Week in OSINT #2022-07

Another week with some tips, tricks and tools in the world of OSINT. Most have been shared a lot already, maybe I should try and find some more niche links...

I get sent tips, tools and articles once in a while, but it can happen that they don't make it in my newsletter. Please don't feel bad, it's nothing personal, but usually I didn't have enough time to test it, or somehow I ran into an issue and needed to check things out, after which it's left untouched for some time. I felt it might be good to clarify this, because it has happened a few times in the last weeks, and now you know. But... For this week, I have the following items left to share:

  • Mountains and Geolocating
  • Company Search
  • Hacking Snakes
  • OSINT Start.me Page
  • Investigating Digital Ads
  • Google Maps Tip
  • Instahunt

Media: Mountains and Geolocating

Benjamin Strick talks about how to use mountains for geolocation purposes. He talks about Google Earth 3D, how to use it and gives some examples on how he used it in previous investigations. After that he also shows the website PeakVisor, and talks about the main differences between the two tools.

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNu2X7aCMkU


Tip: Company Search

Twitter user OSINTcanada shared a nice little trick last week on how to find information on companies via a Google search.

I saw what was happening there, and very nice info-cards on people showed up. But there were lots of news articles in between too. So I tweaked the Google search a little, and added two other sites. It now shows even more hits, and mainly people:

site:(linkedin.com/in | zoominfo.com/p | rocketreach.co | xing.com/people | contactout.com) "company"


Article: Hacking Snakes

Journalists of BR and WDR have been working together for months on end to trace down leads that were left behind by hackers over the years. By using open source, like archived pages, they were able to identify some people that are suspected to be part of a group of hacker with ties to the FSB. A visually stunning story by Hakan Tanriverdi, Florian Flade and Lea Frey, showing how investigative journalism can also work within the world of cyber-related issues.

Following a trail of online bread crumbs

Link: https://interaktiv.br.de/elite-hacker-fsb/en


Link: OSINT Start.me Page

The Twitter account @start.me shared a link page last week, on the topic of OSINT. This collection of links is by the Faros Foundation and contains loads of links. Many of them are probably known already, but as usually there are also some niche and lesser known websites. There's an abundance of start.me pages already, and loads of links to sources, but there's always something new to discover.

Links by the Faros Foundation
Links by the Faros Foundation

Link: https://start.me/p/1kvvxN/


Article: Investigating Digital Ads

Craig Silverman has his own newsletter, and the last issue talks about different sources you can use when you're trying to track down digital advertisements. He shares tools I've already covered, like TheMarkup's Blacklight, but also new sources like PageXray and Well-Known.dev. Nice collection of links, thanks for sharing!

Detecting all trackers at 'purina.com'
Detecting all trackers at 'purina.com'

GetRevue newsletter: https://www.getrevue.co/profile/craigsilverman/


Tip: Google Maps Tip

A nifty little trick by The SEINT on Google Maps and Google Streetview. When looking for a specific crossing, simply search for those streets with an ampersand. I tested it, and Google's AI understands anything you throw at it. Bot streets with a space, comma, ampersand, the word 'and', everything seems to work. Still a nice trick that I didn't know until now. Thanks for sharing!

Looking for a specific crossing
Looking for a specific crossing

Site: Instahunt

A cool little site that helps you find interesting locations within Instagram. Simply search for a location, click the button, grab all the JSON outout from Instagram, and the tool maps everything out for you. It returns and shows the Instagram and Facebook links to all sites returned by the search. Great tool by Louis Tomos Evans!

Quickly mapping locations
Quickly mapping locations

Link: http://instahunt.co/


Have a good week and have a good search!

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