Remote working is driving the discovery and use of open-source intelligence tools and techniques.
The Open-Source Intelligence OSINT toolkit combines the OSINT framework with a list of suitable tools. The listing of tools is the result of crowdsourcing by OSINT community members on GitHub and data from i-intelligence’s OSINT Tools and Resources 2020 Handbook .
When you first see the OSINT Toolkit, you probably think, blimey! Where do I start? The key is to build a workflow that uses a mix of tools and techniques to achieve a required outcome. Here is a useful guide on creating an OSINT workflow from @tenacioustek, Here is an overview by Maarten Schenk on how he used a range of OSINT tools to uncover a Macedonian fake news network, Here is Bellingcat‘s online investigation toolkit. Here is a fascinating example of OSINT and geolocation tools being used to solve a complex problem.
Once you start to use OSINT, you will also need to communicate your recommendations in a clear and concise fashion. Here are some excellent tips from Zachery Tyson on how to write like an intelligence analyst and an excellent list of resources from Ygor Maximo.
What are you waiting for? Go on, dive in.
Explore, stay curious, stay safe and have fun.
We hope you enjoy the OSINT Toolkit.
How is open-source intelligence disrupting statecraft?
Listen to John Brennan, a former director of the CIA, on how open-source intelligence impacts secret intelligence.
You may also like our Digital Toolkit for remote workers.
Official Resources
Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)
- Style Manual & Writers Guide for Intelligence Publications
- Analytic Thinking and Presentation for Intelligence Producers
Articles & News related to CIA’s Style Manual & Writers Guide
- Writing Tips from the CIA’s Ruthless Style Manual
- The CIA style guide goes online: now you can learn to write like a spy
- The CIA Released Their Style Guide, and It’s Absolutely Fascinating
- Mission Grammatical: CIA Has 185-Page Writing Style Book
- The CIA and the Power of Words
- 11 Grammar Lessons From a Leaked CIA Style Book
Mercyhurst College – Institute for Intelligence Studies
Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA)
- DIA’s Style Manual for Intelligence Production (governmentattic.org)
- DIA’s Style Manual for Intelligence Production (dia.mil)
U.S. Army Intelligence Center of Excellence
- USAICoE Writing Program Resources
- Enhancing Your Intelligence Writing Writing Guide for USAICoE and U.S. Army Writing
Community Resources
Articles
- How You Can Write Like An Intelligence Analyst
- Intelligence Analysis Tradecraft 101: Writing Effective Intelligence
- My Fool-Proof Process to Writing a Killer Intelligence Brief and Tips to Deliver Intelligence Assessments Better
- The Three Skills Every Successful Intelligence Analyst Needs To Master: Tips on how to Write, Brief and Analyse
- Intelligence Writing
- How Intelligence Analysis Can Improve Critical Thinking and Writing Skills
Papers
- Write Like a Spy: Using U.S. Intelligence Guidelines to Reinforce the Lessons of Predictive Legal Writing
- Intelligence Analysis Reports: A How-to Writing Guide
- CIA – IC Writing Style
- How To Write Like An Intelligence Analyst
Discussions
Talks
- Threat Intel for Everyone: Writing Like A Journalist To Produce Clear, Concise Reports (33min)
- Hack the Reader: Writing Effective Threat Reports with Lenny Zeltser (37min)
- Pen-To-Paper and The Finished Report: The Key To Generating Threat Intelligence (33min)
- Writing Meaningful Threat Intel Reports in MISP (2h30min)
Videos
Podcasts
- How to Keep Finished Intelligence Fresh (Recorded Future)
Presentations
Books
Training/Courses
- Threat Intelligence Writing (Threat Intelligence Academy)
- Reporting for Analysts (I-Intelligence)
- Analytic Writing, Reporting, Briefs, and Dissemination (Treadstone71)
- Introduction to Analytic Tradecraft Writing (FedLearn)
- Style Guides by Government Agencies
- The Elements of Style – Strunk & White
- Psychology of Intelligence Analysis
All the links in the OSINT Toolkit go to sites with a valid SSL HTTPS certificate.
Speciality search engines
Visual search and clustering search engines
Similar sites search
Code Search
Real-time search, social media search, and social media tools
Social media tools
- AllMyTweets
- Backtweets
- Blue Nod
- burrrd.
- Commun.it
- doesfollow
- Foller.me
- Followerwonk
- Ground Signal
- HappyGrumpy
- Harvard TweetMap
- Hashtagify
- Hashtags.org
- ManageFlitter
- Mentionmapp
- OneMillionTweetMap
- Queryfeed
- SnapBird
- Social Bearing
- Social Rank First Follower
- Tagdef
- Tinfoleak
- Trends24
- TrendsMap
- tweepsect
- TweetArchivist
- TweetDeck
- TweetMap
- Tweetreach
- TweetTunnel
- Tweriod
- Twicsy
- Twilert
- Twitonomy
- TwitRSS
- Twitter Advanced Search
- Twitter Audit
- Twitter Chat Schedule
- Twitterfall
- Twitter Search
- Schedule Warble
VKontakte
- Дезертир
- Barkov.net
- Report Tree
- Target Log
- VK Community Search
- VK Parser
- VK People Search
- VK to RSS Appspot
Tumblr
Blog search
Forums and discussion boards search
Username check
People investigations
- 411 (US)
- Alumni.net
- Ancestry
- Charlie App
- CrunchBase
- Data 24-7
- Family Search
- Fold3 (US Military Records)
- Forebears
- Genealogy Bank
- Kompass
- MelissaDATA
- The National Archives (UK)
- PeekYou
- People Search (Australia)
- Pipl
- Recruitem
- Rootsweb
- SearchBug
- Skip Ease
- SnoopStation
- Spokeo
- That’sThem
- USSearch
- Zabasearch
Company research
- Better Business Bureau
- Bloomberg
- Business Source
- Bureau Van Dijk
- Canadian Business Research
- Central and Eastern European Business Directory
- Company Registration Round the World
- Company Research Resources by Country Comparably
- CompeteShark
- Corporate Information
- CrunchBase
- Europages
- European Business Register
- Ezilon
- Factiva
- Glassdoor
- globalEdge
- GuideStar
- Hoovers
- Inc. 5000
- iSpionage
- Knowledge guide to international company registration
- National Company Registers
- Mergent Intellect
- Mergent Online
- Notablist
- Orbis directory
- opencorporates
- Owler
- Overseas Company Registers
- Scoot
- SEMrush
- Serpstat
- Forbes Global 2000
- Vault
Q&A sites
Domain and IP research
- Accuranker
- ahrefs
- Bing Webmaster Tools
- Central Ops
- DNSDumpster
- DNSStuff
- DNS Trail
- DNSViz
- Domain Big Data
- Domain Dossier
- Domain Tools
- Easy whois
- Follow.net
- GraphyStories
- Infosniper
- intoDNS
- IP Location
- IPFingerprints
- IPVoid
- NetworkTools
- Majestic
- Netcraft Site Report
- OpenLinkProfiler
- Open Site Explorer
- Pentest-Tools.com
- Quick Sprout
- RedirectDetective
- Remote DNS Lookup
- Robtex
- SEMrush
- SEOTools for Excel
- Similar Web
- StatsCrop
- TCPIPUTILS.com
- URLVoid
- WebMeUp
- Website Informer
- WhatIsMyIPAddress
- Who.is
- Whois Arin Online
- WhoIsHostingThis
- Whoisology
- WhoIsRequest
- w3snoop
- Verisign
- ViewDNS.info
- You Get Signal
Keywords discovery and research
Language tools
- 2lingual
- Apertium
- Babelfish
- Bablic
- Bing Translator
- Frengly
- Gengo
- Google Input Tools
- Google Translate
- Google Tranlslate Extension
- IdiomaX Translation
- imTranslator
- Lexicool Translation
- Linguee
- Microsoft Translator
- Noslang
- Pleco
- PROMT-Online
- Reddit/r/translator
- Reverso
- Slangit
- Systran
- Translate.com
- Unbabel
- WorldLingo
- WorldReference.com
- Yamli (Arabic Search Engine)
- Yandex Translate
Image analysis
Video search and other video tools
Radio and podcasts tools
Academic resources and grey literature
- Academia
- Academic Journals
- African Journal Online
- American Society of Civil Engineers
- Base
- Bibsonomy
- Cambridge Journals
- Core
- Elsevier
- Google Scholar
- Grey Literature – List of Gateways
- Grey Literature Report
- Journal Guide
- JSTOR
- NRC Research Press
- Open Access Scientific Journals
- Oxford Journals
- PubMed
- Quetzal Search
- Research Gate
- ScienceDirect
- SCIRP
- Springer
- Science Publications
- Taylor & Francis Online
- Wiley
- World Digital Library
- World Science
Geospatial research and mapping tools
- Bing Maps
- CartoDB
- Colorbrewer
- CrowdMap
- CTLRQ Address Lookup
- Dominoc925
- GeoNames
- Esri
- Flash Earth
- Google Earth
- Google Maps
- Google My Maps
- GPSVisualizer
- GrassGIS
- Hyperlapse
- Inspire Geoportal
- InstantAtlas
- Instant Google Street View
- Kartograph
- Leaflet
- MapAList
- MapBox
- Mapchart.net
- MapHub
- Mapline
- Mapquest
- NGA GEOINT
- OpenLayers
- Open Street Map
- QGIS
- QuickMaps
- StoryMaps
- Scribble Maps
- Tableau
- Timescape
- WorldMap Harvard
- ViaMichelin
- Yahoo Maps
- Zeemaps
Data and statistics
- AGOA Data Center
- AidData
- AWS Public Datasets
- Bank for International Settlements Statistics
- BP Statistical Review of World Energy
- CIA World Factbook
- Data.gov.uk
- DBPedia
- European Commission Eurobarometer
- European Union Open Data Portal
- Eurostat
- globalEDGE Database of International Business Statistics
- Google Finance
- Google Public Data Explorer
- Government of Canada Open Data
- HIS Piers
- ILO World Employment and Social Outlook Trends
- IMF World Economic Outlook Database
- Index Mundi
- International Energy Agency Statistics
- Junar
- Knoema
- LandMatrix
- Library, University of Michigan: Statistics and Datasets
- Nation Master
- OECD Data
- OECD Factbook
- Open Data Network
- Paul Hensel’s General Informational Data Page
- Pew Research Center
- Population Reference Bureau Data Finder
- PRS Risk Indicators
- SESRIC Basic Social and Economic Indicators
- Statista
- The Atlas of Economic Complexity
- Trading Economics
- UN COMTRADE Database
- UNCTAD Country Fact Sheets
- UNCTAD Investment Country Profiles
- UNCTAD STAT
- UN Data
- UNECE
- UNIDO Statistical Databases
- Upsala Conflict Data Program
- US Data and Statistics
- WHO Data
- World Integrated Trade Solution
- Vizala
Web monitoring
Offline browsing
Slideshow and presentation tools
Infographics and data visualization
- Adobe Color CC
- Aeon
- Befunky
- Cacoo
- Canva
- Chart.js
- creately
- Crossfilter
- csvkit
- Data Visualization Catalogue
- D3js
- Datawrapper
- Dropmark
- easely
- Exhibit
- Flot
- FusionCharts
- Google Developers: Charts
- GraphX
- Hohli
- Inkscape
- Infogr.am
- Java Infovis Toolkit
- JpGraph
- Kartograph
- Knoema
- Leaflet
- Listify
- Linkuroius
- Lucidchart
- Mapline
- Nodebox
- OpenLayers
- Piktochart
- Pixcone
- Pixxa
- Plotly
- StoryMap
- QlikView
- Raphael
- Shanti Interactive
- Snappa
- Statpedia
- Tableau
- Tableau Public
- Textures.js
- Tiki-toki
- Tik-tok
- Timeflow
- Timeline
- Timeline
- Timescape
- Timetoast
- Venngage
- Visage
- Vis.js
- Visme
- Vortex
- ZingChart
PDF management
OCR tools
Cloud storage and file sharing
Collaboration and project management
- 10kinsights
- 15Five
- 92fiveApp
- 5pm
- ActionMint
- ActiveCollab
- Advanseez
- AllThings
- Any.do
- Apollo
- Asana
- Authorea
- AWW
- Azendoo
- Basecamp
- Binfire
- Breeze
- Canvanizer
- Casual
- Cardboardit
- Cardsmith
- CloudApp
- CollaborateCloud
- Comindwork
- Conceptboard
- Confluence
- eGroupWare
- Elegantt
- Firepad
- Firesub
- Flask
- Float
- Flow
- Frame
- Freedcamp
- GetDoneDone
- Glasscubes
- GQueues
- Hightail
- hitask
- Huddle
- KabanTool
- Kanboard
- Kerika
- Loomio
- LumoFlow
- Nozbe
- Nutcache
- Minute
- Mural
- OmniGroup
- OnlyOffice
- Padlet
- Piematrix
- Pinstriped
- Plan
- Planzone
- Podio
- ProjectManager
- ProjectPlace
- ProofHub
- Quip
- Quire
- Realtimeboard
- Redbooth
- Restya
- Scribblar
- SeavusProjectViewer
- Smartsheet
- Stackfield
- Stormboard
- SyncSpace
- Taiga
- TargetProcess
- Taskboard
- TeamAllocator
- Team Pad
- TeamWork
- TeamWorklive
- Transparent Business
- Trello
- Tuzzit
- Twiddla
- Weekdone
- Whiteboard Fox
- Worknoard
- Workfront
- Wrike
- Yammer
- YouTrack
- Zoho
Communication Tools
- Adobe Connect
- AnyDesk
- AnyMeeting
- BeamYourScreen
- Blackboard
- clearvale
- Digital Samba
- Discourse
- Exo Platform
- FaceFlow
- Fleep
- Flowdock
- FreeConferenceCall
- FreeScreenSharing
- Friends
- Glance
- GoToMeeting
- Highfive
- Icq
- Infinite
- Jitsi
- Join.me
- Jostle
- Lets Chat
- lifesize
- Linphone
- Live Conference Pro
- Lucid Meetings
- LumoFlow
- MeetingOne
- MeWe
- mikogo
- MyBB
- Open Whisper Systems
- Phorum
- Polycom
- Quicktopic
- ReadyTalk
- Rocket.Chat
- screenleap
- Skype
- Slack
- StartMeeting
- Talky
- Teamviewer
- Telegram
- Tibbr
- Tixeo
- Toc
- TrueConf
- Vanilla Forums
- Veeting rooms
- VeriShow
- Viadesk
- VideoLink2
- Vivicom
- Webex
- Zoho Meeting
- Zoom
- Zulip
Calendars and scheduling
Mind mapping, concept mapping and idea generation tools
Social network analysis OSINT Toolkit
Privacy and encryption tools
- Abine
- AdblockPlus
- Adium
- boxcryptor
- CCleaner
- Chatsecure
- Disconnect
- Duck Duck Go Search Engine
- Epic Privacy Browser
- Eraser
- FileVault
- GNU PG
- GPG Tools
- Guardian Project
- Guerrilla Mail
- Hotspot Shield
- HTTPs Everywhere
- I2P
- IPLeak
- Ixquick Search Engine
- justdeleteme
- KeePass Password Safe
- Lastpass
- Lockbin
- Mailbox
- Mailvelope
- Master Password
- NoScript
- Open DNS
- Open PGP
- Open Whisper Systems
- Oscobo Search Engine
- OSSEC
- Panopticlick
- Pidgin
- Pixel Block
- Privacy Badger
- Privazer
- Proton Mail
- Qubes
- Script Safe
- Securesha
- Silent circle
- Snort
- Spideroak
- Surveilliance Self Defense
- Tails
- Thunderbird
- Tor Project
- Unseen.is
- Wickr
- WOT
Dark Web OSINT Toolkit
Ahmia
OnionLink
List of 30 unusual Web search engines
Quora list of unusual Web sites
OSINT Videos