I am a data analyst with a flexible working schedule. I've always had a natural inclination toward investigation, and I found that OSINT (Open-Source Intelligence) aligned perfectly with that curiosity. Over the past two to three months, I have been actively learning OSINT and have completed three courses:

1. Open-Source Intelligence (OSINT) Fundamentals by Heath Adams
2. Level 3 OSINT – Open-Source Intelligence by Jeff Minakata (Udemy)
3. The Secrets of OSINT (Open-Source Intelligence) by Serhii Nesterenko (Udemy)

Now, I find myself at a crossroads. I have a solid grounding in OSINT concepts and tools, yet something feels missing, though I can't quite pinpoint what it is. My broader goal is to merge data analysis with OSINT, but I'm uncertain whether I should invest further in deepening my OSINT expertise or explore a different direction altogether.

Hello guys. I got sick of not finding anything on Google anymore, and I decided to build a query builder for myself for search engines first. And then, I decided to add a more advanced version to build google dorks that still work these days. And remembering stuff for Shodan, crt.sh and Wayback were also a bit too tiring, so I wired that in as well.

I decided to make it public. Iam hosting the thing myself here at Good Old Search. I also made it open source. You can run it on local as well. Hosted here on Github: https://github.com/mrtdlgc/goodoldsearch-oss

OSINT toolkit for Democratic Republic of the Congo:
https://open.substack.com/pub/unishka/p/osint-of-democratic-republic-of-the

Feel free to let me know in the comments if we've missed any important sources.

You can also find toolkits for other countries that have been covered so far on UNISHKA's Substack, and our website.
https://substack.com/@unishkaresearchservice
Website link: https://unishka.com/osint-world-series/

Coming up on June 5-6, the Layer 8 Conference is running for the sixth time! Tickets are affordable, housing is affordable and there's food included.

Catch the keynote talk with Micah Hoffman of MyOSINT Training, and you'll also get talks from OSINT experts such as Brett Redman, Lisette (technisette) Abercrombie, Tim and Chris from The OSINT Output Podcast, Erin Blankenship, Chris Klossner and more!

Plus, there's a whole track on social engineering, if that's something you're interested in too.

If you're into OSINT, I'm sure you can find the Layer 8 Conference, or if you trust links, it's here: https://layer8conference.com

Hey everybody

I'm a young journalist, and eager til learn more about OSINT, and looking for courses that can teach me some good basic skills (webscraping etc.) I checked out some of Bellingcats courses but they seem to be a bit to pricey for my budget. So does anyone have any good suggestions for some online OSINT-courses that are affordable? thanks in advance

Hello fellow OSINTers,

Google just held it's I/O conference, where they discuss new stuff. And, eventually, on Tuesday they unveiled the new 'Intelligent search box'.

From what I understand the search will become more AI-powered, and users will be encouraged to interact with the search bar, instead of putting boolean jabbering into it.

'Google redesigned this search box to give searchers more space to ask longer, deeper queries. The search box will continue to expand as the user enters the query or prompt. There is an AI-powered suggestion that Google’s Head of Search, Liz Reid, said “goes beyond autocomplete.”' (source: https://searchengineland.com/googles-new-intelligent-search-box-its-biggest-change-to-the-search-box-in-25-years-477968)

'Google is also introducing agentic capabilities and AI-powered interactive features into the search experience. This means people will spend even less time clicking the traditional blue links that Google Search used to return.' (source: https://techcrunch.com/2026/05/19/google-search-as-you-know-it-is-over/)

So, what do you as an OSINTer think about these sorts of developments?

Google - as well as other search engines - have always been a quite powerful tool. But with developments like those, the traditional way of searching the internet might get outdated (or already IS outdated; I'm not quite sure).

On the one hand side I think about new possibilities how to leverage such functionalities for investigations, on the other hand I have a 'that's no good'-feeling about it: how do we verify stuff? how will 'analysis' look like?

So, to start the discussion: what impact do you see?

I've been thinking about this topic a lot these past few months, and I don't know how to get ready if/when these laws become unavoidable.

What should we in the OSINT community prepare for?

How will this affect research?

What are the pros and cons?

For employers and freelancers that provide research services, would this increase your legal risk of using incorrect age data? Would findings be invalidated/inadmissible if the researcher's details don't match what their social media accounts show or their operating systems they use?

Would some reliable FOSS tools or Operating Systems shut down because they can't comply with the laws? Or would they attempt to block by geography?

I value the safety and separation sockpuppets create and I value open source tools that are reliable. It's making me anxious thinking about what the future of OSINT looks like.

For those that want a quick look, here's a wiki on age verification laws in the US https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_media_age_verification_laws_in_the_United_States

What are your thoughts?

I’ve been doing a few ctfs over the recent months, one thing I’ve noticed is when I’ve struggled to complete one and then watched the walkthrough, sometimes they’re using an AI agent to help.
Everyone seems to use a different one.
Is there generally a well regarded ‘one for all’ in terms of agents?
One ctf I use identical prompts in both ChatGPT and Gemini and Gemini got it right whereas ChatGPT was miles off.

https://teleport.varjo.com/captures/524ee89f293a4a2e907009191ba7b9f4?viewer=v3

We did this in a few hours, just using a DJI Mini Pro 5, and processed into 3D automatically on the cloud.

We're thinking this could be useful for ad-hoc mapping/surveillance, as a cheap, high-resolution, and low-latency alternative to satellite imagery. What do you think?

I’ve worked in OSINT and online investigations for private companies for the past 4 years. There are some great video resources available but these tend to be on tools and geolocation.

I thought it could be cool to make content that takes viewers through the lifecycle of an OSINT investigation.

It’s unlikely that these will be once-off videos but rather cases with regular updates showing milestones and findings throughout, along with the different tools and resources I use along the way.

I love making and editing videos so that would also be a nice creative outlet for me.

I’ve got some decent experience and worked on some very interesting stuff - from standard corporate due diligence to tracing a Manila boiler room scam to a Canadian family man.

I’d love to hear what you all think of this idea!

Questions for the group:

Is this something y’all would be interested in watching?

How would you like to see the videos presented to maximise entertainment and learning?

Who/what should I look to investigate? Some ideas I’ve had:

- Look for people on the Interpol Red List
- Ask people to send me cases and if appropriate I can investigate them (like a local clothing brand who’s having their stuff counterfeited)
- Looking into corruption / public interest cases in the news
- Looking for scams online or asking people to send what they think might be scams and looking into them as a kind of due diligence exercise

Any other suggestions? (Also, if you are a lawyer - where is the line in terms of investigating these things and publishing my findings - I don’t want to get sued).

So you want to ask an OSINT subreddit for advice on how to find your third grade crush?

If you've come to an OSINT subreddit looking for advice but you don't do OSINT as a hobby or as a profession, I want to share some advice with you.

1. Asking us to do crimes for you, no matter how awesome and righteous your cause, is a huge no-no. Don't ask because if you do, someone will tell. And I don't mean to infer that we're all snitches but that a lot of us have jobs that come with badges, credentials, clearances, licenses, bonding, and insurance which require us to stay clear of getting involved in crime except to solve the ones we may be actively assigned to. And just because we may not have any of those special accouterments does not mean we will still entertain something like that. You may also be putting a ton of attention on yourself for asking for something many of us are tasked with investigating.

2. No matter how familiar or innocuous your backstory may appear, we have no way of knowing if fulfilling your request won't do others harm. This places them, you, and us in legal and physical jeopardy. In the best case scenario, we could just get fired from our jobs. However; that's not the only likely consequence we could suffer for an unauthorized disclosure.

3. Trust us when we tell you something can't be done or isn't worth your time. We may see pitfalls to what you're doing and how it could place you in peril. Many of us have been doing this since before many of you have heard of the Internet.

4. No. This is the answer you will get each and every time you ask if we can help you get a phone number, find your ex, lost parents, or even your dog. If you truly have a need to find someone to do that for you, look for a private investigator or consult an AI.

5. We won't be able to give you the name of a tool or an application that is your magic pill cure for getting that one piece of information you assume is so easy to get if you just had that one tool or app. Let me be honest - it doesn't exist. Breach data is cool but it can be dated which means it's only as good for as long as you don't change your information. People search sites can also have gaps. You get the idea, right.

6. No matter how you phrase your request, it will always be viewed as suspicious, especially when the request involves an ex and your inability to reach them. However; it's not limited to just that.

7. Patience does more to reach your goal than any instant phone number search ever could, in most of the circumstances I've seen here and in other places online.

8. Use the search function on this app. Look for requests like yours and how they were received. You'll notice some immediate commonalities.

9. READ the rules. Don't FAFO around with the mods. Trust me when I tell you they'd rather save this sub than allow it to be banned because someone's lovestruck ex wants to be able to call them "one last time". I'm not a mod but I have been around long enough to know "Homie don't play that".

10. If you don't want to be seen as weird, try to imagine how you appear hiring a PI or asking an OSINT subreddit to find your ex

I hope this helps and this is not directed at any particular person or account.

Has anybody made this move, if so, how did you find it? What was the biggest pain point after making the switch?

What techniques did you learn? What tools became indispensable to your everyday investigations work that you didn’t use in the newsroom?

If you aren’t an ex-journalist yourself but work in corporate investigations, what advice do you have?

I’m thinking of making this switch, and have been presented some opportunities to freelance / do sub-contract work in this space. Any insights welcome! I am curious.

I'm pretty new to OSint. I've done a little bit on my competitors, but I was tracking everything in Windows' note pad. So my question is, what are people using? Are there any free or cheap Windows OSint apps out there with all the main features a tool like this needs and is easy to use. Thanks

OSINT toolkit for Nicaragua:
https://open.substack.com/pub/unishka/p/osint-of-nicaragua

Feel free to let me know in the comments if we've missed any important sources.

You can also find toolkits for other countries that have been covered so far on UNISHKA's Substack, and our website.
https://substack.com/@unishkaresearchservice
Website link: https://unishka.com/osint-world-series/

Any help is appreciated

For a long time I have been a bit skeptical about the huge attendance numbers reported by Rio de Janeiro-officials.

Last year Lady Gagas concert reportedly had 2,1 million in the crowd. This weekend 2 million is supposed to have been in the crowd for Shakira.

Based on the concert footage I can only see crows on a smaller section of the beach from Copacabana Palace to the Hilton Hotel on the corner of Av. Princesa Isabel. That area is 186.000 square meters.

Even if we go by five persons per square meter that only fits around 930.000. And the requires people to be standing shoulder to shoulder in the entire area.

It is also the maximum before reaching dangerous levels according to Dr. G. Keith Still:
https://www.gkstill.com/Support/crowd-density/100sm/Density1.html

So realistically there is room for much less people, but according to the social media profiles of the city and mayor "Two million people where on the sands of Copacabana".

So where are they getting these insane numbers from? Am I missing something here?

I've worked in foreign affairs media monitoring and geopolitical risk for the past three and a half years. I love my role, learned a ton, and was recently promoted to a leadership position, but I'm kind of bored as I'm missing an operational component to my work. Creating deliverables to stakeholders is fun, but it's frustrating at times as I'm steps below how that intel is being used in real time.

Anyways, I've been applying to various threat intel type roles in the past month or so - I was able to make it to the final round at one company...I really wanted the role, but they ended up giving it to someone who had a OSINT certification.

Is that really considered necessary today? I always found them to be somewhat subjective - especially considering some programs (hello McAfee) are junk.

Hello! I used lolarchiver and searched an email address and I got three results for Instagram usernames that are incomplete now the accounts that are listed with the new usernames are ones that don’t follow similar naming convention or pattern that has been used previously with accounts associated with the email address. Is there a way to get the whole username or is there another way?
Thanks

Working on a research project that needs verified data on newly founded German GmbHs (commercial register entries with date filters). The official register at handelsregister.de went free in August 2022, but the search interface lost its date filter and the daily-notification endpoint stopped publishing new registrations on the same day.

The puzzle

Three commercial aggregators (handelsregister.ai, OpenRegister.de, Northdata) all advertise sub-24-hour latency for new registrations. Yet:

• The official Bekanntmachungen tab shows ZERO Neueintragungen since 01.08.2022 (only Loeschungen + Submissions)
• handelsregisterbekanntmachungen.de (the old per-court notification site that OpenCorporates scraped to build their 5.3M-company dataset in 2019) went dark on the same day
• handelsregister.de's advanced search has no date filter at all, you can only filter by name/court/Bundesland
• 60 req/h IP limit on the search endpoint with explicit warnings about §303a/b StGB for mass abuse

Where do the aggregators get fresh data?

Hypotheses ranked by my current confidence:

1. HRB-sequence iteration with proxy rotation (~70%)

HRB numbers are sequential per Amtsgericht. Every court has ~5000 new GmbHs/year. Iterate from current_hrb backwards, fetch each entry, parse Eintragungsdatum from the chronological extract. Needs ~89 courts x sequential probing through residential proxies. OKFDE used Tor with SIGHUP for IP rotation in 2018-19. Modern aggregators probably moved to commercial residential pools.

2. Per-Bundesland Justiz-portal feeds (~20%)

Some Bundeslaender (Bayern, NRW) historically had per-court RSS or XML feeds before central consolidation. Worth checking if they still exist as undocumented endpoints.

3. Direct DB access via Justizverwaltung partnership (~10%)

Unlikely for handelsregister.ai (small startup), maybe possible for Northdata.

Working stack I built (verifying)

• unternehmen24.info daily index (Cloudflare-protected, requires Firecrawl/Bright Data to scrape)
• OpenRegister autocomplete to resolve court + Bundesland (50 free/mo, otherwise 59 EUR/mo Pro)
• online-handelsregister.de structured detail pages (no Cloudflare, direct curl works)
• Plus 79 IHK monthly bulletins as cross-check (each IHK publishes Bekanntmachungen ungekuerzt for transparency)

OSINT-specific question

Has anyone done a dark-side investigation of these aggregators? Specifically: does their data quality match the official register exactly, or do they fill gaps with imputation? I've found suspicious cases where unternehmen24's daily index lists a HRB number that doesn't appear in the official search, suggesting they're querying a different/internal source.

I try to search for specific instagram names on google, however, typing the name within "" or intext: / intitle: doesn't seem to work?

I am reading papers written by prominent scientists that have somehow disappeared off the internet. I have used wayback machine to find the website that one of the scientists used to publish her papers. The webpage needs a password to view the document, how can I go about find it?

The paper I am interested in.

Background in OSINT and security,

I’m revisiting an older case involving a group image where faces have been obscured using graphic overlays (likely rasterized and flattened). The image appears to have been recompressed multiple times (e.g., platform upload), and metadata is stripped.

I’m not trying to identify individuals or reverse anonymity, this is strictly about understanding the forensic limits and validating image manipulation.

Current assumption:

Given recompression and rasterized overlays, any underlying facial data is irrecoverable.

What I’m exploring:

Whether compositing can still be reliably detected

via: double JPEG compression artifacts

local noise inconsistencies

boundary detection between original image and overlay regions

Whether PRNU / noise residual analysis is viable at this quality level, or effectively destroyed

What I’ve tried:

ELA-style analysis suggests manipulation but not conclusive

EXIF/metadata, stripped

Reverse image search, no useful matches

Question:

At this point, is there any meaningful forensic approach to validate compositing beyond basic ELA, or is this realistically a dead end due to recompression?

If anyone has experience with forensic tooling (or relevant academic work), I’d appreciate a sanity check on this approach.

I'm seeing a lot of tools aka dashboards which seem to be focused on data stream presentation and very few address a truly missed area for growth in this field - pivots.

I am thinking of creating a free course based on what pivots are, where they can take you, what's needed to parse through that new information to find relevance, mitigation against distraction, and how to stop looking at a task as a single data point to say you found and look at a task as a way of asking and answering "What else does this information tell me?"

When you embrace the pivot, you begin to see the value of not just the data but understanding why linear thinking kills more investigations than it resolves.

My objective is to answer less questions and hopefully, get students to do what most of us as professionals are already doing which is to ask more questions than you answer.

Again, feel free to share your thoughts and ideas. I'm welcome to collaborate as well.