What is OSINT?
Open-source Intelligence (OSINT) is intelligence based on data gathered from publicly available sources. The term originates from the world of national security intelligence and has spread to the world of competitive intelligence (and to some degree to business intelligence – read more about the difference between business intelligence and competitive intelligence). OSINT is more relevant in the business world than its sister intelligences like HUMINT (Human Intelligence) and SIGINT (Signals Intelligence) because businesses lack the legal authority to conduct most of the collection associated with those.
Why use OSINT
OSINT has numerous applications in business intelligence, including:
- Smarter hiring
- Identifying threats to tangible and intangible assets early
- Analyzing reputational, security, supply, and financial risk in supply chain
- Analyzing customer satisfaction
- Sales or CEO meeting preparation intelligence
OSINT also has numerous applications in competitive intelligence, including:
- Headhunting
- Predicting competitor’s new store locations
- Predicting new competitor product releases
- Analyzing cost structure of competitors
- Analyzing pricing structure of competitors
OSINT Tools
Domain & Website OSINT Tools
Domain Registration Details – Who.is
Find Subdomains – FindSubDomains.com
Webpage Change Monitoring – VisualPing.io
URL Redirects – Redirect Detective
Find Related Websites – Analyze ID
Find Related Websites alt – SiteSleuth.io
Domain/IP Reputation – ThreatCrowd.org
TypoSquatting Search – DNSTwister
Unshorten a URL – URLex.org
Website Software Lookup – BuiltWith.com
Map a Website – VisualSiteMapper.com
Website Stats – Alexa.com (only good on very high-traffic sites)
Find Duplicate Content, Broken Links, Etc. – SiteLiner.com
PageSpeed Test – GTMetrix.com
Find a Font – What the Font
IP OSINT Tools
Geolocate an IP – IPLocation.net
Geolocate an IP alt – IPFingerprints.com
Social Analysis OSINT Tools
Google Trends – Google Trends
Reddit Links – Reddit.com (add target site URL after /domain/)
Email OSINT Tools
Find an Email – Hunter.io
Email Blacklist Checker – MXToolbox.com (does much more too!)
Has My Email Been Compromised? – HaveIBeenPwned.com
Verify an Email – Verify-Email.org
Username OSINT Tools
Username lookups – NameCheckr.com
Username lookups altNameCheckup.com
Skype OSINT Tools
Skype Resolver – SkypeIPResolver
Document OSINT Tools
Document Search Engine – DocJax.com
Photo OSINT Tools
Reverse Image Search – Google Images
Image MetaData Viewer – Jeffrey’s Image Metadata Viewer
Photos by Location – Flickr Photo Map
OCR (image to text) – SodaPDF.com
Video OSINT Tools
Security & Weather Cameras – EarthCam.com
Security & Weather Cameras alt – Insecam.org
SEO / PPC Tools
SEM Rush – SEMRush.com
Moz – Moz.com
Ahrefs – Ahrefs.com
Google Keyword Planner – Keyword Planner
Twitter OSINT Tools
Twitter Location Search – Twitter.com (adjust URL)
Twitter Advanced Search – Twitter.com
First Tweet – CTRLQ.org
Twitter Profile Analysis – FollowerWonk.com
Tweet Map – Omnisci.com
Reddit OSINT Tools
Reddit User Analysis – SnoopSnoo.com
Reddit User Analysis alt – RedditInvestigator.com
Reddit Metrics – RedditMetrics.com
People OSINT Tools
People Search Engine – TruePeopleSearch.com
People Search Engine alt – Intellus
Ancestry – Ancestry.com
Genealogy – Genealogy.com
Phone OSINT Tools
Directory of Phone Directories – Numberway.com
Reverse Phone Lookup – 411.com
Public Record OSINT Tools
US Case Law – CourtListener.com
Canadian Case Law – Canlii.org
Property Lookup – Melissa Lookup
Property Lookup alt – Zillow
Mugshots – Mugshots.com
Corporation Lookup Canada – GovDataCA.com
Voter Registration Records – VoterRecords.com
Political Donations – FollowTheMoney.org
Development Data – WorldBank.org
Business Record OSINT Tools
SEC Filings – SEC.gov
Annual Reports – AnnualReports.com
Company Search – CorporationWiki.com
Company Search alt – OpenCorporates.com
Company Profiles – ZoomInfo.com
Employee Reviews – Glassdoor.com
Jobs & Resumes – Indeed.com
LinkedIn – LinkedIn
VAT Number Validator – Europa.eu
Recruiting & B2B OSINT Tools
B2B Contact Search – LeadFerret.com
Archive OSINT Tools
Internet Archive – Archive.org
Wayback Imagery – Arcgis.com
Patents & Trademarks OSINT Tools
Patents – Google Patents
US Trademarks – USPTO.gov
Geolocation OSINT Tools
Sun Locator – SunCalc.net
Google Maps – Google.com/Maps
Open Street Map – OpenStreetMap.org
Google Earth – Google.com/Earth
Wayback Imagery – Arcgis.com
Open Street Cams – OpenStreetCam.org
US Geological Survey Maps – USGS.gov
Search Engines
Google – Google.com
Google Alerts – Google.com/Alerts
Google News – News.Google.com
Google Advanced Search – Google.com/advanced_search
Bing – Bing.com
Duck Duck Go – DuckDuckGo.com
Million Short – MillionShort.com
Press Reader – PressReader.com
Journal Searches – PubPeer.com
Academic Searches – Scholar.Google.com
Code Search – SearchCode.com
Last Updated November 27 2019
