OSINT Blog
Digital Policing: Conducting Internet Investigations in an Increasingly Digitized World
Technology plays a significant and central part in almost everything humans do. By the end of 2021, the number of internet users worldwide stood at roughly 4.9 billion people, almost two-thirds of the global population. The majority of people using the internet have no links to criminality and the protection of their right to privacy has always been,…
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Source Code: Investigating Websites Beneath the Surface
Source code is the programming language behind any web page or piece of software. Source code lies beneath the surface of a web page and contains embedded text, images, and videos. Source code can provide valuable insights to an investigator, providing a plethora of information hidden from public view.
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Connecting the Dots: Social Network Analysis in Criminal Investigation
Investigators frequently need to establish if two or more individuals or businesses connected to an investigation are associated with one another in any way. Identifying an association may mean identifying if two people know one another or may involve identifying an array of links between a large group of people within an organized crime group.…
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Executive Protection with OSINT
Executive protection refers to security and risk mitigation measures taken to guarantee the safety of individuals, particularly those exposed to elevated risk due to their employment, status, or net worth. Executive protection of VIPs previously involved hiring close protection specialists to provide physical security measures. However, in the modern…
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OSINTforGood: The Philanthropic Application of OSINT
Open Source Intelligence, commonly referred to as OSINT, is the collection, collation, and analysis of publicly available information. OSINT is a tradecraft developed in the national security sector that has now expanded through a range of sectors, including law enforcement, journalism, corporate security, academic research, and the legal sector.
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Investigating Heirs
I remember watching the video a dozen or so times, frustrated by an old photo of an unidentified male appearing for only a fraction of a second. This would turn out to be the “unknown father” listed on both the deceased child’s birth and death certificate. The same father the mother had gone to great lengths in denying any knowledge of their identity…
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OSINT for Law Enforcement
Intelligence-led law enforcement investigations and operations rely on reliable, relevant, timely, and actionable intelligence. OSINT enables law enforcement agencies to collect and analyze information from the internet relating to their investigations, identifying criminals, criminality, and witnesses.
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How the BBC unmasked a Scammer Social Media Influencer using OSINT
A recent BBC Panorama documentary unmasked the world of social media influencer scammers, individuals who boast about the scams that they are allegedly conducting online, as well as the wealth that it generates them, encouraging their followers to also engage in the same crimes and lifestyle. In the documentary, the BBC revealed that these scammers…
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Researching Hitman Scams on the Dark Web
Earlier this year, the European Union police agency Europol, working alongside Italian police, arrested a man suspected of hiring a killer on the dark web. The suspect allegedly paid roughly $10,000 worth of Bitcoin to have his ex-girlfriend killed. Authorities quickly traced the transaction, found the provider where he had purchased the…
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The Chief Intelligence Officer
Cyber threats, capabilities and, intelligence abound and enterprises are staring down a hazy divide between their Corporate structure and those of government agencies and military agencies.
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