Searching for information on the Internet: OSINT, network intelligence tools and techniques

The Internet has long ceased to be just a collection of sites that can be found through a regular query in a search engine. Information is distributed between social networks, forums, archives, maps, government registers, public databases, instant messengers and millions of individual pages. Therefore, a good search for information often resembles a small investigation: first you have to understand what exactly is known, then select the right queries, and only then compare the information found.

This approach is usually associated with the term OSINT, that is, open source intelligence. In the Russian-speaking environment, the word “breaking through” is also found, although it is much broader and can imply dubious methods. Within the framework of legal OSINT, we are talking specifically about searching and analyzing publicly available information, without hacking accounts, obtaining other people’s passwords and accessing closed databases.

Exploration and data mining on the Internet

The main tool for finding information is still a regular search engine. But the result largely depends on how accurately the request is made.

If you enter a person's name or organization name in one line, the search engine will show the most popular matches. With a more precise query, you can significantly reduce the number of unnecessary results. For example, a city, profession, company name, nickname or other known detail is added to the name.

It is useful to use special search operators:

• quotes help you find the exact combination of words: "Ivan Petrov Ufa" ;

• site: limits the search to a specific site or domain;

• filetype: allows you to search for documents of a specific format, such as PDF;

• the minus sign excludes an unnecessary word from the results;

• several well-known parameters in one request help to separate the desired person or organization from namesakes.

Sometimes one small piece of information becomes the starting point for further research. The nickname can be checked on different social networks, the image can be compared through reverse image search, and the company name can be checked through publications, old pages and mentions in documents.

For those who want to understand the tools available, this collection of free information searches can be a useful starting point. Such catalogs are convenient primarily because they combine different search methods in one place. You don’t have to remember dozens of separate services; it’s enough to understand what type of data needs to be checked.

In this case, it is advisable to confirm the information found with at least two independent sources. The same name, photograph or nickname does not mean that we are talking about the same person.

Searching for information in social networks and instant messengers

Social networks represent a separate layer of open data. The user can delete old posts or make the profile private, but his nickname, comments, mentions in other people's communities and other public traces sometimes continue to be indexed.

The search usually starts with several parameters:

• first and last name;

• telephone number, if its publication is authorized by the owner;

• email addresses;

• nickname;

• photographs or avatar;

• cities, places of work or study.

Unique nicknames are especially useful. A person often uses the same login on several sites. The same pseudonym can appear on a forum, Telegram, GitHub, a social network, or on an old website. But the coincidence of the login in itself cannot be considered proof that the accounts belong to the same owner.

The situation with searching by phone numbers is more complicated. Previously, many users were limited to one service for identifying contacts, but now there are different approaches and analogues of Getcontact. Some tools work with open directories, others help search for public mentions of a number, and others are focused on analyzing available profiles.

It is important to consider the origin of the information. If a service promises to show private correspondence, passwords, banking information or the contents of an inaccessible profile, this is no longer ordinary OSINT. Working with open sources is built around what is published legally and is accessible without bypassing security systems.

A separate area is search through bots. Search bots can act as a convenient shell for public sources: the user submits a request, and the program checks several available resources. However, the results of such tools also require verification. The database may be out of date, the information may refer to a person with the same name, and some services do not disclose the origin of the data at all.

How to increase search accuracy

A good search for information begins not with choosing a service, but with the correct formulation of the problem. If only the last name is known, there will be too many results. If you add the city, approximate age, profession and nickname, the search circle is sharply reduced.

It is convenient to compile a small set of known parameters in advance. For example:

Name → city → nickname → company → social network → public mentions.

After this, each new element found can be used as an additional search key. This method is sometimes called digital footprint building.

It is equally important to record the source and date of receipt of information. The page may have changed, the account may have changed hands, and the company information may have been out of date for several years. Therefore, OSINT is not limited to mechanical collection of links. The main work begins precisely at the stage of comparing information.

Common search errors should also be taken into account. For example, a person can use a shortened surname, transliteration, or several variants of a nickname. The surname “Sergeev” can appear as Sergeev , Sergeyew or as part of a completely different login. Sometimes it is useful to check several spellings.

OSINT as a skill for working with information

Internet intelligence is needed not only by security specialists. Open source search is used by journalists, analysts, human resources professionals, researchers, business owners and ordinary users.

With its help, you can study the history of a domain, check mentions of an organization, search for the original source of a photo, find old publications, analyze the connection between public accounts, or check the reliability of a news story.

At the same time, an effective free search for information is almost always built according to the same scheme: collect initial data, select search parameters, check several independent sources and only then draw conclusions.

The quantity of information found here is not as important as its quality. Sometimes dozens of pages provide less useful results than one exact match verified by multiple sources.

Xrust Searching for information on the Internet: OSINT, network intelligence tools and techniques