Military and government leaders need up-to-the-minute intelligence on adversary activity, ground conditions, and emerging threats to support force protection and mission readiness. Yet despite access to more information than ever before, many intelligence teams still struggle to answer a critical question: Where are adversaries operating, and how do their digital activities translate into real-world operations?
Investigators today have access to an unprecedented volume of open-source and commercially available data. However, data alone does not produce intelligence. The challenge lies in connecting information across domains quickly enough to support operational decision-making.
When combined with other intelligence disciplines, OSINT can help bridge this gap. Open-source intelligence can establish an actor’s online identity, public activities, affiliations, and networks. Commercially available geolocation data can add the spatial layer, helping analysts understand where individuals operate, how they move, and what patterns of life emerge over time.
Together, these intelligence sources enable analysts to connect actors, locations, and patterns of movement and behavior, transforming fragmented data into actionable intelligence.
A February 2026 report by CheckFirst demonstrated how phaleristics and traditional OSINT techniques can be used to uncover the infrastructure of one of Russia’s intelligence units. Using this research as a starting point, Maltego expanded the investigation to identify additional locations of interest and uncover operational relationships through infrastructure and geospatial link analysis.
We applied this approach to identify and analyze the operational footprint of publicly identified Russian military units. By combining open source intelligence with commercially available intelligence, we moved beyond digital personas and online activity to uncover indicators of real-world operational presence.
This report demonstrates how analysts can combine multiple intelligence disciplines to build deeper situational awareness, uncover operational patterns, and support mission-critical decision-making using unclassified intelligence.
Download the investigation report to gain insight into the methodology, analytical workflow, and key findings behind this investigation. Discover how OSINT and geospatial intelligence can be combined to bridge the gap between digital and physical investigations.
Note: Due to the sensitive nature of this content, the investigation report is available only to qualified organizations. All requests are subject to a review and vetting process before access is granted. Please register using your business email address.
Download the resource
If you have any questions, please contact us at marketing@maltego.com. To explore this investigation in greater depth and see how Maltego’s other capabilities could support these workflows, request a demo.
Enjoy exploring the resource!
