Fundamentals of OSINT (4 Days)
This four-day curse combines models from our Open Source Intelligence and Social Media Intelligence Foundations courses. The course begins with the principals of web and social media monitoring, before going on to provide instruction in effective online research. From there we elaborate on how to exploit specific social media channels for intelligence or investigative purposes. Participants will also be given instruction in related disciplines such as requirements planning, information operations and online security. The course has been designed to help organisations wishing to onboard or train a large number of analysts in a limited amount of time. Our fee structure has been amended to ensure that your training initiatives are as cost effective as possible.
Course Outline
The Intel Cycle, Requirements Planning, Set-Up and Security
Introduction to Intelligence
- Defining intelligence
- The many applications
- The intelligence cycle
- The role of the analyst
Introduction to OSINT / SOCMINT
- Defining OSINT
- Navigating the iceberg model
- Establishing an OSINT typology
- Legal and ethical considerations
- The Lean Intelligence Methodology
Managing Requirements
- Analysing and managing your customer
- Identifying collection requirements
- The Key Intelligence Topics (KITs) process
- Collection planning: tools and frameworks
- Establishing a keyword / hashtag index
Privacy and Security for OSINT Practitioners
- Introduction to OPSEC
- Understanding the threat landscape
- Mapping your digital footprint
- Securing your user accounts
- Secure searching and browsing
- Hardening your devices
- VMs, VPNs, and password managers
Automating OSINT and SOCMINT
Automating OSINT Collection
- Working with RSS feeds
- Working with data aggregators
- Generating source-based news alerts
- Generating keyword based news alerts
- Generating data from think tanks
- Generating data from academic resources
- Monitoring foreign language content
- Filtering for sentiment-specific OSINT content
Source Discovery
- Broadening your source based
- Source discovery strategies and resources
- Source management: tips and best practices
- Indexing and sharing your sources
Automating SOCMINT Collection
- Mapping a nation’s social media preferences
- Generating data from social media platforms
- Working with foreign social media platforms
- Working with the Fediverse
- Working with forums
- Filtering for sentiment-specific SOCMINT content
Working with Twitter
- Searching Twitter effectively
- Automating Twitter queries
Working with Blogs
- Blog / newsletter discovery
- Working with blogging platforms
- Mapping a blogger’s online footprint
- Validating bloggers and their content
Effective Search / Images and Video
Searching the Web
- Contemporary search challenges
- Foundational search strategies
- Working with search operators
- Working with search parameters
- Constructing complex search queries
- Extending Chrome’s search functions
- Recommended Google alternatives
- Searching with AI
- Automating search queries
Images and Imagery Sources
- Image search: strategies and resources
- Reverse image search tools
- Investigating image metadata
- Checking for image manipulation
- Validating images
- Geolocating mages
Video Sharing Platforms
- Video search strategies and resources
- Working with video hosting platforms
- Monitoring video platforms, channels and users
- Verifying and validating video content
- Downloading and saving video content
- Geolocating video content
Data Collation, Information Operations, Sentiment Analysis and Reporting Skills
Data Collation and Management
- Data triaging
- Data evaluation
- Data collation and synthesis
- Comparative case assessments
- Data management
- The pre-analysis checklist
Sentiment Analysis
- Defining a sentiment typology
- Lexicon based detection and analysis
- Sentiment monitoring, labelling and reporting
- Analysing audience engagement and response
- Content / text analysis
- Comparative sentiment assessments
- Sentiment trend analysis
Pre-Writing Tools and Strategies
- Finding your central point
- The Rule of One model
- Wilbur's model
- The 3-30-3 model
The Principles of Intelligence Writing
- Writing to the BLUF standard
- Drafting titles, subtitles and leads
- Drafting and organising your paragraphs
- Working with topic sentences
- Working with words of estimative probability
Drafting Analytic Products
- Drafting alerts
- Drafting situation assessments
- Drafting short-form reports
Course Details
WHO IS THIS COURSE FOR?
This course is intended for organisations wishing to scale the OSINT and SOCMINT capabilities of large groups of analysts.
HOW YOU BENEFIT
On completion of this course, you will have the ability to:
- Identify and manage your intelligence needs
- Situate these needs to the wider intelligence cycle
- Use the Lean Intelligence methodology to generate realtime open source and social media intelligence
- Automate the collection of data using a custom monitoring solution
- Improve the quality, accuracy and relevance of your search results
- Organise data to support effective collection, verification and analysis
- Understand the role of OSINT and SOCMINT in information operations
- Improve your online privacy and security
- Practice OSINT and SOCMINT legally and ethically
Course Fee
- 1 - 40 Participants: CHF 900
- 41 - 60 Participants: CHF 810
- 61 - 70 Participants: CHF 790
- More than 70 Participants: CHF 760
The final rate may vary depending on the number of course iterations and the location of the course.
Prerequisites
No prior knowledge or experience of OSINT or SOCMINT is needed to take this course. We recommend this course as an essential starting point for all analysts wishing to build a solid, foundational skillset.
Technical Requirements
Please observe the following requirements:
- You will need a Windows or Mac laptop (tablet computers are not recommended)
- Install Google Chrome. You will be required to install a range of browser extensions, so it is important that you have administrative rights to your laptop
- Install Microsoft Office
- Set up a Google account to facilitate the use of different tools
- A second monitor is recommended but not essential
Additional software / social media requirements will be sent prior to the start of the course.
