Open Source Intelligence is an ever-evolving field of work so it’s important to keep up-to-date with new techniques and tools available to us. Whether you’re new to OSINT or you have been engaged in the topic for a while, it’s natural to feel overwhelmed by the amount of OSINT resources shared online.
It’s important to note that while OSINT isn’t about collecting tools, and resources with the hope we will use them one day. Moreover the purpose is to use OSINT tools effectively and use critical thinking and analytical skills to give meaning to the data collected. Read more about a blog post by Dutch OSINT Guy “OSINT as a mindset” which explains why it’s important to have a search plan and focus on methodology: ”https://medium.com/secjuice/osint-as-a-mindset-7d42ad72113d
So let’s get into the meat and potatoes of this post. There are several different ways one might keep up-to-date with OSINT content. Here are a few ideas to get you started:
- Use Twitter’s search bar. Search for keywords like OSINT, which stands for open source intelligence, or SOCMINT which, stands for social media intelligence. If you’re searching for privacy content, search for OPSEC, for operational security, or just the words privacy or security. All of these keywords have been used to post about OSINT related content. The beauty of searching for keywords like OSINT is that you will find Twitter users who post regularly on the topic of OSINT – and that’s where the next tip comes in handy.
- Use Tweetdeck to set up a dashboard to follow keywords or hashtags such as OSINT, SOCMINT and so on. There’s more! Once you identify accounts you want to follow (people that post OSINT content on a regular basis) add them as a user so you can monitor the Tweets they send out. Tweetdeck is an easy and free option to monitor and track users and keywords.
- Read Sector035’s Week in OSINT which is published every Monday morning at 08:00 CEST. Follow Sector035 on Twitter for updates. Something similar but different is Lorand Bodo’s weekly curated list of Tweets relating to OSINT, terrorism, and extremism. Follow Lorand for updates. Remember that when you see tools posted, the best way to understand how a tool works is to test it out and explore the tool/resource yourself. Make an assessment of whether the tool is useful for the OSINT work you do or if you don’t currently work in the field, think of how an OSINT person could apply it.
- Start Me pages are often used for bookmarking OSINT tools. Griffin who is on Twitter as Hatless1der has a good OSINT focused Start Me page: https://start.me/p/DPYPMz/the-ultimate-osint-collection
If you want to discover other OSINT Start Me pages, use the Google Dork “site:” in Google
Site:start.me “osint”
Site:start.me “socmint”
Site:start.me “opsec”
Alternatively you can use the Google Dork “inurl:”
inurl:start.me “osint”
inurl:start.me “socmint”
inurl:start.me “opsec”
This can often provide you with OSINT, SOCMINT or OPSEC Start Me pages that are not commonly known.
- YouTube can be a good resource to learn about OSINT resources/techniques for free. If you’re a visual learner there are some excellent OSINT techniques explained step by step on channels by Benjamin Strick and OSINT Dojo.
- Look for the latest OSINT related conferences and see if they have any free talks posted online. For instance, check out the recent Layer 8 conference talks here: https://www.youtube.com/c/Layer8Conference
- Learn from others on forums like https://www.reddit.com/r/OSINT. People who want to learn more about OSINT and have questions will regularly post in this subreddit.
- Get on the OSINT Curious Discord channel and engage us! https://discord.com/invite/FHagzwXqbT
Hopefully this short blog post provides you with some ideas as to where you can find some up-to-date OSINT content. Everyone has their personal preferences with how to find information online, as noted above, there is something for everyone, whether you prefer reading blog posts, watching YouTube videos, or finding content by running your own searches.
Happy Hunting and stay OSINT curious!