, it not only allows users to process photos and videos using built-in rich filters, lenses, and stickers but also provides user stories and discovery features, arranged in chronological order, along with many interesting features such as augmented reality.

WhatsApp

Web version: https://www.whatsapp.com/

WhatsApp Messenger, abbreviated as WhatsApp, is a free messaging application owned by Facebook that enables cross-platform messaging and voice transmission between smartphones and PCs. Users can send text, voice, and video messages, share images, documents, and location media through this application.

Using this service requires users to provide a standard cellular mobile phone number for registration. As of 2018, WhatsApp had covered Brazil, India, Pakistan, and most of Europe, with over 1.5 billion users worldwide.

Skype

Web version: https://www.skype.com/en/

Skype is an instant messaging application that provides video and voice calling services between connected devices, including mobile phones, tablets, and other internet-connected systems. Users can send and receive instant messages, transfer files, and conduct video conferences through Skype.

Telegram

Web version: https://telegram.org/

Telegram is a Russian instant messaging software released in 2013, one of its founders being the founder of the Russian social platform VK. Telegram allows users to exchange encrypted messages and "self-destruct" messages, with messages in various forms including photos, videos, and audio.

Flickr

Website: https://www.flickr.com/

Flickr is an image hosting service and video hosting service platform created in 2004. Flickr offers two types of accounts: free and professional. The free version currently only allows storage of 1,000 photos and videos, while the length of videos is limited to 3 minutes, whereas the professional version has unlimited storage space.

When users upload images to Flickr, the images form a "photo stream," and all photo streams can be displayed in a reasonable view and can be shown as a slideshow. Users can use titles and text descriptions to tag their images, making them easy to search within Flickr.

Users can organize Flickr photos into "albums," and Flickr also provides the functionality to embed albums into blogs, websites, and forums. Flickr albums represent a form of classified metadata rather than a physical hierarchy.

Flickr can apply geotags to photos in albums, and users can use imapflickr to associate any geotagged album with a map. The generated map can be embedded into websites. Flickr albums can be organized into "collections," which can themselves be further organized into higher-level collections.

Meetup

Website: https://www.meetup.com/

Meetup is a service platform for organizing online groups, established in 2002 and headquartered in New York, USA. This platform hosts face-to-face events for people with similar interests, making it easier to start and operate communities with common regions or interests. Users can communicate online with others who share similar hobbies through Meetup, and Meetup also provides various organizational forms such as seminars and events.

Additionally, the time, location, and theme of events can all be determined by users, who can search for and participate in interest groups that align with their common goals through postal code searches, event areas, and interest tags on the website.

Mixi

Web version: https://mixi.co.jp/en/

Mixi is an online social networking service platform in Japan, founded in 1999 and headquartered in Shibuya, Tokyo. It is the most popular and widely used social platform in Japan, focusing on community entertainment, allowing users to meet new friends based on shared interests.

Unlike Facebook, young people in Japan, especially young women, prefer to use Mixi as a private way to connect with close friends rather than as a public network like Facebook. Registering for Mixi requires a valid Japanese phone number, which strictly limits the social scope to within Japan.

Odnoklassniki

Web version: https://ok.ru/

OK, short for Odnoklassniki, is a social networking service platform from Russia, primarily targeting classmates and old friends, and has been operating for 15 years. It is very popular in Russia and former Soviet countries, ranking among the top ten websites in Russia by traffic.

Although the user base is second only to VK, OK's coverage is also extensive, spanning a wide age range, with a user age limit of 7 years and older.

Facebook Information Acquisition and Analysis

Facebook Advanced Search

Website: https://fb-search.com

Facebook Advanced Search is a powerful free tool that helps you easily find various content on Facebook. Just enter keywords (a word or a group of words) in the search bar, and you can quickly find the content you need.

However, before using this search engine, you need to log into your Facebook account. If you want to find friends, just enter their names and select "People" from the dropdown menu to start searching. In addition to searching for people, you can also search for groups, pages, posts, events, and applications. Once the search is complete, the results will automatically display on the screen, making it easy for you to find the content you want.

Lookup-ID

Website: https://lookup-id.com

Lookup-ID helps users find their Facebook ID for personal profiles or online forums. The Facebook ID is a multi-digit number.

Facebook Like Checker

URL: http://www.fblikecheck.com

Facebook Like Checker is a free application that allows users to check the likes of any Facebook Page in any country or region, making it an excellent tool for statistics on Facebook Pages. This application allows businesses to see where their Facebook page is popular based on likes.

Twitter Information Acquisition and Analysis

Tweet Tunnel

Website: http://tweettunnel.com

Tweet Tunnel is a very interesting website because it adds some features to Twitter that Twitter itself does not have. These features not only enhance the user experience but also bypass some official Twitter restrictions. For example, the message box feature allows users to send messages to people they do not follow, while the old tweets feature lets users view up to 3,200 tweets posted by a person.

Additionally, the friend circle feature helps users discover who is interacting with whom, while the photo library feature allows users to easily access photos and background images posted by other users. Furthermore, the DM ALL feature allows users to send messages to all followers, while the long tweet feature breaks the 140-character limit on Twitter, allowing users to freely express their thoughts.

However, it should be noted that some features may involve privacy issues, and users need to use them cautiously.

Twitonomy

Website: http://www.twitonomy.com

Twitonomy is a powerful Twitter social information visualization analysis tool that can provide detailed visual analysis of any user's tweets, retweets, replies, mentions, and hashtags.

With Twitonomy, you can easily browse, search, filter, and understand the insights of users you follow and those who follow you. Additionally, Twitonomy offers one-click backup, export of tweets, retweets, mentions, and other features, allowing you to stay updated on your Twitter activity and monitor interactions with other users.

If you want to delve deeper into Twitter information, Twitonomy will be an indispensable tool for you. Give it a try!

Enter keywords related to internet open-source intelligence collection and analysis, and this site can generate Twitter-based search analysis based on those keywords or tags. Twitonomy also has some "sniffing features," such as quickly monitoring users you like and listing their detailed interaction reports.

OmniSci Tweetmap

Website: https://scl2-04-gpu03.mapd.com

OmniSci Tweetmap is a powerful interactive search and analysis tool for tweets. Its GPU-driven database and visualization platform aim to provide users with lightning-fast data browsing experiences, quickly bridging the gap between analysts and data.

By leveraging the power of GPU supercomputing, OmniSci can browse billions of tweets from different regions in milliseconds and clearly present the geographical locations of these tweets on a map, helping users quickly understand the popularity or awareness of a topic or keyword in a specific area. This makes OmniSci Tweetmap the best choice for searching and analyzing large-scale Twitter data.

LinkedIn Information Acquisition and Analysis

Dux Soup

Website: https://www.dux-soup.com

Dux Soup is a LinkedIn automation tool that helps users use LinkedIn more intelligently and conveniently. With Dux Soup, users can easily find and attract potential customers, automate leads, and focus more on business development and closing deals.

Dux Soup automatically views users' LinkedIn potential customer profiles and follows their activities, sending personalized messages on behalf of users. Additionally, it can set up an automated follow-up advertisement for potential customers, which will automatically stop when the customer responds.

Moreover, Dux Soup also provides potential customer management features, allowing users to keep notes and tags directly on the LinkedIn profiles they are viewing for easy searching and operations, and even search and operate profiles of unconnected individuals. All of this makes Dux Soup an indispensable assistant for using LinkedIn.

LinkedIn to Username

Website: https://github.com/initstring/linkedin2username

This open-source intelligence tool allows you to easily generate a list of usernames from companies on LinkedIn. This tool uses pure web crawling technology and does not require an API key.

Just log in using a valid LinkedIn username and password and specify a target company, and it will create a list of possible username formats for all employees of that company and crawl the results. For better results, it is recommended to use an account with multiple contacts and add the target company to the contact link. Using this tool, you can quickly and accurately obtain the intelligence you want.

Socilab

Website: http://socilab.com/#home

Socilab is a creative and practical website that provides efficient network visualization and analysis functions for LinkedIn users. As an open-source site, it has been widely used, providing users with interactive tutorials and important support for social resource and social network analysis.

Using Socilab, users can easily visualize and analyze their LinkedIn networks in the browser using social science research methods, which is an extremely convenient and efficient way, holding significant importance for both individuals and businesses in network analysis.

Linked Helper

Website: https://linkedhelper.com

LinkedHelper is your secret weapon for mastering LinkedIn! This application can help newcomers to LinkedIn automate their work and gain thousands of targeted contacts. You can even send personalized invitation messages to second and third contacts, making it more likely for them to become your quality contacts.

Not only that, but it also has an automated email system, an auto-responder, and the ability to send messages to first-degree connections.

III. Community Forum Intelligence Collection#

Community forum intelligence is mainly divided into the following categories:

• 1. Internet communities
• 2. Comprehensive communities
• 3. Q&A communities
• 4. Vertical communities
• 5. Regional communities
• 6. Community information

A community is typically defined as a group of social groups or organizations formed in a specific field that are interrelated, interdependent, and share common values and goals. As a basic component of social organisms, communities are also a microcosm of macro society. In such a group, people can help each other, communicate, develop together, and realize their self-worth. The construction of communities plays a crucial role in the development and progress of society. Online communities share some commonalities with real communities, including certain locations, specific populations, corresponding organizations, community member participation, and some common interests and cultural characteristics. The most important point is that online communities also provide various means of exchanging information, such as discussions, communications, and chats, allowing community residents to interact.

Online communities also have many differences from real communities: first, participants in online communities are not limited by geographical location and can interact anytime and anywhere, which makes the population of online communities more diverse and extensive. Second, members of online communities can maintain relative anonymity and privacy, allowing for freer discussions on certain topics. Third, the culture and interests of online communities tend to be more diverse and specialized, as online communities can accommodate more different types of people and interest groups, while the culture and interests of real communities are constrained by regional and social factors. Online communities are communication spaces in the internet world, including BBS, forums, bulletin boards, group discussions, online chats, friendships, personal spaces, and wireless value-added services. Unlike social media, online communities gather users with common interests, forming a network community around the same theme. The content of online communities is rich and varied, covering topics such as political hot spots, sports news, family trivia, workplace experiences, scientific knowledge, stock investments, historical culture, real estate purchases, car driving, film and television entertainment, and music and art, all of which are topics people are keen to discuss. It can be said that anything people care about in life is a topic of discussion in online communities. Because the content of online communities comes from the general public, it often lacks authority, and many opinions are merely personal views of community users. Many communities can promote content recognized by community members through methods such as agreement and voting.

Reddit
Website: https://www.reddit.com

Reddit is a community website with endless charm, combining entertainment, social interaction, and news. Standing at the forefront of the internet, it provides users with a comprehensive content classification, including news, technology, video games, movies, sports, music, books, fitness, food, image sharing, and more. Here, users can not only enjoy the exciting content of the community but also create original works and share their stories and insights with users worldwide. On this platform, users can publish their content and receive votes and ratings from other users. Depending on the type of content, users can rate it differently, and highly rated content has the opportunity to enter the homepage for more exposure and attention. Additionally, users can comment and reply within the community, interacting with other users and forming an interactive social circle.

Quora
Website: https://www.quora.com

Quora is an online Q&A community that allows you to obtain countless valuable questions and answers. The founders of this website aimed to create a strongly social online knowledge-sharing platform, providing users with a place to solve problems, share experiences, and knowledge. Quora gathers a large number of questions and answers while also allowing users to participate in the collaborative editing of questions and answers. Users can log in using their Google or Facebook accounts, ensuring that content is not indexed by search engines while allowing the public to participate.

Guokr
Website: https://www.guokr.com

Guokr is China's leading pan-science interest community cultural platform, focusing on promoting scientific concepts, providing responsible and interesting science popularization content, and exploring and creating new forms of scientific communication and new consumption scenarios in the new era. Whether in media, education, health, cultural creativity, or consumption, Guokr has a strong business presence, becoming the preferred platform for the public to understand science and explore technology. In addition to indulging in movies, music, and mobile phones, users can also become "long-legged machine bugs" in their spare time, exploring more stars and roadside plants or using scientific knowledge to uncover the truth behind false online rumors. This not only enriches their knowledge base but also helps improve their quality of life and level of thinking.

Guokr has modules for scientists, Q&A, groups, etc. The Q&A module focuses on resolving technology-related confusions and advocates interpreting life from a scientific perspective, while the group module is mainly for community members to exchange interest topics and share new knowledge.

V2EX
Website: https://www.v2ex.com

V2EX, as a community gathering designers, programmers, and creative individuals, is dedicated to giving likes to both technology and creativity. The original intention of this website is to establish different "nodes" through user-generated content to better organize and classify this content, making it easier to search. Additionally, the website adopts a special arrangement method, determining the display priority on the homepage based on content activity. Whether you are interested in technology or creativity, V2EX can provide you with rich resources and a quality communication platform.

OSCHINA (Open Source China)
Website: https://www.oschina.net

Open Source China, established in August 2008, is one of the largest open-source technology communities in China, with over 2 million active members. The community revolves around open-source software repositories, code sharing, news, collaborative translation, code cloud, crowdsourcing, and recruitment, enabling IT developers to discover, use, and communicate about open-source technology. In 2013, Open Source China established a large comprehensive cloud development platform, Code Cloud, providing one-stop services for developers in China, including team collaboration, source code hosting, code quality analysis, code review, testing, and code demonstration platforms. Through Open Source China, you can easily access technical information, share personal code, and contribute to open-source projects, becoming an industry leader and technical elite.

SegmentFault
Website: https://segmentfault.com

SegmentFault is China's leading developer community, gathering over 3 million registered users. Moreover, thousands of technical teams from Tencent, Alibaba, Baidu, Meituan, JD, Didi, 360, and others have stationed in the SegmentFault community. As one of the most active developer communities in China, SegmentFault provides a pure and high-quality technical exchange platform for Chinese developers and continuously pushes the latest industry dynamics to help more developers enhance their cognition and capabilities. Additionally, SegmentFault is also the organizer of the largest hackathon innovation competition in China. Whether you are a novice just starting out or an experienced professional developer, SegmentFault can meet your needs, allowing you to find your own technical exchange space here.

GitHub
Website: https://github.com

GitHub is one of the largest open-source communities in the world, providing a platform for software source code hosting services with version control through Git. In addition to basic web management interfaces and Git code repository hosting functions, GitHub also offers subscription, discussion groups, text rendering, online file editors, collaborative graphs, and code snippet sharing features, making it an ideal platform for developers to communicate and collaborate.

MathOverflow
Website: https://mathoverflow.net

MathOverflow is an interactive mathematics website that is not just a collaborative blog but also a network community of mathematics professionals. Here, users can freely ask questions, answer questions, and vote and comment on other users' questions or answers, with these activities granting you badges and reputation points. The site provides a great platform for knowledge exchange, resource sharing, and social interaction for mathematics enthusiasts. MathOverflow focuses on research questions in mathematics, covering unsolved problems and new knowledge in various fields of modern mathematics. Mathematicians can discuss various issues here, publish articles, review articles, guide graduate students, and even obtain tenured positions. MathOverflow has many top mathematicians, so the site requires that questions posed must be clear and specific and must have a definite answer, rather than being too vague or requiring lengthy discussions to answer. Unlike discussion forums, MathOverflow is designed more for solving problems rather than soliciting opinions.

Zhihu
Website: https://www.zhihu.com

Zhihu is a well-known interactive website in China. It is a question-and-answer community that connects users from various industries. Here, people share their knowledge, experiences, and insights, providing a rich and colorful information resource for the Chinese internet. Zhihu users can engage in in-depth discussions on topics of interest and follow and communicate with like-minded individuals. Unlike online encyclopedias that explain concepts, Zhihu's main feature lies in its integrated divergent thinking, allowing people to freely explore and think in the ocean of knowledge.

Douban
Website: https://www.douban.com

Douban, a website that starts with books, movies, and music, provides users with a wealth of data about works. Users can find exciting descriptions and reviews of books, movies, and music, and enjoy various service functions such as recommendations for books and movies, offline local activities, and group topic exchanges. These service functions make Douban not only a taste system but also a system for expression and communication. Douban attracts a group of young people with good educational backgrounds who love life, enjoy reading, watching movies, and listening to music, and are enthusiastic about participating in Douban groups and small stations, engaging in lively discussions about eating, dressing, living, and traveling. Here, you can freely express your comments on books, movies, and music and search for others' recommendations.

Facebook Groups
Website: https://www.facebook.com/groups

In October 2010, Mark Zuckerberg highlighted the Facebook Groups feature at a highly publicized press conference. This feature not only allows users to easily connect but also to meet like-minded new friends, share knowledge, and seek help. On Facebook, individual users can easily create their own groups. This feature is widely used because group members can share various types of content, including links, media, questions, and events, and can edit and comment on documents. Whether you want to establish a small community or share industry insights with professional peers, Facebook Groups is a very suitable choice. By creating a group, you can easily share your views with others, showcase your skills and knowledge, and build stronger connections with your audience. Groups have different levels of privacy settings: "Open" means that group information and discussion content are visible to the public (including non-members), and non-members need to join the group to participate in discussions.

Google Groups
Website: https://groups.google.com

Google Groups is a platform that allows any user to engage in free topic discussions via the web or email. This forum includes at least two types of discussion groups: the first type is discussion groups specifically for Google Groups, similar to mailing lists; the second type is Usenet newsgroups accessible via NNTP, with Google Groups serving as its gateway and unofficial archive. You can easily participate in discussions on various topics and conveniently track topics of interest via email or the web. Whether you are a beginner or an expert, this forum will provide you with an opportunity to learn and communicate.

4chan
Website: https://www.4chan.org

Related link: From Discord to 4chan: The Origins of the U.S. Intelligence Leak

4chan is a highly discussed anonymous forum with a wide variety of topics and dedicated boards. Whether you have a preference for anime, games, music, literature, fitness, politics, or sports, there is a corresponding community here. As an anonymous community, it allows you to express your opinions freely and share ideas with people from around the world while making new friends. 4chan does not require registration, and users typically post anonymously.

SomethingAwful
Website: https://www.somethingawful.com

SomethingAwful is a comprehensive community website that combines blog articles, forums, feature articles, images, and humorous media reviews. Initially just a personal website, it has grown over time with more contributors and content being added.

Q&A Communities

Answers
Website: https://www.answers.com

Answers is a knowledge exchange community that gathers millions of user-generated questions and answers. Registered users can participate in interactions and discuss various issues with other users. In addition to rich community Q&A and reference information, Answers also launched a video library as part of a collaboration with video sites, providing users with a more vivid and intuitive way to present knowledge. Now, users can discuss any questions on the site, covering multiple categories such as science, mathematics, law, and history. Additionally, the homepage displays trending questions and unanswered questions in real-time, helping users quickly find content they are interested in.

Gutefrage
Website: https://www.gutefrage.net

Gutefrage is a well-known German Q&A website established in July 2006. Its answers are all provided by users, with high user contributions. The site ranks in the top 20 on Alexa and is popular among German users. Whether seeking answers to questions or sharing knowledge and experience, Gutefrage is a great platform.

Stack Exchange
Website: https://stackexchange.com

Stack Exchange is a network of Q&A websites covering various topics, with each site focusing on a specific subject. Each Stack Exchange site has a common goal of providing a platform for users to post questions and answers. Through this platform, users can vote on their own and others' questions and answers, gaining reputation points, which gamifies the community. These points are not just a symbol of reputation but can also grant users privileges such as voting, commenting, and managing the site. Additionally, all questions, answers, and users must adhere to the reputation point system, which ensures order and quality on the site, allowing users to better obtain knowledge and assistance.

Vertical Communities

BlackHatWorld
Website: https://www.blackhatworld.com

BlackHatWorld (BHW) is an internet forum focused on black hat search engine optimization techniques and services. On this forum, you can communicate with black hat SEO experts from around the world, sharing their latest tips and strategies. The site offers a wide variety of services, including copywriting, graphic design, web design, SEO, and more. Additionally, they excel in both on-site and off-site optimization, social media marketing, application development, and other fields. BlackHatWorld has a user community that shows a strong interest in online marketing and digital business, where people can share ideas and seek advice from other members. BlackHatWorld is considered one of the largest online forums for digital marketing.

DigitalSpy
Website: https://forums.digitalspy.com

DigitalSpy is a leading entertainment, television, and movie website based in the UK, with a globally renowned brand. Since its establishment in 1999, DigitalSpy has been dedicated to providing viewers with the latest, most interesting, and valuable entertainment news related to television programs, movies, and performance businesses. In addition to the content on the website, the DigitalSpy forum also has an active community, including discussion areas for film, sports, entertainment, and games, as well as general discussion areas covering politics, food, pets, and more. On DigitalSpy, no matter what you are interested in, you can find a community that shares your passion and exchange exclusive information and opinions with other movie, television, and entertainment enthusiasts.

GameFAQs
Website: https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com

GameFAQs is a comprehensive website aimed at providing information related to video games, founded by Jeff Veasey in November 1995. On this site, users can access game data, cheat codes, game reviews, save data, game images, and screenshots. Most of this data comes from user submissions, and all submitted content is published on the site after being screened by administrators. At the same time, authors retain the copyright of the submitted materials, and their names are listed in the site's "Contributors" section. GameFAQs is a very active community, with each game having its own independent discussion board. Whether you are a beginner or a veteran, you can freely discuss game strategies and other game-related topics here. Additionally, the community also provides various sections