Exploration and collection of information from open sources.

[DronVR]

Or OSINT in practice.

I want to talk about what open data search is and how it can be used. It is very important to understand that after gaining knowledge, skills should be formed, and those should give results. So, information retrieval skills are almost key in many things. This knowledge is especially important when you need to collect information about a person or company, or quickly check important information. I wonder how to do it? Then I will tell you what OSINT is and what kind of fish it is in the sea of search.

What is OSINT?

OSINT (Open Source Intelligence) - search, collection and analysis of information received from public sources. For example, obtaining information from social networks, personal sites and forums, as well as from search engines. To better understand the essence of this term, let's look at examples. ​

If you look at the story, one of the famous CIA analysts Ken Sherman said that the state receives more than 80% of the necessary information from open sources. A little later, Samuel Wilson, the head of the US Department of Defense Intelligence Agency, said that more than 90% of all intelligence information is in the public domain, the rest is agent success. Statistics captures and confirms the relevance of OSINTa.

Now that all communications have gone online, there are much more search options from open sources. The average user tells a lot of information about himself: connections with other people, profiles on social networks, interests, geolocation, marital status, etc. The use of such sources for collecting information is an OSINT.

Why aren't most users able to search for information?
The fact is that many restrict and stop the search where professional OSINT is just beginning. Using advanced search on open data, you can solve more than one riddle of private detectives. After all, around it is full of open government resources, forums, social networks and other sources for finding information. But it is very important not to get confused in all this and learn to find the most important thing in order to find a real treasure among tons of sand.

Beginners, as a rule, do not perceive the information received. It seems that there are some notes, photographs, the user lives like everyone else, and he has nothing serious. So the simple layman thinks. But if you dig deeper, analyze activity, groups, geodes, comments, and also check the nickname for employment on other services? By following such a simple list, you can find a lot of interesting information. But that is not all.

Let's look at a popular case. There is a certain user, Vanya from St. Petersburg, who is registered on VKontakte and Facebook. A minimum of information and photos, a boring profile, nothing special. But, after a slash in the address bar is written his nickname vasechka66. After checking this information, you can find an active user in the forums with the same place of residence. And this is much more interesting, because here Vanya posts photos from the rest, openly communicates about his political views, and also publishes incredible stories from his life. This is the beauty of OSINTa.

How can knowledge be applied?
One of the options - compiling a professional dossier . On the Internet there are a lot of offers from private detective agencies and the cost of such services is quite good. But, as a rule, the description of the services provided is rather meager and, having the right hands in most cases, you can get this information from open sources. Let's see together how much.

Private detective agency offers to collect files out of 14 points for 30,000 rubles. Among the items listed: collecting information about the place of work, mobile phone, family ties, the availability of vehicles, etc. Most information can be found on the Internet from open sources. Not bad, as for a person who knows how to use the search. Let's see what other offers from competitors.

Here is such a data set offers another private agency. Using OSINTa, you can get almost all of this data. Pleased with the extended version of the information dossier. And now for the prices: 25 000 rubles for the usual and 100 000 rubles for an extended dossier . Not bad considering the dataset that is provided. Move on.

I do not know how much this service is in demand, but it is in some agencies. I think that this is due to the popularity of various social networks, where people for 30-35 start looking for a virtual partner, and then build relationships. I don’t know what comes of this, but finding out if this is the person for whom he claims to be worth 10,000 rubles. This is our potential scope and finding out is fairly straightforward.

Another example of a service that can be implemented using OSINT. You can analyze the company’s website, domain registration date, operator availability, search for reviews on the Internet, as well as opinions on forums. Then you can try to call the company, contact the manager, if any. You can also try to play with the situation of a dissatisfied customer and look at the reaction of the company. Like the vector of thought development? I can tell you that 90% of companies use it when you need to break through an organization. Usually, a lot can be said about this. But for this work they ask from 10-30 thousand in different agencies.

But not only with a professional dossier, it all ends. Mostly open source search is used as an auxiliary tool. For example, there is a site that you need to access. If there are no vulnerabilities, you can collect information on the administrator and then conduct an attack in order to obtain an account. Or you need to rub in confidence in the goal. To do this, you need to study the range of interests, places, hobbies, social circle, etc. I think the idea where you can still use OSINT is clear.

In general, there are enough companies on the market that sell such services. The minimum set starts at 10,000 rubles and ends at 100,000+ rubles, depending on the tasks and details. Most of the data provided can be found in open sources. Therefore, having mastered basic knowledge and skills, you can start making good money by collecting various kinds of information on order. Who cares, go for it.

Source