In the first Ten Minute Tip in this series we saw how to use EXIF data to geolocate an image. Unfortunately most images found on the internet have their EXIF data removed, so this approach is not always possible. However we also began to use a three-step methodology to geolocate images, and we can apply this even when there is no metadata to help us … Continue reading Ten Minute Tip: Image Geolocation Part 2
After an exciting week where the whole world was tracking the EVER GIVEN, the large container ship stuck in the Suez Canal, we put together a live stream to discuss Maritime OSINT! In this stream, we talked about various ways to track the movements of vessels large and small. We also talked about ways to use social media, job boards, real-estate, and shipspotting sites to … Continue reading Maritime Live Stream Notes 4/1/21
The Internet Archive, commonly known as the Wayback Machine allows users to visit archived versions of websites. The Internet Archive has been archiving sites since 1996 and has 514 billion archived web pages! If you are wondering how you can use the Internet Archive in your OSINT research, you’ve come to the right place. There are many methods to extract important information from the Wayback … Continue reading Using Archive.org for OSINT Investigations
Snapchat is a very popular platform and it’s quite a challenge to use for investigative purposes. Especially because you need a mobile phone in order to dig a little deeper. The website Snapchat offers is simply just not comprehensive enough.So in this blog post you’ll find some hints and tips on how to use Snapchat for OSINT. Snapchat.com First of all there is the website … Continue reading Using Snapchat for OSINT – part 2
Whether you are an insurance investigator, working in law enforcement or supporting crowd-sourced OSINT investigations, e.g. with the National Child Protection Task Force, you will often come across vehicles in the cases you work on. There are many different approaches to find information on vehicles and sometimes also on their owners. This blog will show some of the resources you can use when conducting COSINT: … Continue reading COSINT – OSINT on Cars
OSINT is about focusing on possibilities. But sometimes we get stuck or things we planned simply didn’t work as planned. We all know when things in our daily life don’t work we reset it. If the tv doesn’t work we reset it by turning it off and on. Your smartphone glitches or apps hang and we reset the apps or the entire device. We can … Continue reading Using RESET for better OSINT
Guest blog post by Jeff Lomas (@BleuBloodHound). There have been several excellent virtual machines (VMs) designed to assist in OSINT assessments including popular VMs such as Tsurugi Linux (OSINT and digital forensics) and Trace Labs’ OSINT VM. While these are great tools for conducting OSINT assessments it is also important to configure them to protect your host system. What is Isolation? Before we go down … Continue reading Don’t Hesitate, Isolate (Your Virtual Machine)
This Ten Minute Tip is the first in a series looking at how we can geolocate images as part of OSINT work. Being able to examine a picture and work out when and where it was taken is an increasingly important skill to have. You could be a journalist trying to document human rights abuses, or helping law enforcement trace victims of child abuse. Whatever … Continue reading Ten Minute Tip: Image Geolocation – Part 1
This blogpost is made after a 10minute video I made for the virtual conference OSMOSIS 2020 and was inspired @hatless1der blogpost. Probably every OSINT investigator has encountered this problem; you’ve found your targets Facebook profile but it is completely private. So what can you do? Clicking the buttons One of the ways to start is by ‘clicking the buttons’. On a Facebook-profile there are quite … Continue reading What to do when a Facebook profile is private?
Guest blog by Sarah Womer Have you ever looked at a residential property in the USA and wondered who owns it versus who lives there? Zillow provides a helpful user interface to find that out. In addition, the tool can sometimes provide information on whether the property is up to date on its property taxes, what the owner’s current mailing address is, where they may … Continue reading Won’t You Be My Neighbor: Zillow + State/County Property Assessor Data
