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 follow up on our last post with additional tools for international due diligence OSINT investigations.
System for Electronic Document Analysis & Retrieval:
SEDAR.com
Doing due diligence or asset location on a Canadian company? The System for Electronic Document Analysis and Retrieval (SEDAR) is the Canadian version of the U.S. based Electronic Data Gathering Analysis and Retrieval (EDGAR). It’s a free database created by the Canadian Securities Administration (CSA) to regulate trade companies and investment funds. Like the U.S., these companies are required to file their financial information. Some documents found on this free database include annual reports, financial statements, and news releases. These types of documents tend to include other information that may be valuable to your investigation, such as company addresses or names of main executives.
Courts Service of Ireland: courts.ie
The Courts Service of Ireland website (courts.ie) includes judgements and determinations from the Supreme Court, Special Criminal Court, Central Criminal Court, Court of Criminal Appeal, Court of Appeal, Circuit Court, District Court, Courts-Marital Appeal Court, Children Court, and the High Court. Searching the dataset is a bit cumbersome. Start with a general search of your party by using the website’s search field (linked in the rightmost of the center bar under the header banner of the website’s home page). Then move on to advanced search from there.
Australian Securities & Investments Commission Registrar:
asicconnect.asic.gov.au
ASIC Connect is a database as well as an aggregator of registers to the Australian Securities & Investments Commission (ASIC). The Website provides quick links to the Australian Business Register, ABN lookup, Australian Business License and Information Service, Information Brokers, and more. The ASIC Connect search itself includes Australian-based business names already in use, business names that are still available for use, banned and disqualified persons, business licenses, and self-managed superannuation fund (SMSF) auditor index. Detailed documents cancelled or transferred businesses and name changes are available but may cost a fee. The end goal of ASIC is to provide this valuable information to the public as a means to guarantee a well-organized and impartial financial market.
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.
