In the endless stream of digital communication, every tweet, review, and comment contributes to a massive and chaotic archive of human emotion. Understanding what people think and how strongly they feel was once the domain of surveys and focus groups. Today, artificial intelligence can do it at scale and in...
When people think about iPhone security, they usually imagine theft—someone grabbing the device off a table or slipping it out of a pocket. But in the world of Open-Source Intelligence (OSINT), the real danger isn’t just losing the phone itself. It’s what can be seen, linked, or...
Open-Source Intelligence (OSINT) has become a core pillar of modern investigations. Yet the success of a given case depends not only on the analyst’s skill but also on the strength and synergy of their tools. If the internet is an ocean of data, the right OSINT toolkit is the...
As we navigate the shifting threat landscape of late 2024 and 2025, characterized by generative artificial intelligence, a splintering digital commons, and the blurring of online and physical risks, the role of Open-Source Intelligence is not just growing—it is transforming into the primary sensor for understanding our world. This...
It has a notorious reputation to be sure. Yet the common perception of the Dark Web purely as an arena for nefarious enterprise overlooks the double-edge nature of the beast. While its mix of anonymity and obfuscation does indeed make it a haven for fraudsters peddling fentanyl, stolen creds, and...
Imagine throwing a handful of glitter at a party. Days later you’ll still find specks on your clothes, your sofa, maybe even your dog. Every click, post, like, purchase, and late-night Google search is the internet equivalent of that glitter—tiny, persistent markers that stick around long after the...
Relationships are currency. The way people, organizations, and ideas link together shapes how information spreads, how influence takes hold, and how communities form. Social Network Analysis is the field that maps and measures these relationships, shifting the view from isolated individuals to webs of interconnected nodes. Applied to digital life—...
In the sprawling, interconnected digital landscape of the 21st century, social media has grown from a simple communication tool into a detailed, living record of human activity. And this vast store of publicly available information has become an essential resource for a particular field: online investigation. Social Media Intelligence (SOCMINT)...
In our vast, interconnected digital world, information is the ultimate currency. For cyber defenders, the ability to gather, analyze, and act upon information is what separates success from failure. It’s also the purview of OSINT, which in the context of cybersecurity, represents the art of turning the endless sea...
Imagine the classic police-room evidence board covered in photos and documents, and interconnected by strings, with the detectives sitting back trying to identify patterns, establish connections, and so on. This technique, in essence, is link analysis—only, with today’s tech, the data involved can be scaled up to a...
In the dynamic landscape of open-source intelligence, investigators are continually searching for reliable methods that deliver actionable results. Among these, reverse image search has emerged as a cornerstone OSINT technique, employed by intelligence professionals, law enforcement agencies, investigative journalists, and security researchers worldwide. Social Links have led the way in...
At the turn of the century, intelligence systems were shut away behind professional barriers—you needed a license, a security pass, and a load of costly resources just to start digging around a subject. In today’s digitized and interconnected world, techniques that were once the exclusive purview of intelligence...
The landscape of criminal investigations has undergone a fundamental transformation over the past 15 years. As criminal enterprises increasingly operate across both physical and cyber-domains, law enforcement agencies must adapt their methodologies to effectively counter these evolving threats and challenges. In this climate, open-source Intelligence (OSINT) has emerged as a...
While there are a number of great learning resources online, when it comes to structured and comprehensive ways to deepen your knowledge in a given area, it’s difficult to beat a good old book—especially in the vast and at times bewildering discipline of OSINT. But when there are...
In the current era of hyperconnectivity, the digital footprints left by individuals and organizations are a critical intelligence source for security professionals. As publicly available data has swelled and evolved, social media intelligence (SOCMINT) has emerged as a go-to discipline for transforming vast amounts of raw data into actionable intelligene....
As more and more features of human activity get drawn into the online realm, law enforcement agencies are embracing open data analysis as an essential part of modern police work. And with so much data to work through and make sense of, OSINT tools are not just useful, they’re...
This week, in our Center of Excellence Column, we continue last week’s SL Crimewall beginner article with some more advanced tips and tricks. From merging duplicate information to viewing all the geolocation information on an actual map to starting a search with multiple objects, we showcase some essential time-saving...
We know there’s a load of ways to develop every case and that it’s not always easy to choose the most effective one. So we’ve put together a handy little work companion—an easy-reference, one-page guide to help you progress all kinds of cases. The infographic covers...
This week, in our Center of Excellence Column, we’re sharing essential beginner tips to work in our standalone OSINT solution, SL Crimewall. From the first steps in an investigation to more advanced (but extremely powerful) features, such as custom search scripts, we provide an introduction to the very basics...
This week, in our Center of Excellence Column, we’re revealing threat actors who hide behind phony social media accounts with OSINT techniques. To demonstrate the use in practice, we share a real case study involving a scammer conducted entirely in our standalone OSINT solution, SL Crimewall. So, let’s...
OSINT is playing a major role in the democratization of data analysis. In a sphere formerly dominated by specialist departments, the user-friendly OSINT solutions of today are putting the power of open data at the fingertips of individual professionals, who can conduct a range of in-depth investigations, without the need...
