RFI-Open source intellegence tools.pdf

FEDERAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION

FINANCE and FACILITIES DIVISION |

PROCUREMENT SECTION

REQUEST FOR INFORMATION (RFI) –

OPEN-SOURCE INTELLIGENCE TOOLS

REQUEST FOR INFORMATION (RFI)

December 16, 2024

Information Technology Acquisitions Unit

FEDERAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION

FINANCE and FACILITIES DIVISION |

PROCUREMENT SECTION

REQUEST FOR INFORMATION (RFI) –

DISCLAIMER:

THIS NOTICE IS FOR INFORMATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY. THIS IS NOT A REQUEST

FOR PROPOSAL OR QUOTE. IT DOES NOT CONSTITUTE A SOLICITATION AND

SHALL NOT BE CONSTRUED AS A COMMITMENT BY THE GOVERNMENT.

RESPONSES IN ANY FORM ARE NOT OFFERS AND THE GOVERNMENT IS UNDER

NO OBLIGATION TO AWARD A CONTRACT AS A RESULT OF THIS

ANNOUNCEMENT. NO FUNDS ARE AVAILABLE TO PAY FOR PREPARATION OF

RESPONSES TO THIS ANNOUNCEMENT. ANY INFORMATION SUBMITTED BY

RESPONDENTS TO THIS TECHNICAL DESCRIPTION IS STRICTLY VOLUNTARY.

INTRODUCTION

The United States Department of Justice (DOJ), Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Directorate of Intelligence (DI), Information Technology Section (ITS) is seeking vendor-supported Open-Source Intelligence (OSINT) tools and services that collect Publicly Available

Information (PAI) and / or Commercially Available Information (CAI) from the internet and social media platforms.

Responses to this RFI may be used to formulate final requirements and/or to identify qualified vendors capable of meeting those requirements. The description below outlines preliminary requirements envisioned for the FBI’s Open-Source Intelligence (OSINT) Tools Indefinite

Delivery Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) contract, hereafter referred as OSINT IDIQ. Responses to the RFI should include detailed information on potential software and products and how the FBI could best implement them, as well as potential costs for implementation (e.g., licensing prices).

The FBI may request demonstrations of proposed products and solutions after responses are received. The information gathered may be used to formulate acquisition strategies for competitive solicitations.

BACKGROUND

The Directorate of Intelligence (DI) of the FBI manages the Social Media Program, providing tools and training to assist Headquarters Divisions and Field Offices in conducting Social Media research and searches nationwide. The DI Social Media Program ensures that users have tools required to search for internet threats, along with the training that is needed to perform these searches under the Privacy and Civil Liberties rules.

The growing use of the internet has created significant opportunities for people to create, share and exchange information, but also opportunities for threat actors to engage in a variety of criminal activities. While increasing access to virtual mediums continues to grow and diversify, terrorists, violent extremists, malicious cyber actors, and foreign adversaries take advantage by having greater opportunities to make criminal threats, traffic individuals and drugs, commit fraud, and execute cyberattacks. With over 2.414 billion Facebook and 237 million Twitter (X) users, identifying threat-related data relevant to an authorized law enforcement purpose can be challenging. However, efficiently identifying, organizing, and analyzing lawfully collected publicly available and commercially available data is paramount to preventing, investigating, and defeating threats to our nation and American interests abroad. OSINT tools that capture such relevant information are important in helping the FBI solve the complexities of this multifaceted problem.

The acquisition strategy is to provide multiple options for such OSINT Tools, to serve multiple investigative threat types and use cases, and meet the needs of a diverse user base.

The objective of the Request for Information (RFI) is to survey the landscape of OSINT tools that exist across the market and meet the requirements set forth below. The FBI is looking both at major Social Media collection systems and specialized, smaller systems that may contain focused information collection capabilities. Ultimately the FBI intends to develop a storefront of approved tools by leveraging the Indefinite Delivery Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) type of contract vehicle with resources that align with the needs, requirements, and specifications for FBI use.

Requirements of the RFI:

The FBI requests capability statements of professional services firms with expertise in open-source intelligence software, to include publicly available and commercially available information platform offerings. The intent of this Request for Information (RFI) is to obtain information that will assist the FBI in determining the market for independent, professional firms that have the capability to monitor surface, deep, and dark web-based collections and social media content leveraging threat-based analytics and intelligence expertise. There is crucial need for accessible data sources to provide a diverse and reliable range of collections across internet-based platforms including but not limited to social media, video-streaming, blogs, news, and chat rooms. The ability to segment and customize data collection capabilities is important for tools to align with authorized law-enforcement usage. More detailed requirements are found below. The

FBI also requests explanations of additional, new, or cutting-edge capabilities that a company may provide which were not requested, but which might be of interest to the FBI and add value to this contract.

A note about PAI and CAI: Below are definitions of PAI and CAI as used by the FBI in this document.

Publicly Available Information (PAI):

Any information or data about an individual or group of individuals, including their devices or locations, that is made is accessible to the general public, governmental, or nongovernmental entities without any special permissions or qualifications.

Commercially Available Information (CAI):

Any information or data about an individual or group of individuals, including their devices or locations, that is made available or obtainable and sold, leased, or licensed to the general public, governmental, or nongovernmental entities. This CAI definition includes PAI, and hereafter shall be indicated as CAI to include both types of information.

Note on AdTech: One source of CAI that is not sought in this RFI is Advertising Technology

(AdTech) or the use of Mobile Advertising IDs (MAIDs), where users’ location data can be obtained and tracked. If any offerors have AdTech in their systems, this capability must be disabled before FBI use.

CONTRACTOR QUALIFICATIONS

For this RFI market research only, to request input from potential providers, the FBI is seeking vendors who supply the Open-Source Intelligence (OSINT) tools and services, not re-sellers. No re-sellers will be considered valid submitters. The Offerors in this RFI should be able to describe how they provide Commercially Available Information (CAI) from their internet and social media platforms.

This RFI envisions responses from two types of vendors, as described below. Respondent companies must state which category they are responding for.

I. Major: large-scale, Open-Source Systems- Vendors should have broad internet search capabilities across many major social media websites with the flexibility to adjust CAI sources as the social media landscape diversifies (as described in the requirements). The tool should enable users to conduct research on the lawfully obtained CAI data using various analytic and filtering capabilities. In addition, the tool should have the ability to present search results in various formats. Note: All Requirements listed below are applicable to any system in this first category.

II. Specialized: small-scale, “niche” Open-Source Systems- Vendors should have niche or specialized capabilities for one or very few web sources, or which provide access and processing of internet CAI information in a way that adds value and insight.

Examples include:

• Vendors offering special access to difficult-to-find data sources

• Vendors that provide specialized review, sorting, and processing capabilities on important internet data sets

Note: Not all requirements listed below are applicable to specialized systems. Thus, the requirements below indicate if they are applicable to this smaller subset of tools.

This RFI is open only to US-based companies. They may be other-than small businesses as well as small businesses, 8(a), minority-owned, and other specialty classes of businesses. While it is not a requirement for submission to this RFI, for the major system option, companies with facilities clearances and the ability to provide up to TS-cleared support personnel are preferred.

The Government seeks to know which firms can provide the designated services and products for this contemplated requirement by identifying themselves and responding to this RFI. The

Government requests the following information:

1. Company name and business size.

2. Provide evidence and descriptions that show your company can provide the requested services and/or products required (i.e. technical ability, personnel, and experience).

Information provided shall be succinct and related to the requested requirements in this

RFI. All submissions shall be unclassified.

3. State whether your company is found on GSA Schedule and if they are capable of providing these services on schedule. If able to provide the services on schedule, provide the schedule and SIN.

4. Provide evidence that this effort is commercial or non-commercial.

5. Any other assumptions, comments, concerns, and/or questions relating to the contemplated services.

Required Information:

Contractor Legal/DBA Name:

Company Address:

Point of Contact:

Telephone:

Email Address:

Unique Entity ID (UEI)::

Cage Code:

Facility Clearance (if applicable):

Applicable NAICS Codes:

Standard Business Size:

GSA Schedule:

NASA SEWP Contract:

CONTEMPLATED REQUIREMENTS

The FBI’s Directorate of Intelligence (DI), Information Technology Section (ITS) is issuing this

Request for Information (RFI) to:

• Gather industry information on the enclosed requirements.

• Request information on any industry changes or improvements that the FBI should consider when looking to achieve products and capabilities that meet requirements and are compatible with the commercial environment.

• Request information on potential barriers to obtaining solutions that meet objectives needed to accomplish stated requirements. The areas of interest for contemplated requirements and scenarios are addressed below.

The requirements are grouped into two main categories:

• Mandatory Requirements for All Applicants, and

• Additional Requirements Sought.

If a vendor does not have the capabilities of fulfilling the first set of requirements, they will not be given consideration in the review of responses.

Mandatory Requirements for All Applicants

Capability Definition Notes

US Company

(Applies to

Major and

Specialized

Respondents)

Vendor must be a US company or subsidiary.

No foreign companies will be considered.

Only Core Open

Source companies accepted for this

RFI

(Major and

No re-sellers will be considered.

User-friendly

UI

Intuitive UI that is easily navigated by non-technical users. Allows user to populate and analyze search results.

Searches are often complicated to set up and returns can be hard to interpret;

therefore, the tool must have an intuitive

UI that users can easily configure.

Relevant / accurate search results

Respondents)

User receives relevant results for a topic, location of interest, individual/business, and/or identifier(s), (e.g., user ID/account number, telephone number, email address).

Result details include where information was originally derived, for the purposes of serving legal process, when necessary.

Vendor should also explain how long data is retained in the system, and whether unnecessary returns can be removed during review of data returns.

Training /

Guidance

Respondents)

User has access to training and best practices for tool usage. Vendor provides both live and on-line training.

Of special interest:

• Human support during interactive trainings, whether in-person or virtual;

• On-demand training options to supplement human support

• Preferred but Optional: FBI may request cleared staff for support; up to TS is desirable

(applicable to Major systems only)

Export capability for data returns, via API and from

GUI

User can export data from tool via

API and/or GUI.

User can access data via API to ingest and analyze and export from the GUI (e.g., csv format) and/or upload and serialize (e.g., pdf report, audio or video file, etc.).

Export analysis and results to incorporate into work products.

User support

Respondents)

User has access to a support team to assist with resolving issues, providing guidance, etc

Request is to have:

• For major systems: A support team, POC, or phone number needs to be available 24/7 on-call for issues.

• For all systems: During business hours human support should be able to field questions in real-time

• For major systems: Optional but

Preferred: Cleared personnel to provide necessary level of support in utilizing tool to best produce actionable analytic insights and intel products. DD-254 is necessary for those cleared personnel.

Technical system support

Personnel available to conduct system improvements/upgrades specific to

FBI customer

Vendor shall be able to accommodate, within reason, modifications and adjustments required for legal processing purposes.

User Account

Management /

Reporting

Tool provides administrator management capabilities that track user accounts, and provides useful

Tool should include features for administrators to manage and track user accounts, including controlling user stats / reports on tool usage to the

Government.

permissions, analyzing user statistics, and generating usage reports.

Tool should be able to handle both large numbers of accounts (e.g., up to 3000 users) and smaller numbers (e.g., 5-10) as the Government may require.

How a Vendor retains FBI users’ data and if there are any reporting requirements for

Vendors back to data resellers are questions that the Vendor has to be prepared to answer.

ADDITIONAL

REQUIREMENTS

SOUGHT

Note: It is expected that Major Tools can meet all or most of the requirements below. Specialized tools may only meet some of the requirements, depending on what each tool does.

User enabled ad hoc searches

User has capability to perform in platform one- time manual searches.

Capable of sorting and filtering results, including but not limited to location, chronological listing of returns, age / demographics, etc.

User enabled persistent searches

User can create and run persistent searches across multiple data sources to collect over time without having to actively recreate and perform multiple queries.

User can customize how to leverage the data (not just traditional text-based queries, but other ways to shape the findings, such as geolocation, date/time range, image-based searches, social network based, etc.).

Access to data sources

User has access to a comprehensive array of data sources including but not limited to mainstream and emerging social media, deep/dark web, person/business records.

Data sources limited to Publicly available information (PAI) and commercially available information (CAI) (defined on cover page).

Specialized data sources such as Cyber, dark web, and hard-to-access platforms will also be considered as adding extra value.

Backend system capability must be possible to restrict user access to certain

CAI, i.e. ADtech/ADID.

Real-time alerts, push alerts

User receives push alerts in real-time/near-time based on established search criteria should provide awareness before events are broken/ reported by the news.

Push alerts must be received in real-time, but not later than 10 mins of content being posted on the web (i.e., alerts are sent with little to no lag time).

Collaborative

Features

Users can share, review, and collaborate on searches, alerts, analytic results, etc.

Features support a collaborative environment. Of special interest, the ability to:

• Share data streams and filters

• Flag, tag, comment, annotate data returns

• Jointly review results with other users

• Build profiles of topics

Network Analysis

User can view connections between subject/posters and the subject’s network, including catalogs of friends, follower lists, and biographical details (e.g., this feature could be used to find mutual connections between individuals).

System produces useful returns in formats including but not limited to visual and interactive reports.

• Use of useful sorting and displaying techniques, such as word clouds and other ways to make review more efficient.

Advanced analytics (AI)

Tool provides analytical capabilities including but not limited to AI, natural language processing (NLP) and/or machine learning (ML) analytic capabilities.

Include AI features such as: Sentiment

Analysis capabilities (e.g., violence indicator, emotion analysis)

Details about the tool analytic processes that are used to support these capabilities may need to be shared with Government

(e.g., how are data trained, what analytic results are provided. This can include threshold detection, changing trends, etc.).

Provide narrative / event tracking, also called “event timeline.”

ability to project the likely future trends based on the current state of the data.

Ability to link entities across platforms, including aliases, usernames, etc.

Geospatial search capabilities

Ability to search by region/state, city, and custom geo-fencing bounding boxes. Can include geo-fencing, geo-inferencing, and map visualizations.

The tool should provide the ability to focus on customer-specified location areas of interest (e.g., user can select location-

FBI defined areas such as Field Office coverage areas (Areas of

Responsibilities, AORs) should be possible. Can include whole states, specific counties, etc.

User can pair keyword searches with geospatial capabilities to view all social media postings for a specific area.

specific boundaries / regions when searching/analyzing results/etc.).

Include which data sources are provided in a geo search.

Provide location based on back-ground images / geo features.

Video and/or image capture;

video and/or image recognition; video and/or image analysis; video and/or image search

User can capture and screenshot videos, images, background text, and ephemeral content (e.g., content from

Instagram stories, Snapchat) image recognition capabilities that identify objects, faces, text, etc., within an image or video.

Details about how the tool processes and analyzes images and videos, and whether users can perform image-and object-based searches.

Provide deep fake / BOT identification ability.

Foreign Language

Detection and

Translation

Capability

Tool provides embedded translation capabilities for languages of interest, including the ability to perform automated translation (Spanish, French, German, Chinese, Russian, Arabic, Farsi, Dari, etc)

Tool should provide embedded translation

(i.e., translation should be performed within the tool and should not be sent externally to process via an open-source capability, e.g., Google Translate).

Managed

Attribution (MA)

Vendor and tool ensure operational security and proactively protect customer / user’s online presence

(e.g., the vendor and tool perform actions and/or provide features that mask identities and enable customers and users to search and access data anonymously).

Required: Vendor should provide explanation of the logistics and practices of how the tool manages attribution (e.g., embedded foreign language considerations, when it is necessary to go to original source website, etc.).

If user must leave the tool to access certain information, system must warn user.

Optional but preferred: Full managed attribution where any social media returns can be viewed in the source system without seeming to come from FBI, or even the US.

It should be clear to user if they are viewing a return behind this MA wall or not.

DISCLAIMER and RESPONSES

THERE IS NO COMMITMENT BY THE GOVERNMENT TO ISSUE A

SOLICITATION AS A RESULT OF THIS RFI. THIS IS BEING ISSUED SOLEY FOR

INFORMATIONAL AND PLANNING PURPOSES AND DOES NOT CONSTITUTE A

SOLICTIATION. IN ACCORDANCE WITH FAR 15.202(e), RESPONSES TO THIS

NOTICE ARE NOT OFFERS AND CANNOT BE ACCEPTED BY THE GOVERNMENT

TO FORM A BINDING CONTRACT. THIS IS NOT A REQUEST FOR PROPOSAL OR

QUOTE. IT DOES NOT CONSTITUTE A SOLICITATION AND SHALL NOT BE

CONSTRUED AS A COMMITMENT BY THE GOVERNMENT. RESPONSES IN ANY

FORM ARE NOT OFFERS AND THE GOVERNMENT IS UNDER NO OBLIGATION

TO AWARD A CONTRACT AS A RESULT OF THIS ANNOUNCEMENT. NO FUNDS

ARE AVAILABLE TO PAY FOR PREPARATION OF RESPONSES TO THIS

ANNOUNCEMENT. ANY INFORMATION SUBMITTED BY RESPONDENTS TO THIS

TECHNICAL DESCRIPTION IS STRICTLY VOLUNTARY.

WHAT SHOULD BE INCLUDED IN YOUR RESPONSE

1. All interested parties shall submit capability packages in response to this notice.

2. Do submit succinct, thoughtful responses to the requirements/questions listed in this RFI.

3. Do submit comments that address the FBI's requirements, assumptions, conditions or contemplated approaches to this future acquisition.

4. Do submit information and suggestions that may encourage new, different, or innovative approaches that would result in products, solutions, and direct savings to the FBI.

WHAT SHOULD NOT BE INCLUDED IN YOUR RESPONSE

1. Do not submit proposals or offers.

2. Do not submit past performance information or general descriptions of corporate experience.

3. Do not submit requests to be considered for award or to be notified of a future solicitation.

4. Do not submit requests to be added to a mailing list or distribution list.

5. Do not submit questions or comments not related to this RFI.

6. Do not submit information on capabilities that are planned but do not exist in your system today.

7. Do not respond via telephone.

RFI RESPONSE INSTRUCTIONS:

The subject line of the email correspondence shall read: Social Media RFI Response

(Company Name).

Questions regarding this RFI are due by 5:00PM EST on January 13, 2025. Questions shall be submitted via e-mail to the Contracting Officer, Harriett Williams

(hlwilliams2@fbi.gov) and Contract Specialist, Joseph Spatafore (jspatafore@fbi.gov).

Oral questions will NOT be accepted. The Government does not guarantee that questions received after that date and time will be answered. Questions shall NOT contain classified information. To the maximum extent possible, the Government will strip all questions and responses of proprietary information (as indicated by the respondent) and make collective responses available to all interested parties by 5:00PM EST on January 20, 2024.

All responses shall be submitted electronically in Microsoft Word or Portable Document

Format (PDF) format and shall not exceed 15 pages. All responses should be e-mailed no later than 5:00 PM EST on January 27, 2025, to Harriett Williams and Joseph Spatafore.

E-mail verification will be sent upon receipt.

The cost of responding to the RFI shall be exclusively borne by the organization submitting the information. No costs will be reimbursed by the Government. The FBI makes no implied or in fact contract by issuing this RFI.

All clarifications, questions, and responses must be made via email. All questions regarding this RFI shall be in writing. No phone calls will be accepted. Phone messages will not be returned.