OSINT (Open Source Intelligence)
The Internet has become the largest repository of data in the history of humankind!
If one knows how to find, identify, and use this data, it can be invaluable to forensic investigations, the reconnaissance phase of hacking, and predicting critical events.
In this section, we will explore several techniques and tools for gathering this data, as well as a few for analyzing it.
Open Source Intelligence (OSINT), Part 01: Mining Intelligence from Twitter (@mattgaetz)
The Internet is the largest treasure trove of data in the history of humankind! This repository of data is so large that companies and scientists are straining to understand and manage its scale. We can mine that data with many different tools and sources. When that data is combined with
Open Source Intelligence (OSINT), Part 02: recon-ng to Identify the Same User on Multiple Platforms
Welcome back, my aspiring cyber warriors! The Internet is the largest data repository the world has ever known! Open Source Intelligence or OSINT is the way to gather and unlock the intelligence embedded in all that data. In recent years, a brand new reconnaissance framework has become available to us
Open Source Intelligence (OSINT), Part 03: Extracting Employee Names from Companies (Tesla and Breitbart) on LinkedIn
Welcome back, my aspiring cyber warriors! The Internet is the deepest and widest data repository in the history of the world! Those who can extract and cultivate intelligence from it, will be empowered like none other! This data can be used for offensive security and forensic investigations, among many other
Open Source Intelligence (OSINT), Part 04: Google Hacking to Find Unsecured Web Cams
Welcome back, my aspiring OSINT cyber warriors! The Internet is the largest and deepest repository of data in the history of the world. With that tautology out of the way, let’s get down to work, and maybe, a little fun. All the data on the Internet can be very valuable
Open Source Intelligence (OSINT), Part 05: Collecting Metadata with Metagoofil
Welcome back, my aspiring cyber warriors! Sometimes the best information is just there for our asking! Given a little knowledge and some simple tools and techniques, we can harvest information about individuals and organizations that they are not aware they are providing us! Organizations often post documents on their website
Open Source Intelligence (OSINT), Part 06: Open-Source Flight and Aircraft Tracking Data
Welcome back, my aspiring cyber warrior! There is SO much data on the Internet that the issue not IF the data is available, but rather where. At times, we may want to track flights in an investigation. You may want to track the flights of powerful and nefarious individuals or
Open Source Intelligence (OSINT), Spyse, Part 01: Finding Critical Information about a Domain
Welcome back, my open source intelligence (OSINT) investigators. In previous tutorials, we have examined numerous web services that compile key information that is useful to pentesters, hackers and bug hunters. These include; Google Hacking Shodan Censys BuiltWith Netcraft and others These are all great tools but I’m going to show
Twitter (X) Strategic OSINT Techniques
Welcome back, my aspiring digital investigators! In the rapidly evolving landscape of open source intelligence, Twitter (now rebranded as X) has long been considered one of the most valuable platforms for gathering real-time information, tracking social movements, and conducting digital investigations. However, the platform’s transformation under Elon Musk’s ownership has
Open Source Intelligence (OSINT): Using OSINT in Cyberwar!
Welcome back, aspiring cyberwarriors! As you know, people leave digital footprints across the internet that can be discovered through careful searching. While someone might think their online presence is minimal, a skilled investigator can often compile surprising amounts of information using nothing but open-source intelligence techniques (OSINT) and a standard
Scripting Basics for Hackers: BASH Scripting for Reconnaissance
Tools are only as good as the person using them. It doesn’t matter if you have the latest computer or the fanciest keyboard – if you don’t understand how systems work, you won’t be able to hack them effectively. That’s why learning, practicing, and gaining real-world experience are so important
Open-Source Intelligence (OSINT): Unmasking YouTube with OSINT Tools!
Welcome back, aspiring cyberwarriors! In our digital investigations, we often need to extract valuable intelligence from video content. This might include identifying locations, uncovering connections between individuals, finding deleted content, or simply gathering information that someone has inadvertently shared on camera. It is critical that we know how to effectively
Hackers-Arise Now Offers Key Cybersecurity Services!
All of you know about the excellent cybersecurity training Hackers-Arise offers but now we are expanding to offer your business the services of our outstanding staff! These services include; Penetration Testing Vulnerability Assessment Digital Forensics Incident Response Investigating, Identifying, and Finding Your Hackers Tracking Hackers and others across the Internet
OSINT: Automatic Collection Of All Available Information With Intelligence X
Learn how to use IntelligenceX, a powerful OSINT tool for uncovering leaked data, historical web snapshots, and dark web information. This guide walks you through account setup, search techniques, and practical examples to strengthen your cybersecurity investigations.
Open-Source Intelligence(OSINT): Sherlock – The Ultimate Username Enumeration Tool
Welcome back, aspiring OSINT investigators! Social media platforms hold a wealth of personal and professional information, making them valuable for reconnaissance in penetration testing and cyberwarfare operations. Sherlock is a lightweight yet powerful tool designed to search for social media profiles using a username. In this article, we’ll guide
Open Source Intelligence (OSINT): The Versatile Email Address Search Tool
Welcome back, aspiring cyberwarriors and OSINT investigators! In our digital age, email addresses have become the keys to our online identities. They’re used for everything from social media accounts to financial services, making them prime targets for hackers. As OSINT investigators, pentesters, and hackers, we often need to determine if
Open-Source Intelligence or OSINT: You Can’t Hide on Telegram!
Welcome back, aspiring cyberwarriors! A lot of people believe that the widely-used social media site, Telegram, offers them anonymity to post confidential information. In this post, we will show you how you can find key information and de-anonymize users on Telegram. Role in the Ukraine/Russia War As one of the
OSINT: Tracking US Spy Planes Surveilling the Mexican Cartels
Welcome back, aspiring cyberwarriors! OSINT has applications in so many fields including pentesting, investigations, cybersecurity, threat intelligence, missing persons, and criminal investigations. OSINT can also help to anticipate future conflicts on the geopolitical stage. Just like the Ukraine/Russia War, we are now seeing indications–via OSINT– that a new storm
Can Artificial Intelligence Be Used to Track Your Location?
Welcome back, my aspiring cyberwarriors! We all know that when pictures are taken, they contain Exif data. This EXIF data includes such things as the camera used, the date the aperature used, and the GPS data. In the early years of social media, all this data was left into the
Open Source Intelligence (OSINT): Finding Breached Email Addresses , Passwords and Other Credentials
Welcome back, my aspiring OSINT Investigators! In the course of OSINT or forensic investigations, there are often times when you will need an email password of the subject of your investigation. In a security assessment or pentest, you may want to check to see whether you can obtain the passwords
Email Scraping and Maltego
For more on the email scraping tool, the Harvester, click here. As a pentester/hacker, gathering email addresses from potential victims can have a multiple of uses. When we have email addresses of key personnel, we can launch attacks by email to get people to click on a malicious link
Google Hacking for Reconnaissance
Many who are new to hacking, tend to discount the need to do information gathering and want to rush right into attacking the target system. Those with more experience, like yourselves, understand that the more we know about the target, the better our chances of success. Furthermore, for every minute
Abusing DNS for Reconnaissance
Welcome back, my tenderfoot hackers! As you know, DNS, or Domain Name Service, is critical to the operation of the Internet. It provides us with the ability to type in domain names such as www.hackers-arise.com rather than the IP address. This simple service saves us from having to memorize thousands
Open Source Intelligence(OSINT): Scraping Cryptocurrency Wallet Addresses and Balances
Welcome back, my aspiring OSINT investigators! With the growth of the cryptocurrency market in recent years, has come the growth of cryptocurrency scams and thefts. As a result, there is tremendous demand for investigators conversant in crypto investigations. This is the first of many posts on how to investigate cryptocurrencies from
Open Source Intelligence (OSINT): Finding Vulnerable Systems Across the Internet with Netlas.io
Welcome back, my aspiring cyberwarriors! Oftentimes, as cyberwarriors, we need to check to see whether our systems or others’ are vulnerable to various known vulnerabilities and attacks. Whether a penetration tester, security engineer or other malicious actors, such information can be critical to the success of your mission. There are
Google Hacking: The Ultimate List of Google Dorks to find Unsecured Web Cams
Welcome back, my aspiring hackers! As you know, we at Hackers-Arise have been deeply involved in the cyberwar to save Ukraine from the brutal Russian aggression. As part of the that effort, we were asked to hack IP cameras throughout Ukraine to spy on Russia activities by the Ukraine military.
Finding the Location of the Russian Oligarch’s Mega Yachts. U.S. Now Offering Up to $5M Reward!
Welcome back, my cyberwarriors! We all stand in solidarity against the naked aggression of the Putin regime against Ukraine. The Ukrainian government has requested our help. There is something that each of us can do to save Ukraine now and Western Europe ultimately from this despicable dictator and his blood
Finding Outdated and Vulnerable Systems in Russian Using Shodan
Welcome back, my cyberwarriors! The Russian invasion of Ukraine continues and the courageous people of Ukraine need our help. In previous posts, I have emphasized that there are many outdated and vulnerable systems around the world. Not everyone updates and upgrades their operating systems. These systems are particularly vulnerable to
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