A
roundup
of
some
of
the
handiest
tools
for
the
collection
and
analysis
of
publicly
available
data
from
Twitter,
Facebook
and
other
social
media
platforms
Social
media
sites
are
a
near-bottomless
source
of
information
that
almost
anyone
can
use
for
security
and
intelligence
research,
as
well
as
for
marketing
campaigns.
The
platforms
allow
anybody
to
learn
more
about
other
people,
their
interests,
experiences
and
affiliations,
while
organizations
can
easily
scour
the
sites
to
gain
insights
about
customer
sentiment
or
to
predict
consumer
behavior.
It’s
little
wonder
then
that
techniques
such
as
Open
Source
Intelligence
(OSINT)
are
increasingly
popular.
These
days,
there
are
numerous
tools
that
automate
the
collection
and
analysis
of
public
data
about
internet
users.
These
techniques
are
also
applied
specifically
for
social
media
intelligence,
sometimes
called
SOCMINT.
In
this
article,
we’ll
look
at
several
tools
that
may
aid
your
social
media
intelligence
efforts.
Importantly,
they
are
also
a
testament
to
the
importance
of
being
wary
of
what
kind
of
information
any
of
us
shares
online.
Namechk
Let’s
start
with
the
easiest
one.
In
addition
to
checking
the
availability
of
a
username
on
various
online
platforms,
Namechk
lets
you
easily
search
for
a
person’s
online
personas.
To
do
this,
just
enter
a
username
and
Namechk
will
comb
through
multiple
online
platforms
to
find
user
profiles
that
match
the
information
provided.
This
is
useful
for
researchers,
journalists,
businesses
and
government
agencies
looking
to
collect
online
information
about
a
person
or
for
people
looking
to
reconnect
with
long-lost
friends
or
acquaintances.
Sherlock
Sherlock
is
an
open-source,
command-line
tool
developed
in
Python
that,
much
like
Namechk,
searches
for
a
particular
username
on
the
most
popular
social
networks
before
spitting
out
links
to
the
profiles.
It
has
no
interface
and
is
accessed
via
a
Windows,
Linux
or
MacOS
command
terminal.
For
more
information
and
installation
guidance,
check
out
the
GitHub
repository
of
the
Sherlock
Project.
accountanalysis
accountanalysis
is
used
to
perform
OSINT
research
with
a
focus
on
Twitter.
It
produces
a
report
that
is
a
bird’s
eye
view
of
an
account’s
public
information,
including
its
followers
and
followed
accounts,
frequency
of
tweets,
number
of
interactions,
times
of
greatest
activity,
most
used
hashtags
and
many
more.
This
data
is
useful
to
draw
a
variety
of
conclusions:
From
learning
more
about
people’s
tastes
or
opinions
to
checking
whether
it
is
an
automated
user
or
bot
(e.g.,
based
on
posting
schedules)
to
discovering
accounts
that
have
malicious
purposes
due
to
their
promoting
sites
with
a
bad
reputation.
Maltego
Maltego
is
one
of
the
best
known
and
most
powerful
tools
in
the
OSINT
world.
It
uses
graphs
to
represent
information,
which
allows
you
to
create
relationship
diagrams
to
identify
patterns
and
discover
hidden
connections.
It
also
stands
out
for
the
number
of
sources
it
uses.
The
most-used
features
are
those
that
make
it
possible
to
identify
and
visualize
relationships
between
what
the
tool
calls
entities,
such
as
IP
addresses,
domain
names,
e-mails,
social
network
users,
etc.
In
addition,
Maltego
allows
you
to
integrate
different
sources
of
information,
such
as
databases,
online
search
tools,
APIs,
etc.
When
creating
a
new
graph
within
the
tool,
we
can
insert
entities
or
already-known
data
about
the
target,
such
as
email,
commonly
used
username
or
full
name.
And
with
the
help
of
“transforms”,
Maltego
will
add
the
related
entities
to
the
first
one.
For
example,
in
the
following
image
we
see
some
entities
resulting
from
a
search
for
“ESET
Latinoamérica”.
Among
others,
the
tool
returned
ESET’s
social
networks
and
related
sites,
including
WeLiveSecurity.
From
the
newly
discovered
entities,
it
is
possible
to
re-run
the
transforms.
The
following
image
shows
that
digging
into
the
resulting
Instagram
profile
returns
files
saved
in
the
Wayback
Machine.
Maltego,
available
for
download
from
the
official
site,
is
a
desktop
application
that
offers
free
(but
limited)
licensing
and
unlimited
paid
versions
at
both
user
and
corporate
levels.
Social
media
as
search
engines
Okay,
this
is
not
really
what
you
would
think
of
as
an
OSINT
tool,
but
search
functionalities
that
are
integrated
within
social
media
sites
may
double
as
powerful
resources
for
intel
gathering
–
without
leaving
the
app
itself.
This
is
especially
the
case
if
the
target
of
your
research
is
a
close
or
famous
person.
Some
useful
options
are:
-
Profile
search:
Search
for
the
full
name
and
other
relevant
details
of
the
person
you
are
researching
to
find
their
profile
on
the
social
network
and
view
their
public
activity,
such
as
their
posts
and
shared
photos. -
Hashtag
search:
Use
relevant
hashtags
to
find
posts
related
to
the
person
you
are
researching.
For
example,
if
you
are
looking
for
information
about
an
event,
it
is
possible
to
search
for
the
hashtag
associated
with
that
event
and
see
if
the
person
has
shared
information
about
it. -
Group
search:
Check
if
the
person
you
are
researching
is
a
member
of
any
groups
on
the
social
network,
as
this
can
provide
additional
information
about
their
interests
and
activities. -
Mention
search:
Search
for
mentions
of
the
person
you
are
researching
on
the
social
network,
to
see
if
other
people
are
talking
about
them
and
get
more
information
about
their
online
reputation
and
relationships.
Recommendations
When
using
OSINT
tools,
make
sure
to
apply
certain
measures
to
ensure
that
the
privacy
and
security
of
individuals
and
the
information
collected
is
respected.
This
is
why
we
recommend:
-
Know
the
law:
It
is
crucial
to
know
the
local
and
national
laws
and
regulations
related
to
the
collection
and
use
of
public
information
to
ensure
that
you
do
not
commit
a
crime
or
violate
the
privacy
of
others. -
Respect
people’s
privacy:
It
is
important
not
to
collect
private
or
confidential
information
without
the
explicit
consent
of
the
affected
person. -
Verify
the
information:
It
is
important
to
verify
the
truthfulness
and
relevance
of
the
collected
information
before
using
it
for
any
purpose. -
Preserve
security:
When
collecting
and
storing
information,
it
is
important
to
take
measures
to
protect
it
against
possible
theft
or
data
breaches.
OSINT
tools
for
social
media
research
can
be
very
useful,
but
also
remind
us
of
the
importance
of
protecting
the
information
that
we
do
not
want
to
be
available
or
that
could
be
used
for
malicious
purposes.
Be
careful
about
what
you
post
online
and
avoid
oversharing
details
from
your
private
life
on
social
media.