Week in OSINT #2024-25

From search tools to Skip, and from X to extreme, another episode with some interesting topics from the world of OSINT
I do strive to push an episode out whenever I am able to, but that doesn’t always work, but I am back! So after skipping week 24, I found some interesting content that I wanted to share with you all. And one of the most interesting things, is an enormous read in the shape of a book that was published some time ago. Because open source intelligence, or investigations, do not rely on tools, but on deep understanding of the topic and platforms you are researching. But as usual, I have several items in this week’s episode, covering a wide range of topics:

NeedleStack with Skip
Gaming and Extremism
Search Tools
Twitter/X Nonsense
Josemonkey

Media: NeedleStack with Skip
Skip Schiphorst [ ] was a guest at the NeedleStack [ ] podcast, where he talks about investigating content in other languages, like Chinese and Arabic. Skip talks about his past and how he was asked to develop a course at one day. But he also talks about translating texts with basic tools with Google Lens and Google Translate, but also how certain nuances might be missed if someone isn’t a native speaker. Another great NeedleStack episode, that will give you a great listen during your commute.

NeedleStack’s Spotify, with Skip Schiphorst
Link: https://pod.link/1600516532/episode/…

Media: Gaming and Extremism
Gaming platforms have been used to share propaganda or certain insights for several years now, and Linda Schlegel [] and Rachel Kowert [ ] have collected information that give more insight into the world of extremists, and how gaming platforms are used to spread hate, harass people, or push a specific ideology. This book is not something that is a quick read, with over 200 pages filled with how platforms are used to spread these messages, to how companies try to detect, deter or counter extremism within their platforms or games. With hundreds of footnotes and references, it contains a lot of study material, and if you work with investigating gaming platforms within your field of work, then I highly recommend this read. And the best thing of all is, that it is published under a Creative Commons license. Thank you Ismael Alvarez [] for sharing this interesting book!
Image taken from the cover of this book
Link: https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/…
Link to Related publications over at Academia.edu

Links: Search Tools
This set of links by intel0logist [] has been online for several years already, but only recently I found it in Ritu Gill’s [ ] OSINT roundup newsletter. It contains over 250 URLs to search engines, extensions and add-ons, databases and other related sites. This is a lovely treasure trove for people that are looking for a niche search engine for their investigation.
Huge list of search tools
Link: https://start.me/p/nRADzL/advanced-search-tools

Tip: Twitter/X Nonsense
Another tip by Ritu Gill’s [ ] newsletter, about how to clean up your Twitter/X timeline. It seems that within the topics and interests that you ‘follow’, are not inline with what you are truly interested in, and in my case especially the ‘interests’ are totally unrelated to my content, what I like, the people I follow, and so on. It seems to me that Twitter/X is pushing these interests to generate some more revenue by showing as many ads as possible. The platform itself has been getting worse the last few months, is being swarmed with bots, scams and spam, and this is just another nail on their unescapable coffin, in my opinion.
Loads of crappy interests forced upon you by Twitter
Find all the interests within your Privacy and Safety settings, under Content you see. The so-called “interests”, are just a long list of keywords and types, but the most interesting one is the “Topics”, that might contain terms you have seen showing up in your timeline, that you have no interest in whatsoever.

Media: Josemonkey
While browsing the internet for some interesting content, I found the YouTube channel of josemonkey [], where he is finding people that want to be found. People can tag him in a post where they share a video, asking him to geolocate them. In his YouTube videos he responds with an explanation on how he was able to use the visual clues to find the exact location people were when they created their quest. Another really nice channel that give more insight into how geolocation works, and what techniques can be used to find a specific location.

Josemonkey tackling Texan Texaco’s
Link: https://www.youtube.com/@josemonkey

FUNINT: This Week’s Meme

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