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 three valuable tools for Business Intelligence and Due Diligence OSINT investigations.
Business & Due Diligence Resource: aihitdata.com
AIHIT presents company information as found via a Website. It lists the updates and changes to that company information—sort of a Wayback Machine for company websites. For example, AIHIT will show the changes to a company website as well as produce the name of the CEO of a company and when the position was changed. Search parameters include name of company, domain, registration, company description, industry, country, city, Zip code, phone, email, and client, partner, investor, person’s name, or job title. Searches can be performed on recent changes to anyone in the C-suite, contact, address, business relationship, or investor—including Any and None—over the past month or up to one year. Links to the company websites are provided.
Business & Due Diligence Resource: opencorporates.com
Conducting due diligence for a group of influential investors? With almost 56 million companies from 48 countries and territories in their archive, OpenCorporates is a searchable source for international company data and executives. The data encapsulates large and small, and public and private entities. Searches can be narrowed down by country or business type.
Business & Due Diligence Resource: Corporationwiki.com
Presented with the fifty states, Corporation Wiki is a jump off point for companies registered within each state. Once you pick your original destination, you can drill down through either the top 15 cities or pick a specific city of interest. This resource is a good starting point when looking up target companies in a geographic area. It is also good for trying to find out where a company might be registered. Much of the information came from the Florida Secretary of State database, when I was searching for New Jersey companies. This service has not matured into a truly effective tool yet, but keep an eye on it for growth.
Have an OSINT tip for us? Contact us, and we will consider reviewing it in future posts!
Like what you’re reading? Check out Hg’s monthly webinars!
Throughout the year, Hetherington Group offers monthly live webinars on current investigative tactics involving social networks, search engines, due diligence, the dark web, and other related topics. Participants should have some basic experience of the topic, as all programs are offered at an intermediate level, unless otherwise noted.
