Week in OSINT #2023-41
Another little update with tips and resources, shared by the OSINT community over the last week or so.
As usual, I try to cover a few tips, articles or newsworthy stories from the world of open source intelligence, investigative journalism, or any other related field of expertise. And even though I love looking for news, tools and tricks, having the community sending me tips once in a while is a great help! So thank you for that, so I could bring you the following topics:
- OSINT for Physical Assessments
- Nitter
- Alternative Front-Ends
- Web Threads
- Visual Investigations Team
Tutorial: OSINT for Physical Assessments
Christina Lekati [ ] wrote an article on how OSINT can be used for physical security assessments. It is not uncommon for an assessment to check how a company is protecting its assets, or infrastructure, and inviting a red team to check the premises. In this article, Christina talks about how she uses OSINT to collect information on a target. Another great blog highlighting another use of OSINT, that might not be well known to people just starting in the field of security.
Link: https://christina-lekati.medium.com/...
Tip: Nitter
Back in episode 2023-26, I wrote that Nitter was no longer available. But recently I received a hint that Nitter was working again for some time. So for everyone that needs access to a Twitter account, but doesn't want to create an account themselves on the platform, is able to open Nitter.net and browse there. In case there are issues, there are more instances you can check. And over on GitHub there is a handy list of active, and working instances too. Thank you 4n6_koeln [ ] for the heads-up!
Nitter: https://nitter.net/
Instances: https://github.com/zedeus/nitter/wiki/Instances
Link: Alternative Front-Ends
Besides 'Nitter', there are many more alternative front-ends for social media. And Aleksandra Bielska [ ] has curated a nice list of such platforms. It has links ranging from Apple Music to ZDF video clips, or other media outlets. I did see there is a list of pull requests still open, and the last commit was from a few months ago, but maybe the community can help out keeping this list up-to date? Because the awesome work that Aleksandra did, should not be going to waste! And thank you Knowsint [ ] for sending me this tip!
Link: https://github.com/mendel5/alternative-front-ends
Tip: Web Threads
I was notified by Aware Online [ ] that Meta has published a web version of 'Threads'. And the good news is that Google already indexed about 1.5 million pages, that can easily be searched with the site: search operator like this:
site:threads.net {keyword}
Great find, especially since people do seem to use threads, despite the whole controversy of being forced to stay on the platform. Thank you, for sharing another nice resource to dig into!
News: Visual Investigations Team
And last week a press release was announced that Alison Killing [ ] would be leading a new visual investigations team. Following other large media outlets with such teams, this will mean another source that will tell their in-depth stories in a visual way. Congratulations Alison!
Source: https://aboutus.ft.com/press_release/...
FUNINT: This Week's Meme
I continue the 'Halloween' theme this week
Have a good week and have a good search!
