The classic notion of border security – armed agents scanning distant horizons and drug-sniffing dogs working checkpoints – is giving way to a new reality: that it also requires analysts hunched over keyboards, tracking digital breadcrumbs across an ever-expanding volume of online platforms. This shift isn’t just changing how we secure our borders – it’s redefining what a “border” means in the digital age.
Recent US administration executive orders on border security acknowledge an uncomfortable truth: our borders are now as much virtual as physical. Transnational criminal organizations are building sophisticated digital networks, using everything from WhatsApp to cryptocurrency to orchestrate their operations. We can’t stop 21st-century threats with 20th-century thinking.
US border security and national security agencies must act quickly to address these new presidential directives. They urgently need to implement enhanced vetting and threat assessment programs to screen all aliens to the maximum degree possible, particularly those from high-risk regions, and address individuals associated with transnational criminal organizations (TCOs) now designated Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTOs) and Specially Designated Global Terrorists (SDGTs).
This is where artificial intelligence and open-source intelligence (OSINT) enter the picture – not as sci-fi solutions, but as essential tools for a transformed battlefield. When criminal networks can coordinate across continents in seconds, human analysts alone can’t keep up. AI can process vast amounts of social media chatter, dark web forums, and networks and relationships to spot patterns that would take human analysts months to identify.
Dr. Brenton Cooper
CEO & Co-Founder
“It requires a fundamental rethinking of what border security means in an age where threats can materialize from a keyboard thousands of miles away. Our border security agencies need a cultural shift as much as a technological one.
The future of border security won’t be found in higher walls or more checkpoints, but in the intelligent integration of AI and human expertise.”
Read the ebook: The Role of AI and Machine Learning in OSINT
However, the ‘urgency and precision’ with which the Presidential executive orders must be carried out means that the luxury of AI experimentation cannot be afforded. AI must be applied in a tangible, practical, and results-oriented way.
I recently met with Kristin Wood, Fivecast Advisor and former Chief of Innovation and Technology at the CIA Open Source Center. She provided her insights on the role of technology in this new border security reality:
Kristin Wood
Former Chief of Innovation and Technology at the CIA Open Source Center
“During my experience at the CIA Open Source Center, I witnessed the power of what can happen when new AI innovations are applied to national security challenges. That’s why I work with Fivecast to advise their clients and partners on adopting AI-enabled OSINT in a practical way that delivers tangible results quickly. It’s behind-the-scenes technological innovations like Fivecast ONYX that are actually making a difference in national security challenges like the deadly fentanyl crisis ravaging American communities. The impact of these advanced tools is evident in recent high-profile successes, such as the July 2024 arrest of Sinaloa Cartel leaders Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada-Garcia and Joaquin Guzman Lopez following extensive intelligence operations. As CBP senior official Troy Miller recently noted, these enhanced enforcement efforts have already led to record fentanyl seizures.
Fivecast has a mission to enable a safer world, and it is a leader in applying AI and machine learning to OSINT, uncovering critical insights in masses of online digital data, those that would be missed with manual investigative analysis processes. I’m proud to be working with them.”
