Investigator515

If you’re new to OSINT or Cybersecurity, it may surprise you at how often web scraping is used.  In today’s piece on OSINT tools, we’ll be exploring web scraping. Web scraping is a powerful tool for collecting and analyzing data from websites. It can be used for various purposes, such as data analysis, research, and automation. We’ll look at the reasons behind web scraping and how it can be used effectively for open source intelligence (OSINT) gathering. What is Web Scraping? Web scraping is the process of collecting and parsing data from websites. It involves sending a request to a website’s server, retrieving the HTML content of the web page, and extracting the desired data from the HTML structure. Web scraping can be done manually, but it is often automated using specialized tools and programming languages such as Python. There’s also automatic web scrapers that map the internet for us, quietly exploring and searching through new machines, pages and systems.  How Does Web Scra...

Navigating the world of crypto can be daunting for newcomers. Please note that experimenting with cryptocurrency can be risky, with prices fluctuating and plenty of scams in the field. No advice in this article should be taken as financial advice and any readers should do their own research before parting with funds or making any investment into crypto. We also recommend that should you wish to play, you maintain your funds in a hardware wallet. Not your Keys, not your Crypto, use exchanges at your peril . If you’ve followed for a while you’re probably aware that we tend to like our crypto. Given the spike in popularity during covid it’s fair to say that plenty of others like their crypto too. But if you’re new to the world of cryptocurrencies figuring out what’s safe, how to store and where to get your crypto from can be an overwhelming experience. There’s foreign jargon, and plenty of bright lights encouraging you to “transact here!”. Today we’ll break some of this down and take...

The infamous Cambridge Analytica scandal exposed the power of data-driven sock puppetry. There is no disputing that social media has become an integral part of our lives, help to shape public discourse and influencing opinions. However within the depths of these platforms, things aren’t always as they seem. Sometimes some of the most vocal voices on particular issues may not be within country or in many cases may not even be human! In this blog post, we’ll look into the world of sock puppetry, exploring its motivations, techniques, then touch on some real-life examples, and the consequences it poses to our digital landscape. We’ll also discuss detection methods and offer some tips to protect ourselves from falling prey to sock puppet accounts. What is the Motivation: While an individual or organisations motivation is best analysed on a case by case basis, generally speaking sock puppet accounts serve as tools for manipulation and deception, employed by various individuals and or...

A reputation speaks volumes without saying anything at all. We blog because we love writing. But what we love even more than that is making complex things simpler for those new to cybersecurity and online safety. Because we feel that everyone should have access to tools that makes the online world safer, and easier to access and secure. We also think scammers are the butt end of society, and that everyday people should have the resources to accurately determine if they are being scammed, cat fished or the like. So with that said, in today’s article we’ll be having a look at some OSINT tools to assist us with examining email and domain reputations. Whilst Domain Reputation analysis can be considered a form of OSINT, the act of assessing a domain reputation would once be considered a niche interest, mostly being used by cyber professionals, marketers and the like. However now Reputations can give us plenty of insight in to the past actions of an address, and can even give us some...

Passive tracking is pervasive in today’s world. Let’s talk more about that. While we’ve all heard about web fingerprinting and had that moment where we wondered if our microphones were listening to us, most of that tracking revolves around the internet and being tracked by our patterns and the information we share via our social media and browsing habits. However there is another form of electronic surveillance that we experience many times each day, and our experience is that most people don’t give that a second thought. Today, we’re going to talk about how you can be betrayed by something you use every single day and what you can do to mitigate this should you wish to do so. You don’t get far as an Investigator without having a creative brain and finding ingenious ways to navigate problems while using technology to maintain an edge in the field. While this technology can be used in many situations sometimes legally speaking many tools are not suitable for the job, leading to ass...

We all know that social media companies track our activity on their platforms, such as the posts we make and the people we interact with. But did you know that they also track your browsing activity outside of the platform, gather location data from your device, and collect information on your contacts and connections? In this article, we'll take a closer look at the data that social media companies collect on their users, and what they do with it. First, let's talk about what social media companies know about your activity on their platforms. They track and store data on the posts you make, the people you interact with, and the pages you visit. This data is used to target ads and recommend content to you. For example, if you've been browsing a lot of posts about hiking, you may start seeing ads for outdoor gear. But social media companies don't just track your activity on their platforms - they also track your browsing activity outside of the platform. They do this ...