Certified DoD All-Source Analysis (CDASA) Practice Test

When analysts work with publicly available information (PAI) that didn’t come from an IC-produced open-source report, they can create their own metadata to describe the source. This practice helps capture details the official open-source products might not cover—things like the source type (news site, blog, social media), date and location of publication, language, credibility or potential biases, and any limitations on what the information can support. Having these self-made descriptors improves traceability, allows better assessment of reliability, and makes it easier to integrate the material into analysis with clear provenance. This isn’t limited to unclassified material; the key idea is documenting and tagging PAI sources so teammates understand what the source is, where it came from, and how trustworthy it might be. It’s an internal, practical way to manage diverse open data without waiting for a formal IC descriptor to exist.