Open Source Intelligence Methods and Tools : A Practical Guide to Online Intelligence

Open Source Intelligence Methods and Tools focuses on building a deep understanding of how to exploit open source intelligence (OSINT) techniques, methods, and tools to acquire information from publicly available online sources to support intelligence analysis. The harvested data can be used in different scenarios such as financial, crime, and terrorism investigations as well as in more regular tasks such as analyzing business competitors, running background checks, and acquiring intelligence about individuals and other entities. This book will also improve your skills in acquiring information online from the surface web, the deep web, and the darknet. Many estimates show that 90 percent of useful information acquired by intelligence services comes from public sources (in other words, OSINT sources). Social media sites open up numerous opportunities for investigations because of the vast amount of useful information located in one place. For example, you can get a great deal of personal information about any person worldwide by just checking their Facebook page. This book will show you how to conduct advanced social media investigations to access content believed to be private, use advanced search engines queries to return accurate results, search historical deleted versions of websites, track individuals online using public record databases and people-searching tools, locate information buried in the deep web, access and navigate the dark web, collect intelligence from the dark web, view multiple historic satellite images and street views of any location, search geolocation information within popular social media sites, and more. In short, you will learn how to use a plethora of techniques, tools, and free online services to gather intelligence about any target online. OSINT-gathering activities should be conducted secretly to avoid revealing the searcher’s identity. Therefore, this book will teach you how to conceal your digital identity and become anonymous online. You will learn how to exchange data secretly across hostile environments like the Internet and how to communicate with your peers privately and anonymously. You will also learn how to check your digital footprint and discover what kind of digital traces you are leaving behind and how to delete them. Open Source Intelligence Methods and Tools is an indispensable guide for anyone responsible for collecting online content from public data, and it is a must-have reference for any casual Internet user who wants to dig deeper into the Internet to see what information it contains. Apply Open Source Intelligence (OSINT) techniques, methods, and tools to acquire information from publicly available online sources to support your intelligence analysis. Use the harvested data in different scenarios such as financial, crime, and terrorism investigations as well as performing business competition analysis and acquiring intelligence about individuals and other entities. This book will also improve your skills to acquire information online from both the regular Internet as well as the hidden web through its two sub-layers: the deep web and the dark web. The author includes many OSINT resources that can be used by intelligence agencies as well as by enterprises to monitor trends on a global level, identify risks, and gather competitor intelligence so more effective decisions can be made. You will discover techniques, methods, and tools that are equally used by hackers and penetration testers to gather intelligence about a specific target online. And you will be aware of how OSINT resources can be used in conducting social engineering attacks. Open Source Intelligence Methods and Tools takes a practical approach and lists hundreds of OSINT resources that can be used to gather intelligence from online public sources. The book also covers how to anonymize your digital identity online so you can conduct your searching activities without revealing your identity. What You'll Learn: Identify intelligence needs and leverage a broad range of tools and sources to improve data collection, analysis, and decision making in your organization; Use OSINT resources to protect individuals and enterprises by discovering data that is online, exposed, and sensitive and hide the data before it is revealed by outside attackers; Gather corporate intelligence about business competitors and predict future market directions; Conduct advanced searches to gather intelligence from social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter; Understand the different layers that make up the Internet and how to search within the invisible web which contains both the deep and the dark webs. Who This Book Is For: Penetration testers, digital forensics investigators, intelligence services, military, law enforcement, UN agencies, and for-profit/non-profit enterprises. Nihad A. Hassan is an independent information security consultant, digital forensics and cybersecurity expert, online blogger, and book author. He has been actively conducting research in different areas of information security for more than a decade and has developed numerous cybersecurity education courses and technical guides. He has completed many technical security consulting engagements involving security architectures, penetration testing, computer crime investigation, and cyber Open Source Intelligence (OSINT). Nihad has authored four books and scores of information security articles in various global publications. He also enjoys being involved in security training, education, and motivation. His current work focuses on digital forensics, anti-forensics techniques, digital privacy, and cyber OSINT. He covers different information security topics and related matters on his security blog (DarknessGate) and recently launched a dedicated site for Open Source Intelligence resources. Nihad has a BSc honors degree in computer science from the University of Greenwich in the United Kingdom. He can be followed on Twitter at @DarknessGate, and you can connect to him via LinkedIn (DarknessGate). Rami Hijazi holds a master's degree in information technology (information security) from the University of Liverpool. He works for Mericler, Inc., an education and corporate training firm in Toronto, Canada. Rami is an experienced IT professional who lectures on a wide array of topics, including object-oriented programming, Java, e-commerce, agile development, database design, and data handling analysis. He also works as an information security consultant, where he is involved in the design of encryption systems and wireless networks, intrusion detection and data breach tracking, and planning and development advice for IT departments concerned with contingency planning