EnglishOpen-source intelligence (OSINT) is the collection and analysis of data from open sources (social media, news media, blogs, forums, public records…)
Used in tactics: Incrimination
Mitigations
| Name | Description |
|---|---|
| Avoiding self-incrimination | An adversary can use open-source intelligence to collect information that you publish voluntarily. To mitigate this, you can avoid using social media and generally avoid making any information about yourself or your networks public. |
Used in repressive operations
| Name | Description |
|---|---|
| Repression of Lafarge factory sabotage | Investigators collected metadata from photos of the action posted online, including the name and serial number of a camera.[1] This helped them identify a person they accused of taking the photos. |
| Repression of the attack on Clarín's headquarters | Investigators analyzed social media profiles to establish links between the defendants.[2] The profile of one defendant on the social network Facebook was named “Coctel Molotov” (Molotov cocktail), which was considered suspicious. |
| 2019-2020 case against Mónica and Francisco | The photos used to identify Mónica and Francisco in public CCTV footage were found on social media.[3] |
| Bure criminal association case | Investigators visited a Facebook page associated with the struggle against Cigéo and then analyzed the Facebook profiles of everyone who had “liked” the page.[4] |
| Case against Revolutionära fronten | A video of the Stockholm beating, which was filmed and posted online by the Revolutionära fronten, showed that some of the defendants were present during the beating, even though their faces were blurred[5] in the video.[4] |
| Operation 8 | Investigators obtained information on people from web searches and newspaper articles.[6] |
Private source.