Security online Archives

OSINT Research: The Devil’s in the Details

For those unfamiliar with the term OSINT Research, it is explained this way by Wikipedia

Open Source Intelligence (OSINT) is the collection and analysis of information that is gathered from public, or open, sources.^[2] OSINT is primarily used in national security, law enforcement, and business intelligence functions and is of value to analysts who use non-sensitive intelligence in answering classified, unclassified, or proprietary intelligence requirements across the previous intelligence disciplines.

OSINT sources can be divided up into six different categories of information flow

Media, print newspapers, magazines, radio, and television from across and between countries.
Internet, online publications, blogs, discussion groups, citizen media (i.e. – cell phone videos, and user created content), YouTube, and other social media websites (i.e. – Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc.). This source also outpaces a variety of other sources due to its timeliness and ease of access.
Public Government Data, public government reports, budgets, hearings, telephone directories, press conferences, websites, and speeches. Although this source comes from an official source they are publicly accessible and may be used openly and freely.
Professional and Academic Publications, information acquired from journals, conferences, symposia, academic papers, dissertations, and theses.
Commercial Data, commercial imagery, financial and industrial assessments, and databases.
Grey literature, technical reports, preprints, patents, working papers, business documents, unpublished works, and newsletters.

OSINT Resources Reveal the Details From the Deep Web

Many times our clients want to better understand the difference between a social media scan and a deep web scan. Taking a close look at the image above explains a lot and kind of surprises most people in terms of the data on the web that is openly available.

eChatter Case Study Examples of Deep Web Details

Recently, we were trying to find out whether a POI (person of interest) was married. He had no Facebook clues other than he was in a relationship. After conducting a deep web scan we found a local newspaper article in which he was named along with “his wife”. The wife chose to keep her maiden name.
A deep scan was ordered by a client to determine what happened to a deceased person’s body. We found an association letter that was published online indicating the person was cremated and buried at sea.
A client needed to know if their POI had any business affiliations that wasn’t disclosed in a divorce settlement. After a deep scan was conducted, we located quite a few businesses tied to the POI.

Does it always work out this way? Not at all. Mainly because some people are much better at hiding this than others or because they were advised to delete everything online by advice of counsel. However, these are the kind of details OSINT research is all about. You will not find this in a Google search.

A Private Investigator’s View of Social Media Intelligence

I am pleased to share with you our first guest blog post. It is written by Larry Forletta, owner of Forletta Investigative/ Security Consulting. As a former DEA agent, Larry Forletta has established many resources in the United States and abroad.

https://fcisllc.com/

Social media investigations have changed the investigative landscape for private investigators.The forensics have been learned through a series of trial and error, utilizing some of the most popular social media platforms in order to gather essential evidence under the laws of collection. Those who work in this department are sometimes referred to as social media
vendors. However, not all social media forensics are the same and they certainly don’t produce the same results every time.

The effective use of social media has aided many investigations already. One investigation that comes to mind is an attempt to extort money from an individual involved with prostitution. By investigating through social media, the individual’s full identity (including name and base of
operations in the U.S.) was able to be identified. This investigative information was then provided to state authorities who were further able to identify the prostitution extortion individual.

It’s quite amazing what people continue to share on social media platforms. Despite the fact that there can be real consequences for what gets posted online, even if it might seem like fun and games, people continue to post sometimes incriminating and hard evidence that can be used against them. Americans spend more time using social media platforms than any other
internet activity, such as email. Most online evidence is compiled manually by an investigator who might screenshot or archive as needed. If something was sent or posted, perhaps even published, then it can be found and used accordingly.

Even when posts are deleted, they never really go away. Emails can be trashed, and accounts can be removed, yet the data and imprint of what has been put online may be able to be resurfaced with a little help. After all, a private investigator is only as good as their resources.

Our primary social media associate is eChatter, an online global source for social media researchers. They are spearheaded by their president, Kathy Doering, and specialize in a multitude of services including deep web searches and dark web searches. They are professional, communicative, and will get the answers that you need.

Secrets About Social Media Monitoring That Nobody Will Tell You.

By now most people have heard of social media monitoring in one form or another. Social media monitoring is something that companies do in order to maintain a good online presence and to monitor their online reputation. Restaurants, retail stores, doctors, lawyers and more are smart to hire a company to conduct this ongoing research on their behalf. It can reveal a lot about the company and its competitors.

In the investigation world, social media monitoring can take on an entirely new dimension. If you advertise that you conduct social media investigations, this added service could be a great new source of revenue for your company. A recent case study provides a good example of what we are talking about.

An investigator’s client (who is an attorney) was interested in locating an individual involved in a case she was working on. She wanted the individual’s social media watched for updates, as he was not able to be found using traditional surveillance methods. The investigator needed social media monitoring in order to watch for location clues in as close to real time as possible.

In the social media/ online world, things can change in a second. What is sometimes here today, will be gone tomorrow. That is where monitoring comes in. When an investigator uses social media monitoring, they are getting updates in real time. This type of online surveillance can be handy as it allows the investigator to get a clear picture and an update day to day on the whereabouts of his poi. This allows an investigator to act “in the moment” to better target resources to serve the person as needed, or to even find a missing person.

While conducting social media monitoring for this investigator we were able to locate the person. Within their instagram stories, we could see that he was on vacation and wanted to share his experiences. Looking at the background of an image can reveal a lot. We could see that he was visiting a very popular tourist destination. With this added information, it allowed the investigator to target more effectively. This may not be true in every case as some people don’t use social media at all. However, they are in the minority.

So next time you think about social media investigation ask yourself this question:

Would it be of value to my client to conduct social media monitoring for this case?
Some examples include:

Jury monitoring before, during and after a high profile case
Locating a missing person
Threat monitoring

The bottom line to all of this is to begin with the purpose & be certain it is well justified and that you are monitoring open source data only. When needed, this is an additional step in your investigation that may save time and money in the long run. People love to share their experiences online and this will never change. Learn ways to use it to your advantage.

Cyber Crime: The Rise of Sextortion in Video Games & Chatrooms

Sexual predators will use any means available to lure innocent kids into doing what they want. The scary part is that they do their homework first. The FBI reported about a man recently, in his 40’s, who actually worked as a youth Pastor to learn how kids talked and interacted with each other. Next he created fake social media profiles to lure boys to take videos of themselves. He was caught and is now in jail.

Video games is another avenue with which predators attempt to communicate with kids and it is perhaps the most dangerous. The reason for this is because parents don’t always understand the nature of the video games their kids are playing. This puts them at a disadvantage and is one reason why the FBI started a school campaign on the dangers of talking to strangers online.

So, what resources are out there to help educate parents and educators help prevent this crime? One great resource we can recommend is Thorn.

Thorn was born in 2012 by Ashton Kutcher and Demi Moore. When they learned about sex trafficking in Cambodia, they started to dig deeper. Its then that they realized it was happening in the US as well.

Today, Thorn is thriving with a lot of wonderful partners and continued education and promotion.

Facebook has adopted Thorn, and created The Stop Sextortion Hub as an additional resource for people. On this site, Facebook offers a great selection of information.

Meet the staff at Thorn and reach out to them if you are interested in getting involved.

Our success is measured by how many children we’ve helped save, how many cases we’ve contributed to solving and how much harm we’ve prevented. Through focused and persistent effort, we can stop online child sexual abuse.”
From: About us on www.thorn.com

If you are wondering who is most vulnerable, read “Online Predators: What Every Parent Should Know” . Many times parents think that kids are in their room, in their home, playing video games and they are safe. However, there are warning signs parents need to know.

Resources You Need to Know
Chatrooms Community by Talk With Stranger is like a social network of strangers. Discuss topics, follow people, chat with people, make friends & share everything for free! We have 1000s of online users waiting to chat from every corner of the world.

Discord is a proprietary freeware VoIP application and digital distribution platform designed for video gaming communities, that specializes in text, image, video and audio communication between users in a chat channel. Discord runs on Windows, macOS, Android, iOS, Linux, and in web browsers.

If you are reading this blog, please share with parents and people who can make a difference. Education is key to stopping these predators.

How to Clean Up your Digital Footprint

We live in a world where we feel the need to share everything…pictures, job status, when and where we are going on vacation, where we ate dinner…and the list goes on and on. So much of our personal information is available to the public, and that’s not a good thing. Between Facebook and Google’s data collection policies and the rise in identity theft, now would be a great time to clean up your digital footprint. You’re probably saying to yourself, “I use strong and unique passwords. I mark sketchy emails as spam. I lookout for phishing emails. I’ve got Cybersecurity 101 down pat.” But with new threats popping up all the time, there are more in depth steps you can take to protect yourself. And the most important one of all: Clean up your digital footprint.

Most people have old email accounts floating around, forgotten flash drives in a drawer, and years of downloads taking up space on a computer. Believe it or not, holding on to accounts and files that you don’t want any more needlessly exposes you to all sorts of risks. Your devices can be lost or stolen (or hacked), and big companies can suffer data breaches that incidentally expose your information. So the less there is out there, the better off you are. “The physical presence of data is so small that sometimes we don’t think about it as being clutter,” says Michael Kaiser, executive director of the National Cyber Security Alliance. “But we accumulate massive amounts of it, and some of it can be harmful if it gets lost or stolen.”

Here are some tips from experts on how to clean up your online data and improve your privacy:

1. Delete or Deactivate your Online Accounts

Think about all the shopping, entertainment and social media websites that you’ve registered an account on. Big ones like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram are easy to remember (or they instantly log you in with a saved password), but the chances are that you won’t be able to remember every single account you’ve ever created. To delete most accounts, go to your account settings and look for an option to deactivate, cancel or remove your account. Most of the time it won’t be easy to find because they don’t want you to leave. They may even offer you an incentive to remain a member.

2. Cancel those App Accounts

Now that you’ve deleted your online accounts, time to delete your app accounts. Look for apps on your phone and tablet, streaming devices, gaming consoles, and computer that you don’t use anymore and shut them down. Do you still have an account with a messaging app you used once two years ago? Why is that calorie-counting app from 2014 still on your phone? Cancel and delete. That type of exposure is an unnecessary risk. But just because you deleted if off your phone, doesn’t mean it’s gone forever. Make sure you clean out and close your account with the app developer so it retains the smallest amount of data possible about you. Closing an account doesn’t mean that a company deletes all your data or eliminates the basic things it knows about you, but it keeps the account from staying active and potentially continuing to collect data.

3. Email Accounts

The most important account to consider is your email, the central data hub of your online life. Your email account is a valuable prize for a hacker, because it contains information about tons of other people (friends, family members, coworkers) in addition to yourself. Deleting emails you no longer need and exporting old emails you still want to the cloud or a hard drive is a smart way to reduce what would be compromised if your email was ever hacked. Virtually all email services offer ways to export your messages and other account data so you hold it locally and can delete it from the company’s servers. And don’t forget to delete old email accounts that you no longer use.

4. Destroy Old Devices

First, let’s address the physical devices. Destroy old CDs, flash drives, and external hard drives you don’t need anymore. Also consider old PCs, gaming consoles, and smart home gadgets…just make sure you back up anything you want from those devices before wiping them. Next, sort through your computer desktop and clean out your documents folder. Eliminating old PDFs of credit card statements or medical forms that you no longer need will go a long way toward keeping you safer.

We’re not telling you to part with data that is personally meaningful or useful, the goal is to pare down what you have so if your data is ever compromised, hackers aren’t able to easily access names, birthdays, and Social Security numbers. “When we talk about security, we often talk about protecting our own things,” Kaiser says. “But in reality, in the digital world we actually do sit on large amounts of information about other people, and that’s something to consider with decluttering and storing data more securely.”

5. Survey the Scene

Take a step back and try to think of anything you might be forgetting. Most email systems have search features allowing you to comb through your old messages. You can bulk-delete everything from before a certain date or everything from a particular contact. You should also regularly search your email for the last four digits of your Social Security number and delete any messages it appears in. “Think of the information you have saved,” the United States Computer Emergency Readiness Team notes. “Is there banking or credit card account information? Tax returns? Passwords? Medical or other personal data? Personal photos? Sensitive corporate information? Depending on what kind of information an attacker can find, he or she may be able to use it maliciously.”

Privacy Tips

Now that you’ve cleaned up your online data, here are a few tips to help maximize your privacy in the future:

Instead of WhatsApp or Facebook Messenger, consider using an encrypted open-source messenger app such as Signal or Telegram.
Delete unnecessary accounts and think carefully about making new ones
Use encrypted email services like Protonmail and Disroot instead of Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft email
Ideally, use Mozilla Firefox or Brave as your web browser instead of Chrome
Use privacy add-ons with your browser including HTTPS Everywhere, Self Destructing Cookies, Ghostery and Privacy Badger
Don’t use simple passwords and never use the same password for every website