The first part of a series of articles on the OSI network reference model.
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Learn how to get started with open source research. This article provides basic techniques and tools for collecting and analyzing open source data, as well as helpful tips for beginners. Examples of successful studies and key steps to achieve accurate results.
As the British magazine The Economist recently wrote, the field of open source investigations has “grown up”. Where there used to be a niche community of a relatively small number of people who had free time and a habit of sitting on the Internet for a long time, now a wide field of research and journalism has spread, and OSINT techniques are used in various fields and institutions. It’s time to roll up your sleeves and start investigating.
The beauty of open source investigations is that anyone (not just a think tank journalist or researcher) can use investigative techniques to uncover criminal activity and bring those responsible to justice.
When we say “anyone”, we really mean “Anyone”: he has access to the Internet, free time and a strong desire to get to the truth.
Deciding to undertake such research can be difficult, especially if the field is completely new to you. This guide describes the specific steps you can take to develop the skills you need, find groups that match your interests, and, as a result, help you take important surveys.
By following these steps, you can learn where to find open source researchers, how to observe and learn from their work, and how to develop your new skills.
Are you interested in a matchup? Do you enjoy solving puzzles that can help you locate photos? Do you have programming experience? Do you know more than 1 language? Perhaps you are interested in military equipment and equipment?
By understanding what topics interest you and what you’re good at, you can find other researchers on social media, follow their work, or even use them for your own research.
Even if you do not know how your skills and interests can help you in this field, do not despair: it will help you to further develop your skills.
The importance of this step cannot be overestimated.
X is the leading platform for finding, discussing and disseminating open source research. This social network has many researchers who participate in discussions about best methods and practices and are willing to share their work and the research of colleagues. By logging into your Twitter account, you can read researchers’ articles, learn about their work, ask questions, and participate in discussions.
If you fear for your safety or have reasons to remain anonymous, don’t worry: Twitter’s open-source research community, where names and other personal information are not revealed, welcomes anonymous users and anonymity comes with no negative consequences (ask them write articles or work).
If you don’t want to use Twitter anyway, remember that you don’t have to post anything yourself. Twitter can also be used to read what other researchers are writing or posting. If you don’t want it, you don’t need to interact with anyone.
Once you get the hang of Twitter, you’ll probably want to follow various open source researchers. So you will be able to find out what topics are of interest to the community, what organizations deal with certain issues and what methods they use in their investigations. But more importantly, you’ll be able to learn directly from the experts their techniques, tools, and best practices.
If you’re new to the open source research community, you might want to subscribe to different researchers, such as the New York Times’ video investigative team or the Washington Post’s Visual Forensics team.
A good way to find open source researchers is to subscribe to their Twitter lists. Any user can create a list of accounts, and some (such as Malachi Brown of the New York Times) have made these lists publicly available. It has a list of over 200 open source researchers whose work you can follow by subscribing to the list.
Some English-speaking communities use the abbreviations OOSI (“Open Source Internet Survey”) and osi (“Open Source Survey”), although these terms are generally used interchangeably, with some differences , which are worth paying attention to.
The difference between OSI and OVI is in the name: OSI refers to research that uses only Internet sources, while the term “OSI” refers to research that also uses “off-line” open source.
Some people use OOSI or OSI because OSINT seems to indicate intelligence communications. For such agencies, OSINT is expected to be uncomfortable for some independent researchers, including HUMINT (human intelligence, intelligence), SOCMINT (social network intelligence), IMINT (image intelligence, photographic intelligence), etc. is perhaps the most recognizable
In any case, we recommend using a search by all of these abbreviations to expand the resources at your disposal.
Here are some other useful lists of researchers:
Gisela Perez de Acha: “OSINTers”
Ravan Shaif: “OSINT”
Bianca Britton: “Open Source”
Джулія Байєр: “OSINT research verify”
Over time, you will get to know this field better and notice how wide and diverse it is. You can meet researchers who are exclusively engaged in the identification of weapons in videos from conflict zones; others devote their time to tracking aircraft or ships, still others are experts in the field of geolocation. You may want to create your own list of researchers.
Open source researchers and enthusiasts spend a lot of time online, so they likely visit other online communities besides Twitter.
Discord is a popular messenger with several communities of open source researchers. These communities resemble chat rooms that existed at the dawn of the Internet. In Discord they are called “servers”.
The Bellingcat Discord server is available here. Anyone can log into the server and share tools, ask questions, or collaborate on different research projects. This server is divided into several threads where users can post and discuss important information.
We also recommend paying attention to other research communities that have servers in Discord:
The OSINT Curious Project: The OSINT Curious site community for open source research news and education.
Project OWL: This massive server has thousands of contributors at any given time discussing every possible aspect of open source research.
Bridaga Osint: This server is for the Spanish OSINT community to share information and resources.
There are tons of other Discord servers dedicated to open source research – just keep looking! Remember that open source research is best advanced through collaborative efforts, so don’t be afraid to network and network.
The r/OSINT subreddit has over 26,000 members, making it an active hub for questions and answers about any aspect of OSINT.
The r/TraceAnObject subreddit brings together those who want to help Europol with the #TraceAnObject campaign and the FBI with their Endangered Children Information Program. This campaign allows law enforcement agencies to request the public’s help in identifying various persons, objects and places visible in footage of evidence of child sexual abuse. By spending time on these subreddits, you can not only help save a child, but also develop your open source research skills.
By spending time on these resources and interacting with other enthusiasts and researchers, you may get the chance to participate in an important project – or the inspiration to start your own.
Now that you have an idea of what the open source community looks like, where they spend their time, and who’s working on what, you can start developing and practicing the new skills you’ll learn.
One great way to practice is to try the @Quiztime Twitter challenges. This account posts pictures every day and offers to find out where exactly they were taken.
Sometimes the shooting location is given in the condition, and you need to determine what the object in the picture is or when it was taken.
Geolocation isn’t the only skill you can develop with Quiztime challenges.
For example, let’s consider how to narrow down the search area from “anywhere on earth” to a specific country or region, as mentioned above. How to determine what kind of bridge it is? Is reverse image search useful or do I need to look at the structure of the bridge? Are there bridge architecture databases or other resources you can trust? You can start geolocation with Google Maps, but many places in the world do not have Google Street View panoramas. If they’re not in some part of the city, how else can we find street-level footage of that location?
Here are some questions to ask yourself as you work through this challenge. The same questions are asked by researchers working on projects to verify personnel of war crimes in conflict zones.
A mention here is Geoguessr, a geolocation game popular in the OSINT community. This game places you on a Google Street View panorama. Your task is to guess where exactly you are. After each attempt, you are awarded points. The closer your guess is to the actual shooting location, the more points you get.
You can play with different rules, for example, do not Google information or do not leave the place where you will be thrown. This allows you to play this game again and again by adjusting the difficulty level.
Now you can combine some of the steps described above. For example, maybe you go to collaborate with other Twitter users by doing a Quiztime Challenge, or have a Geoguessr game night with your new acquaintances from the Bellingcat Discord server.
You can also participate in events like Trace Lab’s Search Party CTF, where teams of four compete to find information about missing people (you can read more about what Trace Labs does here). By participating in these activities, you can not only help find missing people, but you can also work with and learn from other OSI enthusiasts and put your skills into practice as a team.
Now that you’re all set, here are a few more ideas to help you out.
One of the great things about the open source community is the willingness to share knowledge. Sometimes this knowledge sharing takes the form of newsletters and resource pages where you can learn about different tools and research projects.
Sector035’s weekly “Week in OSINT” newsletter covers the previous seven days in the world of open source research. The newsletter covers everything from new tools discovered or developed by the community to new articles and other resources that have been published recently. Week in OSINT allows you to learn all the news from the world of OSINT, which will help you master this field.
We’ve already mentioned the OSINT Curious server on Discord, but this investigative community also publishes podcasts and hosts dedicated to open source research. They’re constantly publishing new content, so you’ll never run out of topics to explore.
Individual researchers also collect resources on their own initiative and make them publicly available, such as the Ultimate OSINT Collection by hatless1der and the OSINT Hub. As you get to know the investigative community on Twitter, you’ll also meet other investigators who voluntarily share useful resources with colleagues.
If you want to learn all the details about how to create an OSINT project, we recommend bookmarking the Berkeley Protocol for Open Source Digital Research. This document is a one-stop resource for all matters related to the organization of work, from ethical and legal aspects to security and data collection and analysis.
The protocol was compiled by an excellent team of the brightest representatives of the field of OSINT. It was initiated by the Center for Human Rights at the University of California, Berkeley.
Most likely, you will find out very quickly that geolocation, chronolocation, identification of objects in photos and other skills that you decide to develop are quite difficult to master. You might find yourself struggling with @Quiztime challenges and the conversations on your Discord server about techniques you’ve never heard of.
No one who makes a living in this field learned these skills on day one, week one, or even month one (and importantly, many even the most experienced researchers don’t do it for a living). Ask any open source researcher, and they’ll tell you that they learn something new every day, and that there are some areas of the field where they’re new too.
Do not despair if you feel that you are learning too slowly. If you enjoy learning new skills, you will be on your way to success anyway. If you don’t abandon OSINT, then in a month or a year you will remember the first steps and realize how much you learned.
When becoming an open source researcher, it is important to be aware that depending on who you are going to follow and the events you are going to investigate, you may come across materials. These are footage from conflict zones, environmental disasters or human tragedies after natural disasters. People are all different, we have different triggers and thresholds when working with traumatic materials.
It’s important to be aware of online resources that can help you learn about injuries and how to build resilience.The Center for Journalism and Trauma is dedicated to resources for journalists and researchers working with trauma, including practical guides for working with trauma footage. Learn these resources right away, don’t wait until you’re sick. Read them and apply their advice in your work to maintain mental health and well-being.
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