What does the internet know about you, your business and your competitors????
Open source intelligence (OSINT) is a type of intelligence collection methodology that involves gathering and analyzing information from publicly available sources such as news articles, social media, public records, and other openly accessible sources.
Most people have searched for a person or company using Google or LinkedIn. What else is out there?
OSINT Framework Provides a listing of tools you can use to search for publicly available information. There are tools to search through public records, password breaches, baptismal records, dating profiles.
Have I been Pwned is a good tool to see if any of your passwords are available on the Dark Web.
SEMRush will let you see what keywords your competitors are trying to rank for and let you track their progress.
Reading job ads on your favorite job search website will let you know where a company is expanding.
Want learn more? Check our or small business cyber security guide.
Frequently Asked Questions: Open-Source Intelligence (OSINT)
What is Open-Source Intelligence (OSINT)?
Open-Source Intelligence (OSINT) is the practice of collecting and analyzing information from publicly available sources—news, social media, search engines, public records, breach databases, and more. It’s widely used by researchers, security teams, and, unfortunately, attackers.
What kinds of information about me or my business can OSINT tools find?
The article notes that OSINT tools can uncover:
- Public records
- Leaked passwords and breach data
- Social media and dating profiles
- Job postings, which reveal hiring plans and tech stacks
- SEO/keyword data about your business and competitors
What OSINT tools does the article mention?
- OSINT Framework – a directory of tools to search public records, breaches, and more
- Have I Been Pwned – checks whether your email/passwords have appeared in known data breaches
- SEMrush – shows which keywords your competitors are targeting and how they rank over time
Why should small businesses care about OSINT?
Because attackers can use the same free tools to:
- Discover leaked credentials for your staff
- Map your technology stack and vendors
- Profile executives and employees for social-engineering attacks
If you don’t know what’s exposed, it’s hard to defend against targeted attacks that use this information.
