Week in OSINT #2021-46

Week in OSINT #2021-46

instagram geolocation google search engine deep fake quiztime facebook conference
It was an awesome and productive week for me, followed by a weekend with GOSINTcon, a German conference. What will this week bring?

So much good stuff being shared over the last week, followed by conINT, that I sadly had to miss, and on Sunday a German OSINT Conference. What else could one wish! Awesome couple of days, and now back to work. This week, I've got some nice tips and tools for you. Do you have any suggestions? Feel free to hit my DM's on Twitter, or email me at sector035 at pm.me. Off to this week's overview:

  • Quiztime Solution
  • Overload Search
  • Instagram Video Verification
  • Which Face Is Real?
  • Facebook Marketplace
  • Intelligence Conference conINT

Article: Quiztime Solution

Steven "Nixintel" Harris has been at it again, with a wonderful write-up of a Quiztime challenge. From identifying the specific aeroplane, to finding information about it's farewell tour, and eventually ending up with the exact location the photo was taken. Another great technique was introduced here by Steven: Using the Virtual Tours in Google Earth to quickly visit dozens of sites, to find a matching location. Thanks for this awesome write-up!

The result of Nixintel's overpass query of cell masts
The result of Nixintel's overpass query of cell masts

Link: https://nixintel.info/osint/planes-and-cell-masts-a-quiztime-epic

Tool: Overload Search

Twitter account cyb_detective posts a constant stream of tools and tips on OSINT. Last week she tweeted about a very cool Extension called 'Overload Search' by Partial Overload, and is a nifty little tool to help people build a Google search query. Fill in all the necessary fields, and your own custom search is fired off at Google. If you search a lot by hand, this won't be so useful for you, but for people starting in the field of investigating, this is a very welcome tool to have. One little note: For me, the pull-down menu with languages and countries didn't work, so use the international ISO format for the country codes, and try the official English names of countries.

Constructing a query bit by bit
Constructing a query bit by bit

Link: Chrome extension

Tip: Instagram Video Verification

An awesome tip from Twitter user ohshint_: If you're having issues with Instagram, and they demand a video of your face, you can trick the system easily by creating a little video. Open the Sketchfab, fire up the camera of your mobile phone, and capture away!

Link: https://sketchfab.com/tqyw/collections/human-face

Site: Which Face Is Real?

A cool tip from @digint31, to practice your skills on recognizing computer generated faces. It's not that difficult if you know what to look for, but if you're struggling a bit I certainly recommend you to play here. If you're still new to the game, I can recommend a blog post by Nixintel, in which he describes all the tell-tale signs of such photos.

Spotting the fakes
Spotting the fakes

Link: https://www.whichfaceisreal.com

Tip: Facebook Marketplace

Craig Silverman dove into Facebook Marketplaces, and found a nice way to find every listing on a marketplace account, and find out what year a Facebook account was created as a bonus at the same time. I've tested it with a Dutch Facebook account, and it does show up indeed. I've had a quick look at the source code, and the traffic sent to the browser, but it seems this is a text that is sent from the server, and I haven't been able to find a full date or timestamp somewhere. So it seems this is all you get, but this can be a very helpful tip! Thanks for sharing that with us Craig! For more tips like this, make sure to follow his newsletter over here.

Information as seen by a Dutch Facebook user
Information as seen by a Dutch Facebook user

Link: https://www.getrevue.co/profile/craigsilverman/...

Media: Intelligence Conference conINT

On November 20 there was conINT, an intelligence conference, with some awesome speakers like Nicole Beckwith, Rae Baker, IntelCorgi and more! For now, it seems the video can only be watched back as a whole on Twitch.

Link: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1210896210

Have a good week and have a good search!

Previous Post Next Post