How much information is there in a photograph? There is always more than you think. I learned recently that when miltary intelligence officers receive their training, they are given a photo that does not seem to contain much detail but…
Tag: Techniques
Crypto Scam Investigation: Using Spiderfoot HX For OSINT Automation
Automation or Augmentation? Automation is an increasingly important part of OSINT. Even the simplest of investigations can require large amounts of different data types to be gathered and analysed quickly. Yet it is not accurate to suggest that all…
Using Flight Tracking For Geolocation – Quiztime 30th October 2019
Things have been busy lately but I finally managed to catch up with a few recent Quiztime challenges. This post will explain how I managed to solve Tilman Wagner’s challenge from 30th October but I have to say it was…
Using PGP Keys For OSINT
I was originally going to write this guide as part of my post on OSINT for e-mail addresses, but really this is better as separate subject. PGP keys are used for a variety of purposes, but one of the main…
Carbon-14: Verifying The Age of A Website
Carbon14 is a really useful Python tool for website investigations and verification. It allows investigators to work out when a webpage was created, and if it has potentially been altered since it was first published. Carbon14 checks the data attached…
Gap Analysis: Chrono and Geolocation In Berlin (Quiztime 7th October 2019)
I’ve written a few blogs about gap analysis before, but it’s an important skill for investigation and intelligence analysis work so I decided to write about it again. Daily Quiztime challenges are a good platform to demonstrate how this kind…
Digital Shadows: Seeking Sector035 – Quiztime 26th September 2019
How could you use open source information to trace a fugitive or a missing person? For this post I thought it would be an interesting exercise to see what information it would be possible to gather from Sector035’s recent Quiztime…
Search Tip: Finding Historic WhoIs Data
The WhoIs system used to be a goldmine for OSINT investigators. It was usually possible to find out the address, phone number, and e-mail address of the person who owned or at least registered the website. However the increasing use…
Getting Started With Spiderfoot – A Beginner’s Guide
Spiderfoot is one of my favourite OSINT gathering tools. It automates a huge number of queries that would take a long time to do manually. It comes with a wide range of modules that will conduct automated searches for e-mail…
The Attrition of Information in OSINT: Why Acting Quickly Matters, And How To Recover When You Don’t.
Speed is a critical factor in investigations of any kind. The longer information is left or ignored, the more likely it is to become obscured, contaminated, or disappear altogether. This is true of any kind of information, whether it be…