What you don’t see and I do (part 1)
11 de May de 2025
Complement an investigation with OSINT?
In today’s world, where digital media is a constant whirlwind of information and what was published an hour ago already feels outdated, few people seem to worry about the trail of breadcrumbs they leave behind. If you’re even slightly connected to the tech world, you’ve probably come across the term OSINT (Open Source Intelligence). OSINT is based on collecting and analyzing publicly available data to extract valuable information.
Valuable information? If it’s public data, it can’t be that interesting… right?
After reading this article, you may want to rethink that question. You’ll discover why security professionals—private investigators, law enforcement, intelligence agencies—are increasingly specializing in this field. It allows them to uncover information that often goes unnoticed at first glance.
What is OSINT and how to use it?
OSINT, or Open Source Intelligence, encompasses tools and techniques that analyze public information to generate useful insights. This includes:
- Social media: Analysis of posts, comments, photos, interactions, connections, and activity patterns.
- Public records: Access to government, business, and judicial databases.
- Advanced search engines: Deep crawls to identify data hidden in plain sight on the web.
- Geolocation: Identifying locations based on metadata in photos and posts.
- Data breaches: When a massive hack occurs on a well-known platform, that data eventually ends up on deep web forums. Much of this information contains private data you likely never thought would become public.
These data sources are just another tool at the disposal of law enforcement agencies to locate individuals, track suspicious activities, verify identities, and much more.
Examples (NEARLY) Practical: OSINT in Action
Let’s imagine a case where a private investigator needs to find a missing person or locate hidden assets. OSINT can be an ideal solution:
- Social media tracking: By analyzing public posts, frequent locations or relevant connections can be identified.
- Example: A photo posted from a specific location, with metadata indicating GPS coordinates.
- Email search: Tools like Hunter.io or advanced scraping tools can identify email addresses linked to public profiles.
- Example: Finding emails associated with LinkedIn profiles or personal websites.
- Using advanced services or private databases: Platforms like Pipl or Spokeo help gather scattered information, connecting data from various sources, leaks…
Social Media: A goldmine for OSINT
– But Santi! I was expecting more action! I thought we were going to get into the dirt, get our hands dirty, see some action!
Relax… The good stuff is coming now.
That’s all for the theory. In the next post on this blog, we’re going to take a real person, a guy with a really sketchy look (just kidding, Mario, you’re an amazing actor), and we’re going to analyze his social media to try to extract useful information such as:
Hidden email addresses.
Associated phone numbers.
Locations deduced from metadata or activity patterns.
