When doing investigations in countries other than the one you reside in, it can be helpful to have social media to give you a view of what a certain place can look like. Although we can rely on tools like Google Earth, Bing’s Birds Eye View, Sentinel Hub and others to give us satellite imagery or street view, you can run into locations where there … Continue reading When there is no Google Earth or Street View, what can you do?
Guest blog by Amine G. As an OSINT professional, researching US-based entities (individual and otherwise) is both a curse and a blessing. It is a curse because the US public records landscape is undoubtedly one of the most fragmented given that rules governing their disclosure are hyper-localized — varying from State to State and County to County. A blessing because if an entity – short … Continue reading Introduction to Researching Foreign Influence in the US
As you might have noticed, Facebook is changing its design. Where some of us have the possibility to switch between the old and new layout, some of us are in the ‘New’ and have no option to switch back anymore. From September 2020, Facebook will only show you the New design. So for the couple of days left; which design is better for OSINT investigations? … Continue reading Facebook: Classic vs New – Which is Better for OSINT?
You want to do OSINT but need to create some research accounts, also known as sock puppets? Some platforms allow only limited viewable data unless you are logged in. Choose the right platform We all know the most popular platforms like Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and Twitter. But sometimes you are investigating targets from other countries. In this case, use alexa.com/topsites/countries to identify what platforms different countries use for … Continue reading Creating Research Accounts for OSINT Investigations
To be clear, online OSINT investigations can cause trauma, severe trauma. This is something that people rarely talk about and it’s highly underestimated by many. Let’s face it a lot of OSINT analysts, online investigators, and investigative journalists expose themselves a lot to all the horrors this world has to offer. War, child abuse, and terrorism are just a few subjects. Each of these subjects … Continue reading Vicarious trauma and OSINT – a practical guide
Guest blog by OsintDunny 360 virtual tours have been utilized by businesses, insurance companies, general contractors, and real estate agents for the past few years as a tool to capture the current state of a property. The emergence of COVID-19 has only increased the use of these 360 virtual tours. The current industry leader for software solutions regarding 360 virtual tours is the California based … Continue reading Guide to Harnessing the Power of 360 Virtual Tours for Everyday Investigations.
Micah Hoffman (WebBreacher), The OSINT Curious Project President, shows how to use a combination of Google Chrome and Instant Data Scraper to extract HTML table data from the ViewDNS.info web site. Then, once that is saved in a CSV on the local system, Micah demonstrates how to import the CSV into Maltego’s Casefile product to visualize and analyze the OSINT data. Continue reading Data Scraping and Visualizing using Instant Data Scraper, ViewDNS.info, and Maltego
Snapchat is a very popular social media app but it has often proved to be a little difficult to use as an OSINT resource but its Snapchat Map and Snapchat Story features offer a lot of OSINT potential. This 10 minute tip shows how to get the most from these two parts of the platform: Snapchat Map Snapchat Map allows users to upload geolocated content … Continue reading Using Snapchat For OSINT – 10 Minute Tip
There are many cases in which you might want to find the origin of a picture or location it was taken at. Whether the target of your investigations posts images on social media or you are just participating in the Quiztime quizzes on Twitter, a good understanding of how search engines can help you locate the exact position of these images or guide you to … Continue reading Tips and Tricks on Reverse Image Searches
How to find Facebook data once you have located your target’s profile. Continue reading Facebook Tips
