The analysis of open sources – OSINT in English – is a methodology, taught in Intelligence Services, to enhance the ability to gather and analyse publicly available information.
OSINT uses various sources of information, including:
Media: newspapers, magazines, television, radio and websites;
Public data: government reports, financial plans, demographics, legislative debates, press conferences, speeches, aeronautical and maritime alerts;
Multimedia files: video, audio, photos and maps. In particular, satellite photographs available on the internet, for example from Google Earth
During the course, methods and tools related to the following skills will be explained:
- Identification of names and companies linked to domain names. Bypass of WHOIS privacy mechanisms, analysis of network utilities to check network paths, servers, IP geolocation;
- Investigate websites through Google’s advanced operators (Google Hacks) and specific DNS tools;
- Analyze and trace personal and corporate profiles through the use of public registers: chamber of commerce, registry office, land registry, etc.
- Develop context analysis and investigative reports;
- Use structured databases for OSINT;
- Use software tools for deep web and darknet analysis;
- Use the software tools to protect your anonymity and to perform OSINT searches in a secure mode.