Flashpoint Acquires Open Source Intelligence Leader Echosec Systems
VICTORIA – Flashpoint, the globally trusted leader in actionable intelligence, announced recently that it has acquired Echosec Systems, a leading provider of open-source intelligence (OSINT) and publicly available information (PAI) for national security, public safety, and enterprise customers. With this acquisition, Flashpoint will significantly expand its OSINT capabilities to drive on-the-ground situational awareness, executive protection, geopolitical risk assessments, counterterrorism, misinformation and disinformation identification and response, and crisis response.
Intelligence practitioners are witnessing a revolution in how OSINT can be used to support cyber and physical security missions around the world. Based in Victoria, BC, Echosec is a leader in collecting and disseminating mission-critical open-source intelligence in support of these goals. Echosec empowers its users to bridge the gap between the digital and physical worlds through OSINT and PAI, including an extensive array of social media and geospatial collections, to protect people, assets, and infrastructure.
For over a decade, Flashpoint has been a leader in delivering an actionable suite of intelligence solutions, derived from PAI, chat services, foreign-language forums, criminal marketplaces, paste sites, and illicit communities across the internet. By leveraging Echosec’s social media collections and geospatial insights, Flashpoint significantly expands its capabilities to deliver the world’s most robust combination of data, analytics, and automation across a wide range of security use cases.
“Intelligence practitioners require a converged, user-focused solution that includes insights derived from both open and closed intelligence sources,” says Flashpoint President Donald Saelinger. “Integrating Echosec’s worldwide social media collections, intuitive interface, and industry expertise into Flashpoint will deliver unparalleled value to our customers, to help them best identify and mitigate all types of risk.”
“We’re thrilled to join Flashpoint and unlock a new dimension in OSINT and risk intelligence,” says Echosec Systems CTO Michael Raypold. “Combining Echosec’s usability and geospatial capabilities with Flashpoint’s differentiated intelligence will enable our customers to understand, contextualize, and respond to emerging threats in an information environment spanning social media, technical and attack surface indicators, vulnerabilities and breaches, and deep and dark web sources.”
