Forensic OSINT

𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐈’𝐦 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐰𝐞𝐞𝐤… 📌 Browser Extension Vetting for OSINT Sarah W. https://lnkd.in/gi9URX9s 📌 Archive.Today Kirby Plessas https://lnkd.in/gYm4_kjw 📌 OpenAI Employees Raised Alarms About Canada Shooting Suspect Months Ago The Wall Street Journal https://lnkd.in/eqP-a--q 📌 Worldmonitor OSINT Tool https://lnkd.in/gKKEumbA Ben H. 📢 Interested in OSINT Conferences?  https://lnkd.in/g7ErMHYc

Throwback to last summer — I decided to skip the crowds and watch the fireworks from the comfort of home via a live webcam. No traffic, just an enjoyable view 🙂 On a related note: does anyone here use public webcams for OSINT? They can be a great way to get a real-time sense of what’s happening in a location without physically being there.

Understanding how symbols are used online is essential for anyone working in digital investigations and research. The Bellingcat Monitoring Glossary is a valuable resource designed to document and contextualize symbols that have been associated with hate groups around the world. One key takeaway: context matters. Many symbols can appear in non-hateful settings, which makes careful analysis critical before drawing conclusions. https://lnkd.in/gtK3txBK

Looking for OSINT events in the next six months? Here’s a solid list to keep in your back pocket.

𝐍𝐨 𝐭𝐢𝐦𝐞 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐚 𝐧𝐞𝐰𝐬𝐥𝐞𝐭𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐰𝐞𝐞𝐤, 𝐛𝐮𝐭 𝐈 𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐥𝐥 𝐰𝐚𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐨 𝐬𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐚 𝐟𝐞𝐰 𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐢𝐜𝐥𝐞𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐜𝐚𝐮𝐠𝐡𝐭 𝐦𝐲 𝐚𝐭𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐥𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐥𝐲. 𝐀𝐥𝐰𝐚𝐲𝐬 𝐜𝐮𝐫𝐢𝐨𝐮𝐬 𝐭𝐨 𝐡𝐞𝐚𝐫 𝐰𝐡𝐚𝐭’𝐬 𝐨𝐧 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐥𝐢𝐬𝐭 𝐚𝐬 𝐰𝐞𝐥𝐥. 📰 Why Open Source Intelligence is Failing Your Corporation by Kirby Plessas https://lnkd.in/gryu839f 📰 The biggest danger of misinformation is how fast people try to fill the silence before facts exist. In the rush to ‘solve’ tragedies, innocent people can be wrongly identified and harmed in real life. Author: Nono Shen https://lnkd.in/g_fRqMsq 📰 Under-16s Social Media Ban: OSINT and Its Implications by OSINT Combine https://lnkd.in/ge8mqnVQ 📰 STOP sharing Instagram links without doing this first by Epieos https://lnkd.in/guhdqKkH 📰 Due diligence and OSINT tools: why “it worked” is no longer a good enough answer by Matthias Wilson https://lnkd.in/ghXjN9zE 📌 Privacy tip: https://lnkd.in/gbj25vU5

⚠️ 𝐏𝐫𝐢𝐯𝐚𝐜𝐲 𝐭𝐢𝐩 𝐰𝐡𝐞𝐧 𝐬𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐈𝐧𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐠𝐫𝐚𝐦 𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐤𝐬 I’ve noticed that when people share Instagram content while logged into their accounts, their profile can sometimes be visible to others. In certain situations, this can create an OPSEC risk. I recently came across a great tip about this on LinkedIn from Epieos, and I thought it was worth passing along. https://lnkd.in/gvTU9bPr

𝐎𝐒𝐈𝐍𝐓 𝐅𝐥𝐞𝐱: 𝐂𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞𝐝 𝐛𝐞𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐝𝐞𝐥𝐞𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧. One of the biggest challenges in this work isn’t finding information — it’s documenting it properly. People forget to capture. Some don’t realize the importance until the content is gone. Others know they should document, but struggle to find the right tool or workflow to do it effectively. Why does capture matter? Because OSINT is professional work. Because claims without documentation don’t hold up. Because we’re accountable for our findings — to clients, to organizations, and to the people we work for. Verification doesn’t end at discovery. It ends with preservation.

I’ve used Marketplace postings and Google Reviews many times to extract location information. And honestly? It’s been a really helpful approach over the years. People don’t think of these platforms as “location data,” but they are. Pickup locations, item availability, timestamps, review histories — all breadcrumbs that add up. You’re not looking for one big reveal, and you often won’t get just that. You’re building timelines. 📌 Where someone was. 📌 When they were there. 📌 When that changed. And because this information is self-published, it often slips under the radar — even in countries with stronger privacy protections. This is a good reminder that OSINT isn’t always about new tools or fancy datasets. Sometimes it’s just knowing where people forget they’re leaving traces.

New OSINT CTF just dropped. Check it out.

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