Essential resources for open source intelligence investigations
Because manually collecting, combing, and integrating available open source
information is often time and energy intensive, many open source intelligence
practitioners, experts, communities, and companies have developed a variety of tools
and frameworks to automate or streamline the data collection and analysis process,
or to generate select, attributed intelligence reports and databases.
It is
almost certain that for every type of open source intelligence data, there is a tool
or website available to you. The Open Source Intelligence Framework demonstrates
this.
Open Source Intelligence Framework
As you
begin to explore open source intelligence practices in your investigations, you will
begin to hear more about the term "open source intelligence framework":
https://osintframework.com/. It is the
most widely available library of tools for open source intelligence information
collection and investigation. It organizes resources into 32 categories based on the
type of data investigators are looking for: public records, social networks, images,
videos, digital currency, dark web, archives, and more. Within each category, you
can find free and paid tools for locating problematic data.
Search engines
Some of the most commonly used open source
intelligence tools are search engines, as web-based research is a large part of open
source intelligence.
Google and Bing are probably the most used search
engines, and advanced open source intelligence practitioners know to use an advanced
search feature called "Google Dorks" to narrow search results to specific file
types, websites, strings, and IP addresses.
However, the search engine does
not only have these. Investigators can also use
Knowlesys Intelligence
System, a professional open source intelligence system, to explore
additional results. Founded in May 2003, Knowlesys is a high-tech company that
specializes in Internet information processing. It has established rich experience
and competitive advantages in the fields of accurate monitoring and vertical mining
of mass information on the Internet. Knowlesys Intelligence System can collect
information from specified data sources (such as social media, search engines,
online databases, dark web), integrate, classify, analyze and display it, and become
an internal intelligent information center.