Top 10 OSINT and Open Data APIs for 2024

API solutions are indispensable for various intelligence platforms and investigations. The seamless operability that comes with API integration means that all kinds of workflows and processes can be streamlined, collaboration becomes natural and effortless, many routine tasks just vanish, and the productivity of the whole organization soars. 

Our new article will explore a key resource that can supplement API tools and deliver a range of benefits for business, corporate security, and finance specialists—open data. And, of course, we'll also be sharing our list of the top ten open data API solutions and break down the benefits that each holds for different kinds of research, analysis, and investigations.

So, let’s dive in!

• The Importance of Open Data for API Solutions
• Top 10 Open Data and OSINT API
• SL API
• Spokeo
• OSINT Industries
• Open Corporates
• Haveibeenpwned.com
• BTC.COM
• Picarta
• Shodan
• Censys
• Face++

The Importance of Open Data for API Solutions

Open sources are treasure troves for businesses and startups. When collected and appropriately analyzed, publicly available data unlocks valuable insights, helps analyze the environment faster, reduces time to market, and more. And APIs provide organizations with the ability to feed this lifeblood of intelligence work directly into their in-house platforms.

The number of Internet users has been growing exponentially from year to year—between 2005 and 2023, it jumped from 1B to 5.4B. This, in turn, has naturally led to an explosion of data in the public space, which is projected to reach 181 zettabytes by 2025. And all of this is good news for the corporate sector and cybersecurity specialists. Here’s why.

Key Benefits of Open Sources for Organizations 

Real-Time Data. While information in databases can easily become out-dated (and therefore inaccurate), open sources provide access to data that is constantly being updated. Such information allows businesses to make accurate analyses and take effective actions based on relevant information. As well known, whoever owns the actual data wins.

Reduction of Time to Market. Products and startups whose business is built on open data can significantly save resources and time when creating a solution for the collection of such data. So, it brings more profit and benefits for organizations to buy data through the API and better focus on a business model.

Expanding Research Scope. Open sources combine various domains from which information is obtained. These include social media, messengers, the Deep and Dark Web, blockchains, corporate sources, and much more. From a single fragmentary input (like an email or username), businesses can harness open data to find further leads and resolve cases faster.

Greater Analysis Speed and Depth. Modern open data API tools can extract, analyze, and visualize data from open sources extremely quickly. Various methods, such as digital footprinting, behavioral pattern analysis, link analysis, or sentiment analysis, can reveal obscure connections and find evidence that couldn't be obtained another way.

Versatility. Open sources provide transparent information for in-depth research, meaning corporate analysts always know what their investigation is built on. Moreover, publicly available information can be utilized in a range of sectors, helping resolve many kinds of use cases.

Top 10 Open Data and OSINT API

So, without further ado, let’s take a look at our selection of recommendations of open-source intelligence solutions that can be integrated into any system by API.

SL API

This powerhouse open data API solution delivers Social Links’ full suite of extraction and analysis tools directly to any in-house system. SL API provides a huge range of search and processing methods spanning social media, messengers, blockchains, and the Dark Web.

Product Features

Email Lookup. Extract structured data around an email address, including connected social media accounts, creation date, breach involvement, domain details, and more.

Phone Lookup. Find social media accounts connected to a given phone number. Determine whether a number is invalid and if it belongs to a virtual SIM or burner phone.

Individual and Company Profiling. Get a detailed and accurate picture of a subject using data taken from public and corporate sources. Extract employee contact details, job titles, qualifications, company, sanctions status, and more.

Social Graph Analysis. View comprehensive social graphs, establish connections between employees and counterparties, and identify red flags.

Social Media Monitoring. Track a subject’s every move across multiple platforms to map a range of activity, including profiles, posts, comments, tags, geolocations, and more.

Darknet Data Analysis. Check whether given data, such as a phone number, bank details, and other credentials, have been compromised by a leak. Search darknet marketplaces and forums for usernames, account holder details, listings, etc.

Spokeo

This is a simple OSINT tool for helping people research people. Drawing from 12B records across thousands of sources, Spokeo empowers everyday people to have a better understanding of the individuals they’re interfacing with.

Product Features

Ease of Use. Its straightforward search engine functionality is accessible to anyone regardless of their skills and experience.

Personal Info. Get a subject’s name, number, social media accounts, email, location history, residential address, employment history, and income.

Public Records. Search through public databases for relevant information spanning someone’s court appearances, date of birth, date of death, driving license, and criminal records.

Updated Reports. Reports on a subject are not static but updated as and when new data appears online.

OSINT Industries

This open-source intelligence solution is aimed at governmental bodies and law enforcement agencies. The API focuses on delivering two crucial search and discovery features to a high quality—phone number and email address check.

Product Features

Phone Lookup. Elaborate on a range of information around a phone number input, including account details and connections to other accounts.

Email Lookup. Map out the online environment surrounding a given email address, including connected social media accounts, etc.

Scalability. Flexible integration allows the tools to be fully scaled to suit various system requirements.

Real-Time Data. Extract data in real-time to ensure that you’re working with up-to-date information.

Open Corporates

As the name suggests, this is a data provider with a huge emphasis on corporate information. Open Corporates collects open data on businesses to deliver the most comprehensive set of corporate data available.

Product Features

Diligent Sourcing. All data is fully provenanced, allowing all results to be readily and transparently traced back to their source.

Extensive Remit. Search the largest open data collection to ensure you’re retrieving as much information as possible on your subject.

Reliable Structuring. Benefit from diligent data structuring delivered in unique datasets and a highly granular model.

Quality Control. With data being continually verified and cross-checked by the multitude of users themselves, OpenCorporates sets a high bar for information reliability.

Haveibeenpwned.com

This resource is devoted entirely to extracting data that has appeared in leaks. The system allows users to conduct advanced searches across most known leaks via various parameters, including name, account, email address, domain, and more.

Product Features

No Authorization Required. Use the HIBP subscription key to bypass authorization prerequisites for retrieving all breaches and pastes for a given account or domain. 

Individual Search Options. Searches can be run using a single extraction parameter, most commonly the account in question.

Recently Added Function. Searches around a given subject can be optimized by focusing on the most recently added breaches.

Data Classes. Data is structured into categories such as ‘Email Addresses’ or ‘Passwords’, continually added to as more data becomes available.

BTC.COM

This is a system designed to explore and extract data from blockchains. The open data API allows users to access a range of Bitcoin network data from various applications, such as Telegram, Twitter, Discord, and Mail.

Product Features

Responses. Four response types are provided: block, transaction, address, and unspent.

Multiple Parameters. Generate calls that can handle multiple parameters and simultaneously return results for several blocks.

Timestamp Limit. This is a field for a block’s max timestamp, ensuring that a given block does not have a timestamp that precedes that of the previous one.

Rating Outputs. To accommodate large transactions, the relevant APIs support the rating output of the transaction information.

Picarta

A service for deriving geolocation from an image input. Users upload a photo taken from any location around the entire globe, and the system—through employing AI—can identify and show where the image was captured.

Product Features

Image to GPS. From a photo image input, the system can return remarkably accurate geodata through GPS coordinates.

EXIF Data. Users can benefit from additional EXIF data relating to the image, including camera models, timestamps, and more.

Landmark Detection. The system is being updated to identify specific landmarks that are contained within the inputs.

Compatibility. The API coding is provided in various programming languages, including Python and Javascript.

Shodan

Shodan is a search engine that encompasses hosts and Internet-of-Things devices. It allows users to view or track all devices with an online connection, enabling more thorough network exposure monitoring and investigations.

Product Features

Web Intelligence. Discover and extract information on device users and map how usership evolves over time.

Network Exposure Monitoring. Continually monitor all devices in your network to remain cognizant of all exposed surfaces and strengthen security.

IP Information. Extract IP data such as the ports it has open, the SSL/TLS versions it supports, the region of location, connected web technologies, and more.

Real-Time Notifications. Receive notifications in real-time regarding new data that has emerged so you can respond promptly to an unfolding situation.

Censys

A web intelligence platform geared towards threat detection and attack surface management, the platform is popular with security teams because it creates a detailed, accurate, and up-to-date picture of online environments to inform security measures.

Product Features

External Attack Surface Management. Discover, assess, and manage vulnerable spots in your organization’s IT infrastructure to mitigate and remedy them effectively.

Centralized Diagnostics. Gain a centralized view of your organization’s cloud assets all in a single workspace, for simpler assessment, reporting, and response.

Huge Coverage. The vast dataset is derived via daily scans of the top 100+ ports, proprietary ML-driven search methods, and 3B+ daily service refreshes.

Accessibility. The Censys API can be accessed via Postman, Python, and NodeJS apps.

Face++

This is a face detection and analysis tool. The system scans an image of a human face, detects and locates it, and then returns high-accuracy facial bounding boxes and metadata for future applications.

Product Features

Face Landmarks. Identify and extract distinctive facial components, including contours for specific features such as the eye, brow, lip, and nose.

Face Attributes. Extract a number of attributes related to a facial profile, including age, gender, emotion, and more.

Face Comparison. Find the probability that two faces belong to the same person—results are given as a confidence score and threshold.

Multiple Subjects. The system can return results for each subject appearing in a single image.

That wraps up our recommendations of the top open data and open data API tools available today. We hope this list has inspired you to supplement and enhance your current intelligence system.