OSINT – all you need to know
Today’s world revolves around data. Because of its value, some call it the new oil – source of wealth and success. As on the Internet it is omnipresent, to find it it’s enough to dig it. And a great tool to do it is called OSINT.
What is OSINT?
The purpose of OSINT is to collect and analyse information to gain a better understanding of the business, political or cybersecurity environments. Nowadays, where more and more information is available online, OSINT is becoming an increasingly important tool for various industries, from governments to business and media. It is also used by bad actors, keen to collect and make use of important sensitive data they can find on the Internet.
Why is OSINT so important?
Today, information is the most important currency. During a merger or purchase of another company, the OSINT service gives you the opportunity to view additional information about the financial situation, competition, reputation, market trends or the company itself. It also helps to better preparate the due diligence process.
For penetration testers and security teams, OSINT is a perfect first step before engaging into pentesting service, as it is designed to expose public information about internal assets and other information available outside the organisation. Metadata, files, documents, or any data accidentally published by your organisation may contain sensitive information, but thanks to the OSINT service it can be detected early, minimising the consequences of a possible cyberattack.
One of the biggest advantages of using OSINT is also its cost: in comparison to other tools, OSINT offers a potentially higher return on investment (ROI) – a feature especially important for organisations with smaller budgets.
How to conduct OSINT?
To monitor, search and make sense of information, our testers use both passive and active OSINT testing techniques. Here is more on what they consist of:
Passive OSINT
By passive OSINT we mean tests performed by passively collecting publicly available data, which makes them completely non-intrusive. All information used in those tests is collected using Google search engine and other Open-Source Intelligence analytical tools. What’s important, all information is obtained without violating any copyright or privacy laws. OSINT is a good introduction to pentests.
Active PENTEST
Active pentest refers to actively seeking information, often through sources that require logins, open port scans, vulnerability scans, applications, application servers, or other access that is not easy to obtain. In most cases, active pentests can be performed anonymously. Accessing sensitive information typically requires more deliberate effort, but thanks to the knowledge and vast experience of our testers we excel in extracting this type of data.
OSINT with Future Processing
At Future Processing we deliver high-quality pentesting services and we use OSINT on regular basis. Our experienced team of experts will help you use OSINT to strengthen your sense of security – as the end result, they will provide you with a report containing all information about your organisation that can be found on the open network, allowing you to understand publicly accessible vulnerabilities before they are used against you by cybercriminals. For more information, do get in touch with our team.
