Week in OSINT #2020-14
From job hunting and fact checking, to Twitter and Steam. More sites, articles, tools and of course some new tips in the ‘corona section’.
While most of us stayed at home to work, like me, others may have had difficulties to keep their job. So it's time to start studying and get you ready for the future. Not only in the topics I'll be covering on a regular basis, but also in the special 'Corona Section' that is included at the end since a few weeks now. And if you have some good ideas for that section, feel free to reach out to me on Twitter via Sector035. Now off to last weeks overview:
- Looking for OSINT Jobs
- EXIF Data
- Analytical Thinking
- TwitWork
- New Hosts via RiskIQ
- Covid-19 Factchecking
- Steam ID
Article: Looking for OSINT Jobs
Technisette wrote a new article on OSINTCurious talking about what kind of jobs are out there that involve open source intelligence, or whatever they call it. Whether you are working in IT as a threat analyst, or in recruitment doing 'sourcing', we all use similar techniques, but for a newcomer it might be a bit difficult to find that specific job you are looking for. If this is you, then do read this article that shows you the different possibilities out there.
Link: https://osintcurio.us/2020/04/01/how-to-land-an-osint-job
Article: EXIF Data
Nixintel wrote an article about the hidden information within media files. Even though most social media sites strip the EXIF information within images, there are usually still pieces of information in them. And Nixintel is taking you step by step through different ways to investigate such files.
Link: https://nixintel.info/osint/the-secret-life-of-jpegs/
Article: Analytical Thinking
The next article to share here is one from Rae Baker, who is talking about the thought process that makes a good investigator. She goes over GAP analysis, the 5 Ws and optimising your workflow. A really good read with some nice tips that can help you get better organised in your work.
Link: https://link.medium.com/qk62IMODk5
Tool: TwitWork
There is a new tool for Twitter in town, and even though I only looked at it myself very shortly, it looks awesome! It uses the Twitter stream to retrieve tweets in real time and gives you the ability to filter on specific hashtags or profiles, thus gaining realtime insight into your topics. Thanks for sharing this with the community, atmon3r!
Link: https://github.com/atmoner/TwitWork
Tip: New Hosts via RiskIQ
Brandon Dixon shared an interesting tweet, explaining that it's possible to keep an eye on new Zoom meetings by using the RiskIQ 'Newly Observed Hosts' feed via their API. Especially now that Zoom is under extreme scrutiny, this might come in handy. I've personally never used this specific API endpoint, so I might have to play with this some day soon.
Link: https://api.riskiq.net/api/hosts/
Links: Covid-19 Factchecking
OpenFacto is a French group of investigators that have been working on stories that usually touch crimes against humanity. But last week they shared a set of links that will be extremely useful for journalists that are fighting the Covid-19 disinformation campaigns that pop-up everywhere. So before you blindly re-share stories about 5G, chips inside vaccinations, or even curing the virus by holding a blowdryer to your nose (yes, seriously!), just get over there and start factchecking!
Link: https://start.me/p/vj9Yrb/covid19-osint-openfacto
Site: Steam ID
There are multiple sites to check a Steam ID, but most of them only give you public data. But what if you are stuck with a possible profile, but the name doesn't match? Then you may want to have a look at this next site, that indexes all the names a profile has had in the past. Besides this, it also lists public friends if possible, gives you a list of similar names and has some other tools all related to Steam.
Link: https://steamid.uk/
| Book Tip: Hunting Cyber Criminals
This book by Vinny Troia, released in February, is not just a book about how someone traced a some criminals online. He does however show you some of the most important tools of the trade, how and when to use them, and gives you examples. Because throughout the book he takes you along investigations into real people, and shows you how exactly he gathered that information, dealing with topics from historical Whois to certificates, and from port scanning to social media.
Link: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B083VZTL52
| Study for Free
Why don't you take some time to learn a new skill? It's not that difficult to find something you would like to do. Whether it's a Python beginner's course, drawing or photography, or even mastering DaVinci Resolve, just have a look at these coupons for Udemy before the expire and enroll in a course .
Link: https://www.jucktion.com/forum/udemy-coupon/
| Study for Free #2
If you can't find what you're looking for at Udemy, another option is to go to Pluralsight. Because during the whole month of April, they have opened up all of their course material for free!
Link: https://pluralsight.com/
A small disclaimer for both Udemy and Pluralsight: A lot of courses are taught by people that seem to do this as a hobby. Even though some teachers are seasoned professionals with experience, others can be heard reading from a piece of paper and sound nervous. Just take the time to check the quality of the course, look at the ratings, and with thousands of hours of material there is always something to your liking!
Have a good week and have a good search!
