OSINT

OSINT, also known as Open Source INTelligence, is the gathering of publicly available information online. This information can range from personal data to just posted content. All of it is useful.

WARNING!

All of the challenges involved with accessing websites are related to Pinto Bean, a beloved squirrel from UIUC. Social media profiles that are NOT related to Pinto Bean are outside of scope. Do not be a creep.

Online Content

Social Media

Social media is a treasure trove of information. When people talk about digital footprint, this is what they mean! This does not just include sites like Instagram, but also GitHub, LinkedIn, Google Maps, Wikipedia, really any site that has some notion of user profile. What's more is that these sites maintain links to each other. Many times, you will want to check almost all different channels and content between each social media. Your goal is to create a mapping of information about whoever, or whatever, you are looking to further understand their identity. Take advantage of opening links in new tabs and explore any and all branches, keeping note of any information you find.

Search Engines

Using search engines is key to making your results precise! Using " " to surround your input requires that any result returned is contains the given string inside the " ". If you want to exclude information from your result you can add the "-" flag. For example, inputting "apple -fruit", will return results for apple which do not relate to fruit. Optimizing your search engine input will allow you to refine your results and find what you are looking for substantially quicker.

Offline Content

Files that you download contain more information than meets the eye. This is known as metadata, which is the data about the file itself. This includes:

  • File Name
  • File Type
  • Camera Information for Images
  • Date and Time of file creation
  • Location
  • Authors
  • And more!

For images, the term EXIF: Exchangable Image Format, is also used. There are tools online and in for the command line that can be used to read this data and edit it.