LONG THREAD 1/many: What is in my #OSINT folder in my bookmarks? I'll list all the fun/cool tools that I'm willing to share and tell you a bit about them. Hopefully, I can share some less well-known ones, and maybe discover some from Twitter!
The first tool fotoforensics.com allows you to analyse photos for manipulation with approaches such as Error Level Analysis and metadata scraping.
It's far from the best tool but one that is good for double-checking your ELA's.
For better ELA, I recommend Forensically (29a.ch/photo-forensics) this also has much better features with more granular control of the results.
More of a fun one (I have not yet had the pleasure of using this).
This tool allows you to encode and decode hidden messages in photos (steganography). stylesuxx.github.io/steganography/
This one requires Twitter sign-in but allows you to export up to 5000 followers of any Twitter account into a spreadsheet. Great to map cross-over of small accounts.
vicinitas.io/free-tools/dow…
Want to find some tweets around a location of interest? birdhunt.co is an easy way to get the geotagged search on Twitter from a map interface.
ARCHIVE EVERY PAGE YOU FIND SOMETHING USEFUL ON. It doesn't matter if it's a tiny snippet of info. When you need to cite it and find it has been deleted, you've lost a lead. archive.org/web/
Also, a great way to get past paywalls if the page has been archived.
yandex.com/images/
If you aren't using this yet, you should be. Yandex is far better than Google for reverse image searches. Be aware that it is strongly geared towards caucasian/asian faces/places.
Geolocation Estimation is a deep learning tool trained on geotagged images. It can get pretty accurate results in some places, cutting out much of the geolocation labour.
❗Be aware of training data bias.
labs.tib.eu/geoestimation/
5Ghz Interference Locator...pretty advanced one but limited while Sentinel 1B is down (I believe this is still the case).
Good if you are looking for 5GHz radars ... for whatever reason 😉
orbtwz.users.earthengine.app/view/radarinte…
Don't start an investigation without Overpass Turbo! This tool (overpass-turbo.eu) returns the #OSM database for whatever you are searching for. Great as a base map and can be exported into Google Earth.
Bonus Overpass Turbo tip, Google the exact search you need. (Actually Google everything all the time and don't stop).
calculator.ipvm.com is pretty sweet image forensics ... get a whole bunch of info on the image based on camera characteristics (or the inverse).
Does that FoV match the claim that it was from a CCTV camera of a certain brand? Now we can verify!
"he was blindfolded and driven for 35 minutes"
Now we have a rough idea of where he could be ... app.traveltime.com
rapidtables.com/web/tools/pixe…
Measure pixels to confirm sizes. Great for IDing weapons or verifying shadow lengths.
🚂🚆🚃🚄🚅🚉🛤️ choo choo
www-personal.umich.edu/~yopopov/rrt/r…
satellites.pro is an amazing tool in that it combines several providers. It often has better imagery than Google Earth with no sign-in needed. Downside is no dates are available.
plant.id Pretty great for narrowing results if you have lots of plants in a photo and need to know where it could be. Also just really nice for walks in nature.
That's me done for now. I'll update with more fun tools some other time. This list is far from exhaustive but hopefully it helps some people out :)
Final link tonight is about staying mentally well.
bma.org.uk/advice-and-sup…
Going to do the obvious ones tonight for speed. apps.sentinel-hub.com/eo-browser/ gives high frequency, but low res, imagery in many different bands. Use for change analysis and checking for large aircraft that don't show up on...
flightradar24.com allows you to track planes. If you don't know this one I recommend checking out the internet :P
FIRMS is another great tool for tracking heat signatures, normally fires. I'm being specific here because industrial sites often show up red because of their heat production.
(probably won't catch your neighbour's suspicious attic farm though)
firms.modaps.eosdis.nasa.gov
I wouldn't share this if it wasn't already covered a lot in the press. It's powerful face recognition. I recommend running your face through it to find if people have leaked your nudes or shared that photo of you dining with Putin.
Don't use this for evil pimeyes.com/en
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