Our weekly hack for those in the field doing the work & digging up critical intel.
The ability to uncover information on the internet is the primary skill of an online investigator. There are hundreds of thousands of surface, deep, and dark websites, but which are most pertinent to your unique case? Do you know how to utilize Google to its full potential? With new social media platforms coming online at a rapid pace, capturing leads and evidence in social media networks is more complex than ever. Do you know the latest tools of the trade?
Hg’s OSINT Tips of the week provides you with the latest intel how to be most effective in our tradecraft. We are always looking for new tools, so don’t hesitate to let us know if you have one you’d like reviewed in a future post!
Enjoy!
This week, we provide a list of useful news resources.
NEWS: biznar.com
Biznar is a handy list of Deep Web search tools aimed to cohesively search several business-focused sites, publications, and intellectual property simultaneously. This open source data resource reveals a graph with excellent imagery of your targeted business or person. Powered by Deep Web Technologies, the investigator has access to thousands of data sources. On a recent search for “apples,” we provided 3,042 top results from 3,546,694 found in all sources between 2001 and 2021. Searches can be refined by topics, authors, publications, source, dates, document format, and document type.
NEWS: feedly.com
With its sleek design and AI assistant, Leo, Feedly‘s tagline is “More Signal, Less Noise.” Leo is able to prioritize key words, trends, sources, topics, and events to declutter your RSS feeds. Feedly’s website notes that privacy is a top priority, and it believes users “should own and control all personal information.” A free plan allows for up to 100 sources, organized in 3 feeds. There are three tired professional rates: Pro ($6/month); Pro+ ($8.25/month); and Enterprise—”The ultimate industry and threat intelligence dashboard” (contact Feedly for pricing).
NEWS: newspapers.com
While newspapers.com does require a subscription, the archive of newspapers searchable by keyword, name, paper location, and date make this a must have. Affiliated with ancestry.com, they claim to have the largest online newspaper archive dating back to the 1700’s: 21,000+ newspapers, with millions of new pages added monthly.
Have an OSINT tip for us? Contact us, and we will consider reviewing it in future posts!
Hg OSINT TRAINING OPPORTUNITY: Open Source Intelligence—Start to Finish, an OSMOSIS Primer Webinar Series, 360 minutes, 6 CEUs
Designed as an online investigation’s primer, this series provides the basics of open source intelligence gathering to those entering the field. With three days of content, the field investigator will complete the 360 minutes of training with the tools needed to conduct open source intelligence investigations.
What to Expect:
Learn the types, differences, and jargon of open source investigations; learn how to in-take an online case, understand the parameters of the work, establish goals, and create investigative notes C.Y.A. (Cover Your Analysts!); learn best practices on how to use a computer and the resources available on the Internet and social media; understand when to use the Surface, Deep, or Dark Web to locate your information; understand documentation procedures for creating sharp and understandable reports; and learn the fundamentals of conducting online investigations ethically.
