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…
Tag: Tutorials & Guides
Spiderfoot HX: Investigating A Domain Used For Phishing
In my last Spiderfoot tutorial I wrote about how Spiderfoot HX could be used to gather information about a suspicious IP address and then analyse and visualise the data. In this guide I’m going to show how Spiderfoot HX can…
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…
Using FFMPEG To Grab Stills and Audio For OSINT
Many internet investigations feature video at some point. Being able to capture and analyse video content is an important skill, particularly if your task involves identifying people or places. You can always pause a video to try and view the…
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…
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…
12 OSINT Resources For E-mail Addresses
Most OSINT investigations involve an e-mail address at some point. Some start with an e-mail and nothing else. E-mail addresses can sometimes be a bit of a challenge but they can also provide a wealth of information about a subject.…