The OSINT Newsletter - Issue #75
Investigating Public Records for OSINT - United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO)
👋 Welcome to the 75th issue of The OSINT Newsletter. This issue contains OSINT news, community posts, tactics, techniques, and tools to help you become a better investigator. Here’s an overview of what’s in this issue:
Visualizing Conflict and Displacement Data
Fact Checking Online Scams with OSINT
New Multi-Tool for OSINT (Web App)
Deep Web Search Engine
Domain OSINT Tools
🚨 The logo design for The OSINT Podcast, audio production, and other major milestones for the podcast relaunch are underway. Expect the first issue very soon.
🪃 If you missed the last newsletter, here’s a link to catch up.
⚡ Investigating Public Records for OSINT - Federal Procurement Data System (FPDS)
Let’s get started. ⬇️
OSINT News
📰 The Story of a Storm Part II: Visualising Conflict and Displacement Data
This guide explains how to use open-source intelligence (OSINT) tools—such as ACLED conflict data, OpenStreetMap, and high-resolution satellite imagery—in Google Earth Pro to analyze humanitarian crises. It focuses on understanding conflict, displacement, and climate-related vulnerabilities.
"By visually comparing the distribution of mapped buildings to the satellite imagery in Google Earth Pro, you can assess the completeness and accuracy of OSM mapping in your area of interest. You can also explore historic satellite imagery through the Time-Tool to track changes in the building footprint over time and better understand how the settlement has developed."🎩 H/T: Cornelia Scholz
📰 A Free OSINT Lesson: The "Velvet Sundown" Squatter Who Duped the News Media
Learn how internet prankster Andrew Frelon fooled major news outlets into believing he represented the viral "band" Velvet Sundown, despite having no real ties to them. This free OSINT lesson highlights the importance of fact-checking, showing how easily misinformation can spread when due diligence is ignored.
"Information. Data. Interviews. They can be manipulated, and you, no matter who you think you are or who you work for, can be played. Careful fact checking matters".🎩 H/T: MJ Banias
OSINT Tools
🔎 DeepFindMe
There are several OSINT domains. Geolocation, person search, file analysis, social media collection and analysis, etc. DeepFindMe has a suite of tools to cover your bases.
Two areas often overlooked: encoding/decoding and encryption & hashing.
🔎 EyeDex
EyeDex is another deep web search engine, allowing you to uncover hidden information often not indexed by search engine. It focuses on files, images, and web pages.
search in 2.3 PB of 18,682,111 files among 5,131,560 directories on 113 servers🔎 WebCapture
WebCapture is an open source command line tool that extracts information from a given domain or URL.
It automates key reconnaissance and scanning tasks such as:
- Email, phone number, and hyperlink extraction
- WHOIS information retrieval
- IP address intelligence
- Subdomain enumeration
- Exposure to info-stealer malware (Cavalier check)🎩 H/T: Dracky
✅ That’s it for the free version of The OSINT Newsletter. Consider upgrading to a paid subscription to support this publication and independent research.
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⚡ Investigating Public Records for OSINT - United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO)
As a continuation of the public records search method series, we’re going to look at the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). What seems like a boring data source is actually an OSINT goldmine, including mapping full names to other, pivotable identifiers.
👀 All paid posts in the archive. Go back and see what you’ve missed!
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