OSINT: Sharpen Your Cyber Skills With Open-source Intelligence

Learn OSINT if you want to get better at cybersecurity. This is even more true if you’re new and starting out in the field. Open-source intelligence can mean a lot of things to different people. For a lawyer, it’s sifting through official government documents and court proceedings. For your mother it’s going through pictures and posts on social media. Generally though, OSINT is any intelligence produced from information available to the public. Conducting OSINT is a four-stage process: 1. Collection involves gathering data and storing it in a centralized location for access. 2. Processing cleans up data and normalizes them into a common format. 3. Exploitation is the analysis that pieces data points together. 4. Dissemination involves summarizing your findings in a common report. As an individual researcher, you might be doing this process without even thinking. For larger outfits it’s a more methodical process that involves an entire team of researchers In the cyber world, OSINT is becoming the foundation of digital investigation. If you’re performing a penetration test this means doing reconnaissance and target development. If you’re a defender this involves tracking a threat actor’s infrastructure and methods. Having strong OSINT skills makes you more resourceful in general. For example, if you’re new to a cyber security topic, researching the right way can let you find the right study materials. So even if you’re not technical at all, OSINT can be a great place to start learning cyber security. See below for some awesome resources! 00:00 Into to OSINT 01:13 OSINT History 01:52 Who Uses OSINT? 02:51 How to Collect Intel 04:29 Semi-Passive Collection 05:50 Identifiers and Pivoting 07:25 Four Stages of OSINT 10:19 OSINT Application 11:37 Resources ________________________________________________________________ RAND Corporation OSINT Lifecycle: Shodan: Urlscan: IntelligenceX: Hunchly: Privacy, Security, and OSINT show: Intro to Google Dorking: Google Advanced Search Operators ________________________________________________________________ FOLLOW and SUBSCRIBE! 👉 YouTube: 👉 Twitter: 👉 Facebook: 👉 Instagram: 👉 LinkedIn: #OSINT #OpenSourceIntelligence #Cyberspatial