OPEN SOURCE INTELLIGENCE (OSINT) INVESTIGATIONS & SOCIAL MEDIA INTEL ACQUISITION

As privacy increases, security enhances, and the internet expands, open-source investigators are becoming a key asset to an investigation.

Using special techniques to search, identify, and analyze open-source data from social media to other resources scattered throughout the various layers of the internet (surface web, deep web, and dark web) their purpose is to uncover investigative leads, seize evidence, identify threats, and develop open-source intelligence (OSINT).

The search for open-source data is like a modern-day gold rush, with each case containing its own nuggets of data waiting to be found.  As time passes, valuable data is affected by many factors as it is widely collected, shared, altered, forged, hidden, buried, and lost.

Despite these challenges, open-source investigators maintain a competitive advantage with the aid of resources and the experience to quickly sift through mountains of rubble to extract the critical bits of data potentially related to a case.

Why Use an Open-Source Investigator?

• At any moment, your personal information could be seized and broadcasted to the public.  With the assistance of an open-source investigator, these weaknesses can be discovered in advance and potential steps identified to reduce your digital footprint to minimize the threat.
• For background checks, applicants may only provide partial or biased information.  An open-source investigator can assist in identifying sources that help fill the voids missed by even the closest personal references.
• Open-source intelligence can be time consuming but also time sensitive, as critical data can be lost because of its alteration, deletion, restriction, removal, and concealment.  An open-source investigator can save time and help reduce this risk by prioritizing searches, identifying appropriate resources, and documenting discovered information before it’s too late.
• During viral incidents, original source material is often at risk of being altered, erased, restricted, reproduced, removed, and buried.  An experienced open-source investigator possesses skill sets to quickly sort through the overwhelming waves of data to identify and seize the information that matters most.
• In the event that data is altered, hidden, or removed, open-source investigators can utilize their skills and resources to search for the potential existence of historically saved content.