Recently, ShadowDragon CEO, dclemens, contributed an article to Security Management Magazine for their October 2023 organized crime issue. In the piece, he offers firsthand insights into how investigators can improve their workflows and scale their investigations with the power of open-source intelligence (OSINT.)
With so much more organized crime being coordinated online, OSINT has become a critical element of the investigative process. And with so much publicly available information (PAI) online to work through, it’s important to help a broader range of professionals understand where OSINT fits into the investigative workflow, and how to properly scale short-term and long-term investigations.
Whether you are a member of law enforcement or part of a security team within a private organization, online artifacts must not be overlooked. Having a method to the madness is key as investigators look to integrate OSINT more thoughtfully into their investigative workflows. To do so, they need to know when, where and how to add the collection of online and publicly available information into their process to translate it into valuable intelligence.
OSINT may not solve all the issues within an investigation, but it will provide valuable clues that you won’t find anywhere else. The unspoken value of one small artifact can break a case open or change a perspective.
The bottom line? In Daniel’s experience collecting all sorts of data in investigations while adding in OSINT collection, his philosophy is that the more you know, the luckier you become.
