The OSINT Newsletter - Issue #19
The latest and greatest in OSINT news, tools, tactics, and techniques
👋 Welcome to the 19th issue of The OSINT Newsletter. This issue contains OSINT news, community posts, tactics, techniques, and tools to help you become a better investigator. I’ll also be sharing a few methods I’ve discovered in my research; those methods will be included in future detailed writeups in later issues.
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OSINT News
📰 Revealing Andrew Tate's Secretive War Room "Brothers"
Bellingcat investigates illegal activities, including money laundering and fraud, connected to Andrew Tate and his alleged “brothers” who turned out to actually be his business associates. They share a few investigative methods along the way.
📰 How the US is using open-source intel to track Russia's war in Ukraine
OSINT has played a crucial role in tracking Iran's supply of drones to Russia. OSINT analysts have used publicly available information, such as satellite imagery and social media posts, to identify Iranian drones being used by Russia in Ukraine. This information has helped Western intelligence agencies to better understand the threat posed by Iran's drone program and to take steps to counter it.
📰 Jenin: Open Source Insights on Israel's July Raids
Bellingcat investigates a major military operation by Israel at the Jenin refugee camp in the West Bank. Their findings suggest the Israeli military may have used excessive force during the raid, resulting in civilian casualties. They share a few image analysis methods in the report.
📰 OSINT for supply chain risk management
Authentic8 summarizes the risk that supply chains are exposed to as well as a few OSINT methods for mitigating that risk. Among those methods are: investigating suppliers, investigating executives and key stakeholders, analyzing tech stacks used throughout the supply chain, and dark web monitoring.
There are a slew of tools and resources in this article I’ll dive more deeply into in future issues.
📰 From Zero to Google Dorking Hero: Enhancing Your OSINT Arsenal
If you want a master class in Google Dorking, look no further. Ron Kaminsky dives deep going through the entire intelligence cycle while providing practical use cases for Google Dorks.
OSINT Community
📺 OSINT At Home #19 – Top 3 Google Search Hacks for Investigators
Benjamin Strick discusses 3 Google Dorks that can be used by investigators. These Dorks can be used to exclude, restrict, or focus search results. While useful, it’s important that investigators use these Dorks responsibly and ethically.
🐦 OSINT Industries adds ImageShack as a reverse email module
OSINT Industries added ImageShack as a reverse email module that returns intel (not just registration data). This module potentially returns bio, location, username, number of images, number of albums, and profile link. An excellent source for quality pivots.
🐦 Burcu YARAR shares 24 search engines for technical open source intelligence
If you’re investigating a domain or an IP address, you have to look into technical intelligence search engines. Many of you are familiar with Shodan but that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Check out the infographic Burcu added to their tweet.
📺 Finding Missing People using OSINT (Tracelabs Recap)
Cody Bernardy recaps his experience in the most recent TraceLabs CTF and shows several tips and tricks to score points while potentially helping save lives. Cody was on my team in this CTF and we took home the bronze. If you haven’t seen his other content, make sure to subscribe to his YouTube channel.
📺 How to find a street in 2 minutes
Rainbolt shows how you can use AI and Overpass Turbo to quickly find possible locations to help narrow down your geolocation efforts. While he’s at it, Rainbolt gives several tips for narrowing down possibilities including using trash cans as identifiers.
✅ That’s it for the free version of The OSINT Newsletter. To support this publication and independent research, consider upgrading to a paid subscription.
Paid subscribers will get access to the following in this issue:
💡 2 reverse email techniques using Chess.com and Poshmark
🗒️ 2 tips for scoring more points in TraceLabs CTFs
🔎 6 tools you can use for investigations (web apps and scripts)
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