digital osint tools dec 16 - atlas analytics: world … · · 2016-12-10type in a key word to...

Copyright © Atlas Intelligence Training, December 2016

OnlineToolsForIntelligenceWork

29triedandtestedwaystoexploredigitalopensources.

UpdatedDecember2016.

www.intelligence-training.com

Copyright © Atlas Intelligence Training, December 2016 2

Welcome

Thisdocumentisintendedtohelpyoubetterunderstandandusethewidevarietyofdigitaltoolsavailableforonlineresearch.ItdoesnotcoververycommontoolslikeTwitter,Instagram,LiveleakorYouTube,butitdoesincluderelevantwaystointeractwiththem.Allentriesincludeasummaryandforsomeouropiniononwhat’sgreatandwhatnottoforget.Page3:SocialMediaSearchPage4:TwitterExploitationToolsPage5:ContentSearchandAggregationPage7:CitizenJournalismPage7:Website,WebUserandCompanyChecksPage8:DataCaptureandArchivingPage8:DataPresentationToolsDisclaimer:Ourreviewsarebasedonourusageofeachtoolandareouropinionsonly.Ifwe’vemadeanerroraboutthecapabilityofsomethingletusknowandwe’llcorrectit.


SocialMediaSearch1:www.echosec.net

Summary:Givingaccesstomultiplesocialmediaplatformsthisisinouropinionthebestgeolocatedsocialmediacontentsearchengineavailable.Withsimpletoolstohelpyounavigateglobalusersviaaninteractiveworldmap,whichitselfhasmultiplelayers.What’sgreat:Excellentwayofdiscoveringcontentfromspecificgeographicareasofinterestorbynames,keywordsorhashtags.Don’tforget:Youneedtopayforthefullfunctionality,andrememberitonlyshowscontentfromuserswhohavepublicaccountsandgeolocationservicesturnedon.2:www.facebook.com“GraphFunctionality”Summary:Makesureyourlanguagesettingsare“EnglishUS”andthenusethisadvancedsearchtermfunctionwithinFacebooktobetterunderstandpeople’sinterests,allegiancesandlocations.Forexample,inthesearchfieldtypecombinationslikethefollowing:

• “PeoplewholiveinTurkeyandlikeHezbollah”• “JournalistswholiveinTehranandspeakArabic”• “WomenfromLondonwhoworkatInternationalAtomicEnergyAgency”

What’sgreat:Navigateandrefinemillionsofprofiles,easily.Don’tforget:Youcanonlyseewhatpeopleallowyoutosee,forexample,thepersonhasto‘like’somethingforittoappearintheresults.Youmustthenapplyyouranalysistothatandaskwhatreasondotheyhaveforliking“MahmoudAhmadinejad”?Isitgenuinesentimentorisitironic?


3:www.socialmention.comSummary:Asearchengineresearching100+mediapropertiesincludingTwitter,Facebook,FriendFeed,YouTube,Digg,Googleetc.What’sgreat:Goodforsearchingmultiplesocialmediaandforunderstandingtheoriginsofcontent,alsotopusers,tophashtags,andtopkeywords.Don’tforget:Donotnecessarilytrustthe“SentimentAnalysis”readingontheleftofthescreen,aswebelievethisiscomputergeneratedandperhapsnotrealistic.Thereiscurrentlynoreliableautomatedsentimentanalysistoolcommerciallyavailablethatweknowof(pleaseproveuswrong!).

TwitterExploitationTools

4:www.foller.meSummary:AnothersiteprovidingfreeanalysisofTwitterusers.What’sgreat:Providesquick,basicanalysisofauser,inparticularshowingtimesoftweetingactivity,keywordsandinteractions.Don’tforget:Betaversion–itmayceasetofunction.5:web.tweetdeck.comSummary:ATwitterproductthatallowsyoutomonitormultipleTwitterstreamssimultaneously.What’sgreat:Canbeusedasanalarmsystem;enterkeywordsassearchterms,tweetsfeaturingthosewordswillappearinyourstreamastheyaregenerated.Don’tforget:LimitedtopublicTwitteraccountsonly.6:www.tweetedtrips.com

Summary:Locatesandlinksgeotaggedtweetsonamapbyspecifiedusers.What’sgreat:ProvidesinsightintoaTwitteruser’stravel.Don’tforget:Requirestheusertohavelocatedtweetsturnedon.


7:www.twitonomy.comSummary:Analysisofusers’tweets,retweets,replies,mentionsandhashtags.What’sgreat:Allowsyoutobuildaclearerpictureofhowauserthinksaswellaswhotheyareassociatedwithandtheiractivityontwitter.Don’tforget:Requiresyoutologinforfullfunctionality.8:www.twiangulate.comSummary:AwaytofindmutualfollowersoftwoTwitterusers,or,understandwhotwousersbothfollow.E.g.DonaldTrump.What’sgreat:Canhelptobuildknowledgeofhumannetworks.Don’tforget:Onlytwouserscanbeenteredatonetimesocanbetime-consumingtoresearchmanyusers.9:www.geosocialfootprint.comSummary:Usesgeolocatedtweetstoproduceaheatmap.What’sgreat:Usefulforproducingimagesyoucanuseinotheranalysisproducts.Don’tforget:Onlysearcheslast200tweetsfromspecifieduser.10:www.talkwalker.comSummary:Excellentresearchtoolforlookingacrossmultiplesocialmediaplatforms.What’sgreat:Thefreeaccessfunctionshowsthelastsevendays’ofactivityaboutakeywordorhashtag.Don’tforget:Needtopayforfullfunctionality.11:www.hashtracking.comSummary:ProfessionalTwitterhashtaganalyticstoolsdesignedforbusinesses.What’sgreat:ExcellentforidentifyingTwitteruserswhotalkmostaboutasubject.Don’tforget:Needtopayforfullfunctionality.

OtherContentSearchandAggregation

12:www.google.comSummary:Athoroughwayofaccessingcontentfrommillionsofsourceswithagrowingnumberofrelatedtoolsincludingthesetwothatweusealot:

news.google.comAggregatednewsfromdifferentsourcesandcountriesoncurrenttopstoriesaswellasmorenuancedreporting.It’sagoodwaytobuildawarenessaboutcurrentsituationsandgatherdifferentmediaopinions.

google.com/alertsAgoodwayofbeingalertedaboutcurrentstoriesandmentionsofspecifictopics.Googlesendsyouanemailwithalinktotheonlinecontentasithappens.Helpssavetimesearchingyourself,butdoesrequireanemailaddresstoreceivealerts.


13:www.digg.com/readerRSSfeedapplicationyoucanpersonalisetoshowonlythecontentprovidersyoucareabout,wanttofollowandwanttobekeptupdatedabout.Typeinakeywordtoshowsourcesthatcouldbeofuse,andespeciallyothersourcesyoumaynothaveheardoforusedbefore.14:www.boardreader.comAsearchenginethatinvestigatesmessageboards.Excellentforresearchingcontentthattraditionalsearchengines(e.g.Google)don’tfocuson,asmessageboardscanyieldalotofcontentthatcouldberelevanttoyourresearch.15:www.addictomatic.comSummary:QuicklyreturnsresultsfromYouTube,GoogleImagesandBingandalsolesspopularsourcesonthewebinonebrowserwindow,includingWordpress,FriendFeedandAsk.com.What’sgreat:Pulltogethercontentfromdifferentchannelsquickly.Don’tforget:But,alsoreturnssuggestionsforcontentthatareonlyslightlyrelatedtothekeywordsyouhaveentered.16:www.newsnow.co.ukUsefulforlookingatinternationalnewssourceperspectivesonissueslikeSyriaorISIS(Daesh).It’saUK-centricsiteaggregatingnewssourcesintooneplace,providinguptodatearticlesoncurrentsituations,butitalsoprovidesarticlesfromdifferentmediasourcesfromdifferentcountries.


CitizenJournalism17:www.bellingcat.com(Analysis)FoundedbyEliotHiggins(bloggerwhousedtopublishunderthenameof“BrownMoses”)thisisasiteforandbycitizeninvestigativejournalists,providinguptodatearticlesusingonlyopensourceanalysis.Itisverygoodforincreasingyourknowledgeofcurrenttopicsandprovidingevidenceforyourownfurtherresearch.Remember:thepeoplepostingmaynotbeprofessionalanalysts,soapplyyourownrigorousprocesses.18:www.wikimapia.org(Mapping)

Crowdsourcedworldmapwithdetailsaboutspecificlocationsincludingbuildings,basesandhard-to-reachareas.ItisconstantlybeingpopulatedwithfurtherinformationandisoftenlinkedtoinformationonWikipedia.Itisverygoodforhelpingtobuildknowledgeongeographicareas,but,remembertotreatthecontentwithcautionandassessitscredibility.19:Periscope(Videos)Thisisanincreasinglypopularwaytosharelivevideowithlimitlessnumbersofviewers,whocansearchviamap(ontheapps)forareasofinterest.Viewerscaninteractwiththebroadcasterbywrittenmessages,potentiallyencouragingthemtoactorspeakinresponsetoinstructions.

Website,UserandCompanyChecks20:www.who.isLocation,domainhistory,admindetailsofwebsites.21:www.archive.org/webLookatpreviousversionsofwebsites.Note:websitehastohavepreviouslybeencrawledtoappear,anditdoesnotfeatureeverywebsiteinexistence.


22:www.knowem.comSearchacross100sofsocialmediasitesandotherwebsitesforduplicateusernames,allowingyoutofocusresearchonothersiteswhenlookingforspecificusers.23:www.peekyou.comIdentitycheckingwebsite,which,althoughveryUSfocussed,canbeusedtorevealdataaboutpeopleinternationally.Paymentneededtogetaccesstosomerecords.24:www.glassdoor.comAnonymousemployeereviews.Currentlyhasalimitednumberofcompaniesbutisexpanding,sopotentiallyusefultowatch.25:orbisdirectory.bvdinfo.com/Companyinformationandbusinessintelligencedatawitharangeofproductsalsoavailablethroughapaywall.Usefulforcheckingcompanynamesandregisteredaddresses.

DataCaptureandArchiving

26:www.pdfmyurl.comCreatehigh-qualityPDFsfromyourwebpagesorHTMLtemplates.Easy-to-useandrequiresnoinstallation.27:www.archive.isTakea'snapshot'ofawebpagethatwillalwaysbeavailableonlinethroughauniqueURL,eveniftheoriginalpagedisappears.Veryusefulforpreservingresearchdata.

PresentationTools28:www.storify.comProvidesagreatwaytobuildaprofessionallookingpresentations,allowingyoutoeasilyaccessdifferentopensourcesincludingmediaandsocialmediaandthencollate,organiseandpublishtheminoneplace.YoucandownloadthepresentationasaPDForshareit.29:www.piktochart.comPopulateprofessionallydesignedtemplateswithyourowndatatoproduceinfographicsforinclusioninotherproductsorashandouts.

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