Osint Tools for Social Media Investigators

One of the most frequently asked questions about brands is “Are they positive or negative on social media?” Osint tools help social media investigators answer this question.

nd Checks

Conducting background checks requires specific skills and knowledge of procedures and resources. The following OSINT resources have been provided by Cynthia Hetherington. Visit her website for more information.

Accurint

BRBPublications

LexisNexis

LittleSis

PACER

Tracers

US Tax Court


Business Search Sites

When conducting due diligence investigations, or even researching a person you are going to interview in an investigation, it’s a good idea to conduct a search on a variety of OSINT business search sites. This list isn’t comprehensive, but you can use it to get started, then follow the trail.

Angie’s List

Better Business Bureau

BizNar

Bloomberg Businessweek

Central and Eastern European Business Directory

CLEAR

Corporate Information

Dun & Bradstreet

Foursquare

Guidestar

Industry Canada

InsiderPages

Leadership Connect

Open Corporates

Orbis Directory

PIBuzz

SEC

SEC Company Search

Yelp


Bitcoin and Blockchain Searches

Cryptocurrency transactions have been used for illicit transactions since the advent of the dark web. But, cryptocurrency transactions aren’t as private as many believe. If you’re looking to find a person’s Bitcoin wallet or a specific Bitcoin transaction, there are OSINT tools to help you do that.

Blockchain

Matbea

Wallet Explorer


Specialized and Deep Web Searches

There are many sites that are not traditional OSINT resources, aren’t mainstream, may be buried, hard to find or simply not indexed by general search engines. When you know what you’re looking for, you can dig deeper into your research by going directly to these sites.

Airbnb

Athlinks

CourtReference

dnsLytics

DomainTools

EarthCam

Free Public Records Directory

Fold3 (military records)

Global Terrorism Database

Human Trafficking

Internet Archive (same as Wayback Machine)

National Sex Offender Registry

PageGlimpse

Public Records

Snopes

State Sex Offender Registry

U.S. Federal Inmate Lookup

Wayback Machine

What Is My IP Address

Webboar

Whoisology


GeoLocation Searches

A geolocation search can help you track a vehicle that has and Automatic Packet Reporting System (APRS), identify the whereabouts of social media activity or identify the physical location of an IP address.

Creepy

Echosec (social media search by location)

Google Maps APRS

IP Address Locator

IP Location

Conclusion

Osint tools help investigators identify and gather information from open or closed-source content. The word “osint” combines the terms Open Source Intelligence (OSINT) and Intelligence-led operations (I2O).

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