The course’s main target is to provide graduates with the skills, knowledge, and mindset involved in the process of Open Source Intelligence gathering. The collection and application of OSINT is a mission-critical aspect to support operational resources across multiple sectors from Law Enforcement, Military, Close Protection, recruitment, investigative journalism, Corporate Development, PI/Surveillance, business analytics, and much more.

The CIA ‘Bin Laden’ unit claimed that 90% of what they needed to locate and capture their target was Open Source Intelligence, while in 2005 W.M Nolte (Former deputy assistant director of the CIA) claimed that 95-98% of all information provided by the US intelligence services was OSINT based.

Skill prerequisites

The course is designed to be completely beginner friendly and no prior I.T./Computer knowledge is required although students are expected to have proficient English in order to follow and understand the lessons.

Required gear

Each student must bring their own Laptop that supports virtulization and has at least 8 GB of RAM along with 100GB of free space.
If you are unsure if your device supports virtulization then please refer to the user manual or google to confirm.

Topics

  • What is OSINT?
  • Practical application of OSINT
  • The Intelligence Cycle
  • Setting up a virtual OSINT LAB
  • Preparing your machine
  • OPSEC – VPN, TOR, Privacy Extensions
  • Defining the scope of an Investigation
  • Evidence Documentation
  • Domains and Corporate Intelligence
  • Persons Of Interest
  • Email Addresses
  • Data Breaches
  • Phone Numbers
  • GEOINT – Geospatial Intelligence
  • Metadata
  • Imagery Analysis
  • Video Analysis
  • Cryptography
  • SOCMINT – Social Media Intelligence gathering
  • Cryptocurrencies
  • DarkWeb Investigations
  • Digital Footprint Visual Mapping
  • Finalising an Investigative report
  • CTF EXAM and Assignments