Open Source Intelligence

What is Open Source Intelligence?

Open Source Intelligence (OSINT) is a type of threat intelligence that focuses on collecting and analyzing publicly available information.

This information is available to anyone. It includes data from websites, social media, news articles, public records, and more.

The goal of OSINT is to gather publicly available information that could be used to attack your organization.

It is often used by cyber security teams to prevent attacks before they happen.

How Is Open Source Intelligence Used?

By leveraging OSINT, organizations can make informed decisions based on actionable intelligence. Some of the primary ways OSINT is used include:

Improved Security: OSINT can identify potential threats, such as data breaches, leaked credentials, or planned attacks discussed on forums. This allows organizations to mitigate the risk associated with the leaked data before it’s exploited.
Fraud Detection and Prevention: By monitoring publicly available data, organizations can detect and prevent fraud more effectively. For example, checking an email address against known fraud databases.
Improved Threat Intelligence: OSINT can provide valuable insights into threat actors’ TTPs (tactics, techniques, and procedures), helping organizations defend against attacks.
Supply Chain Security: OSINT can be used to monitor the supply chain for potential disruptions, vulnerabilities, leaked data, or general risks. This helps ensure business continuity.
Market and Competitor Analysis: Organizations can use OSINT to analyze market trends, customer sentiment, and competitor activities. This leads to better strategic planning and decision-making.
Reputation Management: OSINT can help track mentions of your organization on social media and news outlets. This enables quick responses to negative publicity or misinformation.

Identifying Threats with Open Source Intelligence

To get a little more granular, OSINT can help identify a wide range of cyber threats, including:

Leaked Credentials: Detecting compromised usernames, passwords, and session tokens on paste sites, forums, and dark web marketplaces.
Sensitive Data Exposure: Identifying exposed databases, files, and other sensitive information publicly available due to misconfigurations or breaches.
Credential Stuffing: Detecting large dumps of usernames and passwords that could be used for credential stuffing attacks.
Login Attempts: Monitoring for unusual login attempts and failed login patterns which may indicate a credential stuffing attack.
Phishing Domains: Identifying newly registered or suspicious domains used for phishing attacks.
Phishing Emails: Detecting phishing email campaigns by analyzing email headers, body content, and links.
Spear Phishing: Recognizing targeted phishing attempts against specific individuals or organizations.
Malware Distribution Sites: Finding websites and servers that host malware.
Command and Control (C2) Servers: Identifying C2 servers used to control malware and botnets.
Ransomware Activity: Monitoring for ransomware strains, ransom notes, and decryptor tools shared on forums and dark web sites.
Zero-Day Vulnerabilities: Tracking discussions and reports about zero-day vulnerabilities in forums and exploit databases.
Exploit Kits: Identifying exploit kits available for sale or shared on hacker forums that target specific vulnerabilities.
Security Advisories: Monitoring security advisories and patches released by vendors and security researchers.
Hacker Groups: Profiling and tracking activities of hacker groups and individual threat actors.
Attack Campaigns: Detecting coordinated attack campaigns, including their targets, methods, and objectives.
Tactics, Techniques, and Procedures (TTPs): Understanding the TTPs used by different threat actors by analyzing their past activities.
Dark Web Marketplaces: Monitoring dark web marketplaces for the sale of stolen data, hacking tools, and other illegal goods.
Forums and Chat Rooms: Analyzing discussions on dark web forums and chat rooms to gather intelligence on planned attacks and emerging threats.
IP Address Monitoring: Tracking suspicious IP addresses and identifying potential threats from malicious IP ranges.
Port Scanning: Detecting unauthorized port scanning activities that may indicate reconnaissance efforts by attackers.
Impersonation: Identifying fake social media profiles and websites impersonating your C-level executive team or vendors.
Pretexting: Detecting attempts to gather sensitive information through impersonation or made-up scenarios.
Baiting: Recognizing campaigns that trick your employees into downloading malware or disclose sensitive information.
Employee Discontent: Monitoring social media and forums for signs of disgruntled employees who might pose an insider threat.
Data Exfiltration: Identifying sensitive data being exfiltrated by employees through unusual network behavior or public disclosures.
Third-Party Risks: Identifying vulnerabilities and breaches within third-party vendors and suppliers that could impact your organization.
Software Supply Chain: Monitoring for compromised software updates and malicious code injected into legitimate software packages.
Nation-State Actors: Profiling and tracking activities of nation-state actors known for conducting APT campaigns.
Botnet Activity: Tracking botnet activity and identifying IP addresses associated with known DDoS botnets.
Attack Announcements: Monitoring forums and dark web sites where attackers might announce upcoming DDoS attacks.

Common OSINT techniques

Here are some popular data sources used to collect Open Source Intelligence:

Breach Databases: Monitoring databases of leaked credentials and personal information to identify compromised data.
Paste Sites and Forums: Scraping pastebin sites and hacker forums for leaked information and data dumps.
Dark Web Marketplaces: Tracking dark web marketplaces for the sale of stolen data and credentials.
Domain Monitoring: Tracking CT logs to identify newly issued SSL/TLS certificates that could indicate potential phishing sites or domain spoofing.
Certificate Analysis: Analyzing CT logs to detect suspicious certificates issued.
Specialized Tools: Using tools designed to scrape and analyze breached data to outsource the data collection.
WHOIS Lookup: Performing WHOIS lookups to gather information about domain registration details and ownership.
DNS Records: Analyzing DNS records, including MX, A, and TXT records, to gain insights into an organization’s domain infrastructure.
Automated Data Collection: Using tools and scripts to extract data from websites, forums, and social media platforms.
Web Crawlers: Using headless web crawlers to automatically browse the web and collect information from multiple websites.
Boolean Operators: Using Boolean operators (AND, OR, NOT) to refine search results and combine multiple search terms.
Search Operators: Leveraging search operators like “site:”, “intitle:”, “filetype:”, and “inurl:” to narrow down search results and find specific information.
Google Dorking: Using Google Dorks (advanced search operators) to find sensitive information.
Profile Analysis: Examining social media profiles for personal information, connections, and activity patterns.
Hashtag and Keyword Monitoring: Tracking specific hashtags, keywords, and trending topics to gather real-time information.
News Aggregators: Using news aggregator tools to collect articles from various sources and identify trends or emerging threats.
RSS Feeds: Subscribing to RSS feeds from news sites to stay updated on relevant news and developments.
Archived Content: Accessing cached and archived versions of news articles through services like the Wayback Machine to view historical data.
Government Databases: Accessing publicly available databases for open-source information on businesses, individuals, patents, trademarks, and regulatory filings.
Company Filings: Reviewing financial statements, annual reports, and other filings submitted to regulatory bodies like the SEC.
Court Records: Searching court records for legal proceedings and decisions that may impact individuals or organizations.