OSINT Search Strategy #1 : ”Google Guessing”.
Regardless the subject, regardless the purpose or goals, the by far majority of investigators use the same search strategy over and over again. It’s called Google Guessing and involves the use of the Google Internet search engine to solve any information problem, regardless the subject
Just hammer in a few terms, hit enter and hope for the best. After one or two minutes, repeat.
This has two obvious assumptions. One, that (part of) the answer to solve the information problem is available somewhere on the world wide web on the Internet, and two, that the Google search engine has access to it. Both are very wrong.
The Internet is only a small part of the global information landscape. There is a lot of open source information out there that is not on the Internet. Talk to a librarian. They know. Think about satellite imagery, or data from telephone masts, acoustic signals etc.
Secondly, the ‘Internet’ consists of a lot more then just the world wide web. There is other protocols offered on the Internet where open source information is stored, such as NNTP, IRC, FTP and others. They are not as large as HTTP, but still.
Of the world wide web, only a fraction is indexed by search engines. Estimates are that the deep web is 50 to 500 times larger than the surface web. Roughly 2 percent or less is indexed by search engines, the rest is available only behind paywalls, interactive datbases etc. Google only covers a fraction of information on the world wide web.
It is really interesting to see how students change their search behaviour after just a few days of OSINT training. Learning about requirement analysis, problem deconstruction, constructing a collection plan, source analysis, the OSINT Intelligence Cycle. No more Google guessing, but applying a technique of structured, systematic and planned open source research to solve any information problems using open sources.
See for yourself and look for an OSINT training that will share a methodology of OSINT research. Forget for now about tricks, tools and such.
https://lnkd.in/eK4xR5WZ
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