Every OSINT analyst has been there. You pulled the threads, mapped the connections, built the timeline. The data looks clean and the narrative holds. Then someone asks a question you didn't consider and the whole picture shifts. The failure was not in your tooling or your collection. It was in your reasoning. The missing discipline in information security is not technical. It is intellectual.

The Cognitive Blind Spot in Security

We spend enormous energy mastering technical tradecraft. We learn to pivot across data sources, chain identifiers, verify imagery and attribute infrastructure. We build workflows, automate enrichment and refine our toolkits constantly.

But when was the last time you systematically trained the thing that actually interprets all of that data? when was the last time you trained your mind?

The uncomfortable truth is that most of us are running sophisticated collection on top of undisciplined analysis. We know how to find information. We are far less practiced at thinking about it rigorously. Confirmation bias does not announce itself. Neither does anchoring, narrative fallacy or the dozen other cognitive traps that plague analytical work. These are not problems you solve with better OSINT tools. They are problems you solve with better thinking.

An Ancient Framework for a Modern Problem

There is nothing new about this challenge. For over two thousand years a formal system existed for training exactly this capacity. The Trivium. Three disciplines studied in sequence. Grammar, Logic and Rhetoric. Grammar teaches you to define your terms precisely and understand the structure of what you are examining. Before you investigate, make sure you actually understand what you are looking at. How many investigations have gone sideways because an analyst confused correlation with connection or failed to define the scope of what they were actually trying to answer? Logic trains you to construct valid arguments, identify fallacies and stress test claims under scrutiny. This is the analytical core.

The discipline of asking whether your conclusion actually follows from your evidence or whether you have built a comfortable story around cherry picked data points. Rhetoric is the ability to communicate findings with clarity and force. Every OSINT professional who has written an intelligence product knows the gap between having good findings and delivering them in a way that drives action.

A brilliant investigation that produces an incomprehensible report is a wasted investigation. These are not abstract academic concepts. They map directly onto the intelligence cycle. Define the problem, analyse the information, communicate the assessment. The ancients understood something we have largely forgotten.

These are trainable skills, not innate talents.

Why This Matters Now More Than Ever

The information environment is getting worse, not better. AI generated content, synthetic media, coordinated inauthentic behaviour and the sheer volume of data available to analysts all compound the challenge. The bottleneck is no longer access to information. It is the ability to think clearly about what that information means. Every year the OSINT community gets better tools and every year the adversaries get better at poisoning the well. The asymmetry does not resolve with more automation. It resolves with sharper minds. Consider how much of modern security discourse is driven by reaction rather than reasoning.

A new threat report drops and the takes fly, often before anyone has critically examined the methodology, the sourcing or the assumptions behind the conclusions. We reward speed of opinion over quality of thought.

That is not analysis. That is performance. The professionals who consistently produce reliable intelligence are not the ones with the most tools or the fastest takes. They are the ones who have trained themselves to slow down at the critical moment. To define terms carefully, test their logic honestly and communicate their findings precisely. They practice the Trivium whether they call it that or not.

Building the Discipline

This is what led to the creation of Trivium Prime, that and the low level of discourse in British OSINT circles. A structured training ground for exactly this kind of intellectual formation. Not a course you watch passively. Not a certificate you collect. A disciplined practice built around mastering the foundational skills of clear thinking, honest reasoning and authoritative communication.

The programme is built around progressive levels. Foundations in logic, rhetoric and the grammar of knowledge. Then strategic intelligence covering political systems, economic structures, decision making frameworks and historical case studies. Then leadership, institution building and applied strategy. Members advance through demonstrated mastery, not attendance. You test. You defend your reasoning. You earn your rank. It is structured as a selective membership order, not an open platform. Admission requires an application and the barrier is intentional. This kind of training only works with people who are serious about it.

The Call

If you work in OSINT, threat intelligence or any discipline where the quality of your thinking determines the quality of your output, ask yourself honestly. When did you last train that capacity with the same rigour you apply to your technical skills? Most of us never have. We learned to think by accident, picking up habits from mentors, from experience, from making mistakes in the field. Some of those habits are good. Some of them are invisible liabilities we have never examined.

The Trivium Way offers a systematic alternative. A framework that has produced clear thinkers for millennia, now adapted for men who take their intellectual development as seriously as their professional development. Trivium Prime is accepting applications. If you are the kind of person who reads Secjuice you already care about doing this work well. The question is whether you are willing to sharpen the one tool that every other tool depends on.

Your mind is your primary sensor. Train it accordingly.

Trivium is a hobby project, come help me.

Most paths into cybersecurity run through the same checkpoints. Certifications. Lab environments. CTF competitions. These things have real value, they build vocabulary, they build technique, they get people hired. But there's a ceiling on what they can teach, and that ceiling shows up quite quickly when someone sits down to ponder an actual real world investigative scenario.

Real investigations don't start with a clean scope document and a pre-configured VM. They start with noise. A username fragment. A timestamp that doesn't quite fit. A piece of infrastructure that routes somewhere it shouldn't. The work is to build a picture from partial information, to pull threads until something coherent emerges. That's analytical reasoning under uncertainty, and almost nothing in the standard certification and CTF pipeline specifically builds that muscle.

CTFs come closest, but the format has a structural problem, most of them are puzzle boxes. You're handed a file, a service, or a network segment, and the flag is hidden inside it. The challenge is technical extraction. What's usually missing is the investigative layer, the part where you don't know what you're looking for yet, where the relevant data isn't labeled, and where the path forward requires judgment, not just tooling.

This isn't a criticism of CTF organizers.

It's a constraint of the format. Building a challenge that genuinely simulates how analysts work, with messy, ambiguous, multi-source data, is hard.

Most platforms aren't built for it. Hashclue is my attempt to build for it.

An Intelligence Game Built Around Investigative Tradecraft

The concept behind Hashclue is simple on its face, cryptographic treasure hunts with cybersecurity DNA. But the design philosophy underneath it is more specific than that. The goal is to simulate investigative thinking, not just test technical knowledge. A Hashclue challenge is an environment, not a puzzle box.

Players enter a narrative context, encounter a set of information artifacts (documents, metadata, identifiers, patterns, noise), and have to reason their way toward a hidden answer. The answer is committed on-chain via SHA-256 hash before the challenge goes live. Nobody can retroactively move the goalposts.

The techniques required are the ones that show up in real analyst workflows, OSINT, digital forensics, pattern recognition, cross-source correlation, geolocation, metadata analysis. Not as isolated modules, but woven together in the way an actual investigation requires. You might find a partial username in one place and need to connect it to infrastructure data somewhere else. The challenge isn't "find the thing in the file." It's "figure out what you're even looking for."

The tradecraft framing matters because it changes what success looks like. In a standard CTF, you either get the flag or you don't. In an investigation style challenge, the process is the point. How you reasoned through it, what you prioritized, where you got stuck, those are the reps that make analysts better.

What Is Hashclue?

Hashclue is a protocol and a game engine for building verifiable investigative challenges. The architecture is designed so that challenge answers are cryptographically committed before the challenge launches, players can independently verify that the answer hasn't changed and that solving it is possible.

This isn't just housekeeping. It's the foundation of trust that makes competitive play fair and makes Hashclue usable for serious training contexts.

The first Hashclue treasure is live. A physical cache is hidden. The path to finding it runs through a chain of digital clues, OSINT based, forensics adjacent, requiring both analytical reasoning and real world spatial thinking. The canonical secret string that unlocks the location is locked in publicly verifiable hash commitments.

Nobody can change where the treasure is. Nobody can fake solving it.

The challenge is designed to be hard. Not artificially hard, legitimately hard, in the way that real intelligence problems are hard. The answer requires synthesizing information from multiple sources and making judgment calls under uncertainty.

What the First Game Looks Like

The MVP challenge is a multi-stage investigation. Each stage produces an output that feeds the next. Players start with publicly accessible information and use a combination of OSINT techniques, metadata analysis, and forensic reasoning to progress through the chain. The terminal stage has a physical dimension, the final clue resolves to a real location where a physical object is hidden.

The location anchor is encoded in the canonical secret string, enough specificity to be unambiguous when you're standing in the right place, enough ambiguity that you can't brute force it from a map.

The challenge is open to anyone.

There's no registration wall, no entry fee, no time limit. If you can solve it, you solve it. The cryptographic commitment means verification is instant and trustless, either you have the canonical string or you don't.

This format is deliberately minimal for the first release. The design goal was to prove the model works before layering on complexity. Future iterations will support team play, multi-track difficulty, and integration with training programs.

An Invitation to the Cybersecurity Community

Hashclue is being built in public and the community can shape what it becomes. If you're an analyst, researcher, or practitioner, play the challenge. Not necessarily to win it, to pressure test the format. Does it feel like real investigative work? Where does it hold up and where does it fall short? That feedback matters to us early on.

If you build training programs, run a CTF, or work in security education the underlying protocol is designed to be extensible. The same cryptographic commitment structure that powers the first challenge can anchor corporate red team exercises, structured analyst training, or competitive events with real stakes.

If you want to explore what that looks like, get in touch.

If you work in threat intelligence, OSINT, or digital forensics the design process for Hashclue challenges is a research exercise in and of itself. Building a problem that's solvable but nontrivial requires thinking carefully about what real investigative paths look like. Collaborators who want to contribute challenge design, particularly people who work with these techniques professionally, are the most valuable thing the Hashclue Labs project can attract right now.

The cybersecurity community has always been better at building things collaboratively than any individual or company could build alone. Hashclue is a small idea that could become a useful part of the training ecosystem if the right people engage with it seriously. The first step is the challenge itself.

Hashclue is a cryptographic investigative game protocol. The first public challenge is live. Learn more at Hashclue.com.

Many newcomers to open source intelligence immediately gravitate towards the tools and become reliant on them rather quickly. This becomes problematic when the tools break, become deprecated, or otherwise unavailable. While automation, collection assistance, and visualization tools can help immensely in an investigation, they cannot analyze the work and do your job for you.

One of my most repeated bits of advice for those new to OSINT or those wishing to improve their current OSINT skills is to go back to the basics, namely the intelligence cycle. This series of articles aims to reframe each phase of the intelligence cycle to show specifically how I apply it during one of my OSINT investigations.

Part One: Planning and Direction

The planning and direction phase of the OSINT intelligence cycle is where an analyst should determine their investigative requirements, outline what questions they are attempting to answer, and make note of any special circumstances that might arise due to the target, the situation, or the platforms that might be used.

At best, going into an OSINT investigation without a plan or direction can cause an investigation to take longer than needed. At worst? An investigator may lack the proper dependencies required for the investigation or risk being detected by the target due to technical oversights. During this phase of the intelligence cycle, I tend to take the following steps:

Identify what question(s) need to be answered:
Write down any questions that need to be answered as part of the investigation and avoid chasing tangents that do not assist in answering these questions. I tend to have one main question to answer, and many smaller questions that when combined may help answer the main question. The main question of “Who is behind this account?” might have subquestions such as: “What is their name?”, “What country are they in?”, “What is their approximate age?”, and "Are they on any other platforms?". Keep in mind it is perfectly fine to add, remove, or modify these questions as the investigation progresses.

Identify what platform(s) may need to be accessed:
Be sure to set up any required accounts and acquire any additional software or hardware before beginning the investigation. Early on, it may not be possible to know all of the platforms a target frequents. However, it is always a good idea to try and identify potential platforms and any prerequisites needed to access them based on the target's currently known information. Most mainstream social media platforms will share the same requirements, usually a sock puppet account and perhaps an email or telephone number for verification. However, if investigating a platform that is home to a small, tight-knit group that tends to be suspicious to outsiders they may have heightened requirements for new joiners. Some groups may require vetting by another member before allowing new users to join, which will require additional setup and prep.

Assess the technical capabilities of the target(s):
It is important to assess a target’s technical capabilities and if that might increase the chances of being detected during the investigation. Knowing how technologically savvy a target is might also offer insight into how likely they are to make technical mistakes. This isn’t always possible to answer in the planning stage, however as the intelligence cycle continues it may become clearer. While it doesn’t hurt to always assume a target contains advanced technological skills, it might not be feasible for every analyst to take state actor level precautions for every target. As a rule of thumb, I suggest taking precautions at a higher level than a target’s perceived technical abilities. Consider using an anonymous browser like Tiger404 to protect yourself when assessing a target's technical capabilities.

Determine end goal(s):
Set reasonable goals and expectations for the investigations and write them down. What is the expected outcome of the investigation? Will it result in a written report, notifying the authorities, or something else? Knowing the end goal ahead of time will help drive the OSINT investigation. Identifying the end goal(s) help keep an investigation on track and will assist in making decisions during the other phases that may be dependent on the end goals.

Conclusion

The planning and direction phase of an OSINT investigation helps an investigator start off on the right foot by ensuring they have what is needed to begin investigating a target. This phase of the OSINT intelligence cycle is critical to mitigating time lost spent going down unrelated rabbit holes or setting up accounts mid-investigation. Once an investigator completes initial work in the planning and direction phase, it is time to move on to the next phase of the intelligence cycle: Collection.

Welcome to part two of my guide to the OSINT intelligence cycle, if you haven't read part one check it out here. Once an investigator has mapped out their investigative plan and fulfilled all the preliminary requirements uncovered during the planning and direction phase, the next step in the OSINT intelligence cycle is collection.

Part Two: Collection

In most investigations, a great deal of time and effort is devoted to collections and some shops even employ dedicated staff whose sole job is locating and collecting information for investigations. This phase is dedicated to the gathering of information relevant to an ongoing or anticipated investigation.

Without proper data collection an investigation will not have the necessary information for the other phases, which may lead to data gaps and/or inaccurate analysis. I’m not sure who coined the phrase “You don’t know what you don’t know…”, but my first boss frequently leveraged the saying to remind new analysts that if they don’t collect all of the available and relevant information, their final analysis will suffer as a result. Some of my top recommendations for this phase include:

Disassociate From Personal Accounts

By now one would hope this wouldn't have to be reiterated but investigators, including professionals, continue to use personal accounts for OSINT investigations. While everyone has their own threat models, it is highly recommended to never use a personal account for an OSINT investigation. Additionally, apps and social media platforms siphon up a great deal of data that can be used to fingerprint and associate users across accounts. When possible utilize a VPN service, virtual machines, or an anonymous browser like Tiger404 to ensure you are not tied back to your other accounts. Do not let your sock puppet accounts and your real accounts interact in any way. Following these steps mitigate the risks of other mistakes or oversights that might occur, such as forgetting to turn LinkedIn viewing mode to private or accidentally clicking “like” on a target’s post while scrolling through their feed.

Collect First, Analyze Later

Some posts, stories, or other content posted by the target may be time-sensitive. The collection phase is not the time to pause and reflect on every bit of information encountered, and doing so may cause data to become unavailable should the subject decide to edit or remove it. When finding something relevant to the investigation, save it and then move forward. It is fine to star or make a quick note of something if you are afraid you will miss it later, but save the actual analysis for when all the relevant data becomes available. If there is any doubt on if a data point has value to the investigation, include it.

Start Broad, Then Narrow As Needed

When collecting intelligence I tend to do multiple passes on platforms or search engines. Each pass gets more restricted or filtered down than the one before it, starting with fewer to no keywords or search constraints and then adding them as necessary. Never begin with searches that are too narrow as they may exclude relevant results that aren’t exact matches. If the number of results seem too low or something you expect to find seems omitted, broaden your search and try again. Sifting through false positives is far more preferred than losing relevant data via a false negative.

Set Up Filters And Alerts For Ongoing Collection

Collection is not a one and done phase. Sometimes additional passes of collection are required as the analysis matures and new questions arise. In the case of an ongoing event, new information may periodically become available as well. Setting up filters or alerts on Google, Tweetdeck, or other platforms makes follow-up passes more streamlined. This allows an analyst to focus on other searches while being notified of any changes or new data in previous ones.

Document When And How Pivots Occur

There’s nothing quite like briefing management about the attribution of a target and having them ask “Why do you think this other name or username is the same as the target you are briefing on, they don’t seem related at all?” Remembering how a particular bit of information came to light during the collection phase is important considering that long investigations that contain many users can become unruly rather quickly. Additionally, an analyst never knows when management or an official will question how a specific piece of data was discovered. Screen recording and other specialized software make the process easier, but they are by no means required.

Conclusion

The collection phase of the OSINT intelligence cycle ensures that all relevant data points are made available to those processing and analyzing the information in later phases. Proper collection reduces data gaps and ensures that the final product considers all relevant information. The next phase, Processing, is where the collected raw information is formatted and developed into something more suitable for analysis.

Once enough raw intelligence is gathered from the collection phase, the next step is processing. This phase of the intelligence cycle takes the raw intelligence and refines it into forms better suited for exploitation and analysis. Processing keeps the analyst from having to reinspect every piece of raw intelligence (unless they choose to) while also ensuring the data is in a usable format (whether by language or filetype, for the analyst to further exploit). Although not the most exciting phase, processing can significantly cut down the overall time needed for analysis. Some of these tips and recommendations may overlap with the analysis and production phase, particularly if the same staff is responsible for both portions of the OSINT intelligence cycle. Whether I’m processing raw intelligence for myself or another analyst, my usual procedures include the following steps:

Transcribe, Translate and Decode

If an analyst cannot search, read, or understand the collected information, it poses no value for their analysis. Collected data should be translated, decrypted, or decoded into a human-readable format that the analyst understands. For videos or other media, have the content transcribed so that the analyst can scan for names, keywords, etc. without listening to the entire video or audio clip. If necessary, convert information stored in uncommon filetypes into those that the analysts are more likely to have the correct software to view and exploit. Be sure to also check for any relevant metadata or embedded text that might be overlooked.

Consolidate and Reduce

One purpose of the processing phase is to reduce the amount of raw information handed over to the analyst as not everything that was initially collected will be useful come time for analysis. A csv or pdf of 10,000 tweets from a target may only have 10-20 relevant tweets. When possible, extract only the relevant intelligence and omit any noise. Grouping similar or related intelligence together in one PDF or spreadsheet will also reduce the number of files or sources the analyst has to filter through. This allows an investigator to run analyses without having to find and open up multiple documents or sift through a sea of unrelated information surrounding relevant intelligence.

Organize and Retain Raw Intelligence

Just because the raw intelligence is filtered out by relevance does not mean the rest of the data can be deleted. Analysts may wish to view the raw collected intelligence, and it should remain available to them should they have any questions or want to confirm correct translation and transcription. Be sure to use informative naming schemes for files and folder structures to aid later searches. I often organize folder directories by platform and then by username with the individual filenames related to notable findings they contain. Organizing the collected data helps reduce the time an analyst spends looking for the right piece of raw data should they need to circle back.

Generate a Timeline

Intelligence gathered in the collection phase may contain time or date information that allows it to be mapped out on a timeline. Placing relevant intelligence in a timeline aids with tracking major events and may assist in showcasing overall activity and the relationships between events that would otherwise not be discernible due to intelligence gaps. By cross-checking the known sequence of events, a timeline also helps approximate a time and date for other events that might not have initially included such information.

Leverage Spreadsheets

Spreadsheets are one of the most versatile ways to view, sort, and manipulate raw data. They are also often accepted input types in various analysis and visualization tools such as Maltego and I2. Converting raw data into spreadsheet format allows analysts to quickly run different types of functions on the data, or convert it into charts and graphs to supplement their analyses, and get a high-level view of the overall data.

Conclusion

The OSINT intelligence cycle's processing phase takes the raw data gathered from the collection phase and refines it in preparation for analysis. Processing raw intelligence helps mitigate data overload for analysts and streamlines the next phase, analysis, and production, which takes this processed data and begins shaping it into an intelligence product.

After the processing phase it is time to analyze the data and generate an intelligence product such as a report, graph, or briefing. The analysis and production phase of the OSINT intelligence cycle is where an investigator analyzes and condenses their data in order to develop key takeaways, trends, and recommendations, while also noting any next steps, projections, and questions that arise.

No matter how powerful or insightful collected intelligence is, it is the analysis and the ability to convey to others what the data means that really sets an investigator above their peers. During the analysis and production phase, some tips I suggest are:

Answer Original Questions

Remember the questions posed in the planning and direction phase? A major part of the analysis and production phase is taking the processed intelligence and analyzing it to answer these questions and any new ones that have arisen. Use these questions as a road map in developing your analytical product and to help ensure you remain focused and do not get too far into the weeds on unrelated items.

Answering these questions will also assist in formatting and organizing your analytical product into logical sections. What about questions that cannot currently be answered? Don’t fret if you cannot answer every initial question.

But for those that you can’t, be sure to...

Call Out Intelligence Gaps

In a perfect world an analyst will have all the answers, but this is unlikely to consistently be the case. So while the analysis and production phase is where an investigator will lay out all of the information that they do know, they should also explicitly call out any relevant intelligence gaps including any unanswered questions.

Noting what intelligence gaps exist helps identify what additional questions must be answered and what research needs to be done in the next iteration of the intelligence cycle. Calling out gaps also shows those consuming the analytical product that an investigator did consider other avenues and possibilities, even if it was not fruitful.

Use Competing Theories to Reduce Confirmation Bias

When you spend your entire career looking for criminals, sooner or later everyone starts looking like a bad guy. Many new analysts I’ve met fall into the trap of confirmation bias, particularly when it comes to attribution of a target or determining whether or not someone is guilty of a crime.

For this reason, I highly suggest taking each bit of relevant intelligence you analyze and assign it to a column that either A) supports your current theory or B) disproves your current theory. Afterwards take a look at both columns and see if there is enough data to not only support your theory, but also take a look at how strong the data that disproves your current theory is. Do not throw out relevant intelligence just because it completely invalidates your current theory.

Instead, take a step back and reexamine the data. Analysts should let data tell the story instead of forcing the data into a box that tells the story the analyst favors.

Evaluate Relevance, Bias, and Reliability

Not all intelligence is created equal, and the validity, relevance, reliability, and potential bias of collected intelligence should always be taken into consideration during your analysis. An OSINT intelligence analyst wants to provide the best and most complete information possible, and that sometimes includes noting any backstory information that might suggest the intelligence being analyzed is less than trustworthy.

When possible, rank these particular categories as it relates to your intelligence product so that your audience has the background on your intelligence sources and how credible or biased they might be. Also be mindful of disinformation and misinformation, and the likelihood of such campaigns as they relate to your analysis.

Convey High Level Information Visually

Not all data needs to be conveyed at a granular level, and for high-level information, such as patterns and trends, displaying the information visually can provide a “quick glance” for data that would otherwise take up too much real estate in your intelligence product if displayed in its entirety. The full data can be provided in an appendix for those wishing to see the raw data, but in many cases those who are consuming the intelligence product are only interested in the major trends or patterns and less so about the individual data points. After all, it is the analyst’s job to synthesize the data and provide it in a consumable way.

Conclusion

The analysis and production phase is where the magic happens. This is the portion of the OSINT intelligence cycle where the newly processed information is analyzed and compiled into a final report, briefing, or other analytical product. This phase should cull and refine everything that came out of the processing phase, and use it to display pertinent information such as patterns, trends, recommendations, or projections. Following the completion of this intelligence product, the only remaining step in the intelligence cycle remaining is the final dissemination of the analysis and findings.

Following the analysis and production phase, the fifth phase of the OSINT intelligence cycle is dissemination. This phase consists of the final distribution of an analytical product for others to consume. Keep in mind that this does not mean that the intelligence cycle ends here and that the analysts just move on to their next assignment.

Though this part of the cycle will vary depending on the organization, it often includes some sort of feedback loop so that the consumers of the intelligence product can offer feedback and ask additional questions of the OSINT analysts. This feedback and the additional questions posed can then be fed back into the planning phase of a new intelligence cycle. When going through the dissemination phase I recommend keeping the following things in mind:

Don’t Forget the BLUF

The BLUF (Bottom Line Up Front) should be included with any product being disseminated, either in the email body or as a summary on the internal Wiki or Webpage where the document will be released. This short summary should contain all the important details of the product and show why the consumers need to pay attention to it. This is where you “sell” your product to your target audience, tell them why they need to open and review this document and what benefit it will provide them.

Keep in mind that many in your target audience likely consume intelligence from several other analysts and sources, so you are competing for their time. Failure to entice your target audience into actually opening up the intelligence product may result in them not giving your intelligence product the appropriate time for review or feedback.

Properly Mark or Redact Sensitive Information

Even if your organization has stringent handling and dissemination guidelines, once you release something to a wider audience you always run the risk of it being spread further than you intended, possibly even leaked to the public or an adversary group. Be sure to go over anything prepared for release with a fine-toothed comb and remember to properly mark with any applicable classification, distribution, or other requirements to reduce the risk that your final product is handled or disseminated improperly. When releasing to a wider audience I recommend redacting or removing sensitive details that aren’t necessary for the consumer to know. Many of the things that I will redact or remove when releasing to a wider audience include sensitive sources, unreleased methods or exploits, and any information that might compromise ongoing collection efforts. Also do not forget to double-check any screenshots and make sure you have not included your sockpuppet account information in any of the embedded images.

Tailor Distribution

There is a delicate balancing act that must occur when distributing an intelligence product. Chances are you don’t want to release the product to everyone in your organization, nor do you only want to provide it to a single point of contact, such as management, where it will go to die in an overcrowded email box. Siloing off information is great for mitigating leaks but is a major hurdle for sharing intelligence widely or quickly. Conversely, disseminating to more users than is necessary increases the risk of unauthorized sharing or leaking. Most analysts would want to distribute it somewhere in between these two extremes. One recommendation is to provide it to multiple consumers across the same relevant teams so that you don’t have a single point of failure, but also aren’t sending it to teams that lack the need to know. If necessary, leverage executive assistants to get your product on the desk of high ranking officials that likely get hundreds of emails daily.

Maintain Open Channels for Feedback

Intelligence occurs in an ongoing cycle. Without a proper feedback loop analysts may duplicate mistakes or fail to measure up to the standards set by the consumers of their products. Anytime a final product is disseminated analysts should provide their consumers with some form of contact for obtaining feedback. The target audience likely possess working knowledge of the topic, and may be able to provide more information which the original analysts may not have focused on. They may also be able to point out additional intelligence gaps which help drive the new planning and collection requirements for another cycle.

Conclusion

The dissemination phase is the portion of the OSINT intelligence cycle where the final intelligence product is shared with the appropriate consumers so that they may leverage the information and analysis and provide any feedback or follow up questions. This phase provides OSINT analysts with additional information which shapes the next planning phase in the subsequent intelligence cycle, with additional cycles occurring as needed. Each cycle’s feedback loop is routed into the next planning phase until all follow-up questions are satisfied or as new information becomes available.

Data breaches are an unfortunate reality for many websites, leading to leaked information often posted on dark web forums or discovered by security researchers. Before this data disappears or is removed, Data Breach Search Engines (DBSEs) gather, verify, and categorize it, making it accessible to people seeking to understand what information may have been compromised. DBSEs like Have I Been Pwned allow OSINT (open-source intelligence) investigators to enter an email address and see if it was used on a breached site, often revealing critical information about the target’s online footprint. These DBSEs serve as an important privacy service, allowing users to know if their information has been exposed and, in some cases, request its removal from these databases.

What are Data Breach Search Engines?

DBSEs provide a way to find out where an email address, phone number, username, or other identifier has been used, giving researchers a clearer sense of a person’s digital presence. If a DBSE search shows that an email was compromised in a LinkedIn breach, for example, an investigator knows the person likely had a LinkedIn account. This information is invaluable for OSINT researchers, as it offers hints about a target’s professional network, social media presence, and even connections to colleagues or alternate emails. Some of the most popular DBSEs include Have I Been Pwned (searchable by email or phone), IntelX.io (email), and dehashed.com (email, username, domain, password, IP). There are also more specific breach-focused tools, such as haveibeenzucked.com for Facebook data and checkashleymadison.com for the Ashley Madison breach. These tools maintain deep web databases, and the information within them can often be accessed only through the website itself. For OSINT investigators, understanding DBSE resources is critical, as each can reveal unique details about where an email address, phone number, or other identifier was registered and whether it has been compromised.

Data Breaches Now Available on Data Breach Information Sites

This month, four major data breaches have appeared on platforms like Have I Been Pwned, each offering unique insights into different user communities. Although some breaches occurred years ago, the data is newly available on DBSEs, presenting OSINT researchers with new avenues to explore.

1. Internet Archive (October 2024)

In October 2024, the Internet Archive, famous for its digital preservation efforts and the Wayback Machine, experienced a breach affecting 31 million user accounts. Data exposed includes email addresses, screen names, and bcrypt-hashed passwords. The Internet Archive responded to the breach quickly and transparently, immediately implementing security measures, disabling compromised libraries, and restoring service in read-only mode while the organization strengthened its defenses. This breach is notable for OSINT researchers interested in online archives and historical data access, as it suggests users engaged in digital research or preservation activities.

2. VimeWorld (October 2018)

VimeWorld, a Russian Minecraft service, experienced a data breach in 2018 that exposed data on 3.1 million users. The compromised information includes usernames, email addresses, IP addresses, and hashed passwords (MD5 or bcrypt). This breach’s recent availability in DBSEs presents new opportunities for researchers interested in gaming communities, particularly among Russian-speaking audiences.

3. StreamCraft (July 2020)

The StreamCraft breach in July 2020 affected 1.8 million records, exposing usernames, email addresses, IP addresses, and hashed passwords (MD5 or bcrypt). StreamCraft data, newly accessible for OSINT purposes, provides a look into the online behavior of gaming communities, especially among users who favor multiplayer gaming.

4. AlpineReplay (2019)

The 2019 breach of AlpineReplay, a fitness-tracking app later integrated into Trace, exposed 900,000 records, including email addresses, usernames, dates of birth, gender, weight, and passwords hashed with MD5 or bcrypt. Recently appearing in DBSEs, this data gives insights into the interests of fitness enthusiasts, particularly those who use digital tools to track performance in sports like skiing and snowboarding.

Why These Data Breaches Matter to Researchers

When an OSINT researcher finds an email address in one of these breaches, it can reveal valuable information about the target’s digital activities. Each platform represents a specific online community or interest, giving clues about an individual’s preferences, affiliations, or lifestyle.

• Internet Archive: If someone’s data is in the Internet Archive breach, it might indicate an interest in digital preservation, academic research, or access to open-source content. This can suggest a background in academia or a strong interest in historical records.

• VimeWorld and StreamCraft: The presence of someone’s account in these gaming-related breaches points to involvement in online gaming, possibly within Russian-speaking or international communities. This can help an investigator understand the target’s recreational interests and engagement in gaming culture.

• AlpineReplay: An account in the AlpineReplay breach implies an interest in fitness, specifically in winter sports like skiing and snowboarding. The individual is likely health-conscious and inclined toward tracking their performance, providing insights into their lifestyle and personal values.

Simply knowing that a target’s email address is associated with one of these platforms can reveal a lot about them. However, OSINT researchers should approach this data cautiously. While these accounts provide contextual information, they don’t give a complete picture of a person’s behavior or habits, so researchers should use this information as a starting point rather than a conclusive profile.

Detailed Look at the Internet Archive Data Breach

The October 2024 Internet Archive breach involved the exposure of data from around 31 million user accounts. This breach, linked to a compromised GitLab token, allowed attackers to access development servers, revealing email addresses, screen names, and bcrypt-hashed passwords. The first breach occurred on October 9, with attackers exploiting a GitLab configuration file on the Internet Archive’s servers that contained an exposed authentication token. This gave them access to the source code, credentials, and, ultimately, the database management system, where they downloaded user data and modified site elements. Reports suggest this token had been accessible since December 2022, giving attackers a prolonged opportunity to exploit it. On October 20, a second breach occurred, this time exploiting unrotated Zendesk API tokens to access user support tickets. During this period, hackers defaced the Internet Archive’s website using JavaScript alerts and launched DDoS attacks attributed to the hacker group SN_BlackMeta. In response, the Internet Archive implemented security measures, scrubbed compromised systems, and temporarily operated in a read-only mode before restoring full access. This quick and transparent response from the Internet Archive emphasized the organization’s commitment to user security.

An additional OSINT trick is available for researchers using the Internet Archive. By using the search function on the top right corner of the Internet Archive’s website, investigators can enter an email address associated with a target’s account to see if an account exists. Although the email address itself isn’t publicly identified in the profile, the search function will still locate the account, providing access to profile information and showing data and websites archived by the user. This technique can be particularly useful for tracing interests, historical engagements, and online behavior through the Internet Archive.

Founder Brewster Kahle reported that the organization is reinforcing its defenses and emphasized the Internet Archive’s commitment to secure its platform. For OSINT researchers, this breach provides a unique opportunity to explore user demographics and interests in digital archives, though it demands careful handling to avoid further privacy violations.

Citations

1. Internet Archive (Archive.org) Hacked for Second Time in a Month

URL: https://hackread.com/internet-archive-archive-org-hacked-for-second-time/

2. Internet Archive hacked, data breach impacts 31 million users

URL: https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/internet-archive-hacked-data-breach-impacts-31-million-users/

3. Hackers Claim ‘Catastrophic’ Internet Archive Attack - Newsweek

URL: https://www.newsweek.com/catastrophic-internet-archive-hack-hits-31-million-people-1966866

4. Internet Archive Breach Exposes 31 Million Users - WIRED

URL: https://www.wired.com/story/internet-archive-hacked/

5. The Internet Archive is finally mostly back online after a series of cyberattacks

URL: https://www.zdnet.com/article/the-internet-archive-is-finally-mostly-back-online-after-a-series-of-cyberattacks/

6. Internet Archive hacker claims to still have access, responds to Zendesk support tickets

URL: https://therecord.media/internet-archive-alleged-zendesk-account-breach

7. Hackers exploited GitLab tokens for Internet Archive breach

URL: https://www.breechingcomputer.com/news/security/internet-archive-breached-again-through-stolen-access-tokens

8. Hackers steal information from 31 million Internet Archive users

URL: https://www.npr.org/2024/10/20/nx-s1-5159000/internet-archive-hack-leak-wayback-machine

There are several great tools for looking up an individual’s political donations. Aside from the insight one can gain by learning someone’s history of political donations, the records will also provide information about the donor such as where they work.

National Politics

The Federal Election Commission’s official database has a tool for looking up a person’s contribution to federal candidates. (https://www.fec.gov/introduction-campaign-finance/how-to-research-public-records/individual-contributions/)

The FEC website also has a judicial section that gives access to FEC records on court cases, violations, audits, and similar issues.

See FEC walkthrough at the bottom of the article.

Open Secrets also has an individual donor lookup tool (https://www.opensecrets.org/donor-lookup) with FEC and some additional sources of data.

DS Giving (dsgiving.com) is a paid service but has a free option for looking up a person’s charity and political donations. The tool compiles the information in one place and includes some additional details.

State Politics

Each state maintains its own database for donations to state-level politicians. Generally it is easy to find these databases by googling the name of the state along with one of the following: “campaign finance database”, “board of elections”, “campaign finance”, or “political donations database”. In addition, each state has a database where lobbyists register and report expenditures. The website Follow The Money (https://www.followthemoney.org/) can assist as it compiles information about state elections, lobbyists, districts, and political contributions for the entire country.

Donor Lookup Example

Here is an example of looking up state-level contributions. Assuming we are researching someone that lives in Maryland…

Googling “Maryland” and “campaign finance database” results in the relevant database appearing at the top of the results.

Which leads to this website

We run a generic search under “contributor” for the name smith, and the result shows records on past donations, including the details of the donation itself as well as the donor / contributor’s name and address.

FEC example

If we go to (fec.gov/data) we have the option to research campaign finance data (which includes records on donations) on the bottom left or judicial records on the bottom right. We are focusing on donations / campaign finance but it is good to be aware that the judicial data is available.

Choosing to “search all campaign finance data” leads to the screen below where we have the option to search for a person by name on the bottom right.

By searching a random last name we get the results below that show individual donations. Each record shows the recipient of the donation, amount donated money, the date of the donation as well as the donor’s name, employer, and state where they live.

In the screenshot above there’s a triangle to the right of each record. If we click on one of the triangles a box pops up on the right side as you see below. The box provides some more in depth information about the donor, the donation, and the recipient.

Finally, in the image above there’s a grey box at the top that says “open image”. Click on it and it brings you to the form where the data was derived, as you see below.

That’s it. Stay tuned for my next article.

Below is an alternate blog post image that was curated.

At the risk of using and overused phrase, the Ethereum Blockchain "revolutionized crypto" by also being a virtual computer that can execute code. Ethereum gave us smart contracts and the ability to create NFTs, DeFi and so much else.

In turn, this opened up a whole new world of opportunities for investigation. For crypto investigators, this is arguably akin to the change in OSINT before and after social media.

This post walks through some foundational aspects of investigations on the Ethereum Blockchain, including researching an Ethereum address, smart contracts, and NFTs.

Etherscan.io and Ethereum Address Research

Starting at the Etherscan.io main page, you can search an address in its search function and pull up a profile page for the address.

At the top of the page we see the address’s Eth balance, the token holdings, and on the right under “Multi Chain,” it shows that the address is used (by the same owner) on 11 different block chains.

Under token holdings, we see the address holds $4,547 worth of tokens, with six kinds of tokens. Clicking the pulldown menu shows the 6 kinds of tokens, including NFTs and ERC-20 tokens. This is a more complicated subject, but basically ERC-20 tokens are used to represent other cryptocurrencies on the Ethereum block chain. 

Returning to the “Multi Chain“ section on the right side, you can click on “Blockscan” to pull up more detailed information on the address’s presence on other blockchains. 

This opens a page on Blockscan.com showing each block chain with the address and a link to blockchain explorers for each of those chains. The links open the specific address’s profile page with each blockchain explorer website.

There is also a tab showing all of the address’s transactions on each blockchain mixed together in chronological order.

Back to the main address page on etherscan.io. Lower down is a list of previous transactions. Ether transactions are identified under the “Transactions” tab

Smart Contracts

A smart contract is essentially an that works on the Ethereum blockchain. independent automated contract. Officially defined as a digital contract written as a piece of code, stored on the blockchain, and automatically executed when certain pre-established conditions are met.

Each token has its own smart contract which is on the Ethereum blockchain. These contracts are often used as the foundation for additional contracts using the same token.

Smart contracts are written in a programming code called Solidity, and when a transaction calls a contract it calls a function from the code.

A contract written to the blockchain cannot be changed, so a proxy contract allows updates to be done while keeping the first contract the same. The foundational contracts have functions or actions that can be called upon by subsequent smart contracts for the same token.

People and contracts can both create additional contracts. The new contract will have a profile page that identifies the original contract’s address and list it as the “Parent Address”.

Transaction with Smart Contract in It

This is what a token (in this case, an NFT) purchase transaction looks like on etherscan.io, it shows someone’s Ethereum address (“Ox7…”) interact with the smart contract used for this specific token/NFT

You see the term “From” twice. On top, the “From” refers to the Token buyer’s Ethereum address. The second usage of “From” (in the sections “ERC-1155 Tokens Transferred:”), the From address is the seller of the NFT.

Investigating Smart Contracts

Investigate a contract by looking at the Read and the Write section to see the functions / methods available.

If you pull up a contract in etherscan.io you can see every time it has been called by a transaction.

When a transaction calls a contract it calls a function from the code which we can see in the transactions list of the address.

Some basic questions to ask when investigating a smart contract are, Who owns this contract? What does the contract do? What are the Total Assets? Who is the ultimate owner / the parent address?

Whenever you are looking at a contract address page in etherscan.io, you will see the parent address listed on the same page. Keeping going up through tree of creators until you reach an address that isn’t a contract, this is the owner or creator. That is an address to a investigate. Also, when you are looking for the “parent contract,” Google the different contract addresses to see if they have names, especially the parent contract.

Search “similar” contracts (click on contract in the contract’s address page and then on the right side click where it says “more options” and choose “similar”) can be useful when you are looking at a scam contract and want to find others.

“Liquidity Pools” (check smart contracts for the method “addLiquidity”) you make a deposit into a liquidity pool and then a 2nd person swaps Ethereum for token or vice versa with a 3rd person and there is a fee charged from that transaction. You will then make money from your deposit that is being transferred.

Non Fungible Tokens

There are some basic research methods for a Non-Fungible Token (NFT).

This will avoid the deeper questions of what is an NFT. So for now we’ll use the gross oversimplification of describing an NFT as a picture with a unique ID that people buy and sell with cryptocurrency.

SIDE NOTE: A slightly less oversimplified explanation would be to say that an NFT is a unique digital asset stored on a blockchain that represents ownership or proof of authenticity of a specific item, such as art, music, or virtual real estate. Unlike cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, NFTs are indivisible and cannot be exchanged on a one-to-one basis, making each token distinct and valuable in its own right.

Let’s get started.

For the sake of this example, let’s start with the NFT’s Token ID (a long string that is the NFT’s unique identifier). Here is a Token ID:

9961498451080298818169728249433222030914980129654055269747476883220178403329

Start at opensea.io (OpenSea is a marketplace for NFTs, other marketplaces include SuperRare, and Rarible)

Generally, you can use Opensea by simply entering a search term, including Items, collections, or account names, into the search bar and hit enter.

The results will have collections appearing at the top and there are filters on the left-hand of the page to narrow results.

Clicking on a Collection result will take investigators to the NFTs listed in that collection.

From there you can click on a specific NFT will show the current and historic valuation and transaction history for that NFT, often including the name of the buyer.

Here is a walkthrough for a specific ID. We can search the ID directly in the search bar to find the NFT.

Click on the NFT and go to its profile page.

From the profile page you can look up a lot of information. Notable details include the current owner, the NFT’s history (creation, who sold it to who, etc), and it’s smart contract (which is basically an automatic contract, more below).

In the screenshot above you see it says “Owned by 160602”. This is the owner and you can click on the their ID number to go to a page with info on them. At the least you’ll see their activity but there might be other identifying information too.

Back to the NFT profile, the section “Item Activity” gives the history including creation and sales.

Under the “Details” section you find the contract address for the NFT’s smart contract .

The smart contract ID will be linked to the second useful website, etherscan.io

Click on the contract link and you’ll be brought here:

Some other useful tools to include:

1- Non Fungible – https://nonfungible.com/ - is an NFT database that enables investigators to locate, analyze, and track digital asset transactions.

To use Non Fungible, hit the magnifying glass button in the top right corner and enter a collection name.

Non Fungible will provide sales details in relation to the searched collection

2- Zapper - http://zapper.fi/ - serves as a comprehensive DeFi asset management platform, allowing users to swap digital assets. Acting as a centralized dashboard, Zapper provides users with a streamlined interface to monitor and visualize all their DeFi assets and obligations. Investigators can employ Zapper to gain insights into the assets belonging to the subjects under scrutiny.

Zapper proves handy for searching cryptocurrency and NFT holdings. To utilize Zapper, input an address into the search bar and press enter. The outcomes will display the wallet’s value and transaction history categorized by cryptocurrency type. Zapper encompasses Portfolio, NFTs, and History tabs, which investigators can utilize to obtain the necessary information. Upon identifying a wallet ID associated with an NFT buyer or seller from platforms like Open Sea or Rarible, investigators can navigate to the NFTs tab to examine the held NFTs.

3- Rarible – https://rarible.com/ - is another NFT marketplace that investigators can leverage.
To use Rarible, enter a collection name, NFT name, or username into the search bar and hit enter.

More on this topic later on.

I will share how I perform general research on a Bitcoin address. We will focus on using the blockchair.com and oxt.me websites. (The same information is also available on various other crypto websites.)

Using Blockchair

Starting with a very basic search, we go to blockchair.com (though we could also use blockchain.com) and input a Bitcoin address into the search function. Blockchair will let you search all sorts of cryptocurrency addresses.

The standard results for a basic search will pull off the address, along with some basic facts like the current balance and total amount of currency received and spent over its lifetime. The results will also list the address’s history of transactions. 

Each transaction is listed individually and includes basic information. Note that “transaction hash” is a unique transaction identifier. 

By default, Blockchair does not identify the addresses sending and receiving funds for each transaction. To see this information, you need to click the circle next to where it says “show inputs and outputs”. This results in the transactions being displayed, as shown in the following screenshot.

Using Oxt.me

We move on to oxt.me, which has several functions that identify relevant information about a Bitcoin address. The following screenshot shows the standard address profile page that oxt.me pulls up when you search for a Bitcoin address. 

Different information is displayed depending on which tab is clicked. Below, see the “Summary” section. 

The Summary includes a timeline for the address’s balance over its lifetime. In this case, the address appears to have held funds for only short durations interspersed with periods of having a zero balance.

The Summary section lists that the current address balance is zero and shows the total amount of Bitcoin received and the total amount sent. In this case, we see that the total received is the same amount as the total sent. 

This behavior is telling. When an address immediately gets rid of whatever funds it receives, that is a sign that it is a kind of transit point. Often, the address is being used by the owner to move funds between different addresses that may also be controlled by the same owner.

When you see identical amounts for each incoming and outgoing transaction, it suggests the money is potentially being laundered or being moved for illicit purposes. Many criminals use several bitcoin wallets to transfer money, making it more difficult to track and recover.

The Activity section shows the life of the address in terms of activity or transactions. It shows over 700 transactions. We also see that at any given time the number of incoming transactions perfectly matched the number of outgoing transactions. 

The Volume section shows the amount of currency flowing in and out, regardless of the number of transactions. We see that the amount of currency sent to the address matched the amount sent out roughly at the same time. 

The Temporal Patterns section shows how often transactions occurred based on the time of day and day of the week.

Individual Transactions

We can use the same website to analyze a specific transaction.

The Inputs & Outputs section, as its name suggests, shows the transactions' and addresses' inputs and outputs.

Click on the symbol next to the first address and see this message pop up:

“Display/hide probabilities that a link exists between this input and the outputs of the transaction”

Then, a percentage appears next to the two output addresses, giving the estimated likelihood of each address being linked to the first. In this example, the output addresses are deemed linked to the first, meaning they likely have the same owner. Remember that in Bitcoin transactions, the excess funds from the transaction go to a newly created “change address” owned by the same owner of the sending address.

The website will also guess that several addresses are owned by the same owner. 

The website also provides this warning about these guesses:

“Identification of entities and clustering of addresses is a work in progress. These data are built upon heuristics which may produce false positive or false negative and you shouldn’t consider them as complete, exhaustive or established facts.”

After guessing at an unidentified owner, the website will then assign the anonymous owner a unique identifier. 

In the image above, the website estimated that one of the addresses was owned by an anonymous owner of several other addresses. This anonymous owner was assigned the identifier “ANON-4946167712.”

By clicking on “ANON-4946167712,” we are brought to this page of information on the owner.

The anonymous owner profile will identify the other linked addresses and provide general details on the unnamed owner. If you ever wanted to form a company with crypto, then check out Spindipper, the world's first crypto-native company formations agent.

That’s it for now!

Resources

Part one of this article: OSINT for Cryptocurrency Investigation

Blockchain – https://www.blockchain.com/explorer

Blockchair – https://blockchair.com/

Open-source intelligence (OSINT) is a strategically important field that gathers information from publicly accessible sources to generate actionable insights. It encompasses the systematic collection, analysis, and dissemination of data from various platforms, such as social media, public records, and satellite imagery, to better inform decision-making processes. Historically, OSINT involved scrutinizing newspapers and radio broadcasts, but today, the internet has expanded its reach, providing a vast array of potential data sources.

OSINT plays a significant role in national security, law enforcement, and corporate strategy by leveraging publicly available information to identify threats and opportunities, in the UK a new community group called UK OSINT is working to bolster OSINT capabilities across the country and nurture a new generation of OSINT talent in order to grow our human capabilities on a national scale.

But OSINT has been around for ages; why is it so important now?

The Growing Relevance of OSINT

The importance of OSINT has surged in recent years. Various sectors, including government, law enforcement, insurance, and private investigation, increasingly rely on OSINT tools and techniques. However, OSINT is not without its challenges; the overwhelming volume of data can be difficult to manage, and verifying the credibility and accuracy of information is crucial due to the prevalence of misinformation and disinformation. Ethical considerations also play a significant role, as analysts must navigate privacy concerns and ensure compliance with legal standards in the countries that they are operating from.

"Given its breadth and access, OSINT forces us to start from first principles. We’re asking the fundamental question about the analysis of data. But it’s data that’s also available to your adversaries. If you master OSINT, you master intelligence. The UK should (and will) lead the world in this tradecraft" - Lindsay Whyte, Founding Member.

Bolstering UK Sovereign Capability

The UK OSINT Community was formed to recognize the need for a dedicated community to foster the development and ethical use of OSINT within the UK.

Founded by its first members Nathaniel Fried, Lindsay White, and a team of deeply experienced OSINT practitioners who make up the 37 founding members, the group has enjoyed a meteoric rise in the last few weeks, proving that there is a pent-up demand for a community like OSINT UK among OSINT practitioners.

This initiative aims to unite experts, practitioners, and learners from diverse industries and sectors to share knowledge, collaborate, and advance the field of open-source intelligence. The OSINT UK community represents a significant step forward in enhancing the UK's sovereign capability in this important domain.

"I am honoured to have been invited to become a Founding Member of UK OSINT. I am committed to raising standards in the use of open source intelligence, and I am proud to support the growing community of non-governmental organisations and investigative journalists who are using OSINT for good: catching criminals, animal abusers, human traffickers, environmental polluters, and those involved in child exploitation". - Jacob Lloyd, Animal Welfare Investigations Project

UK OSINT Community's Vision and Mission

The UK OSINT Community's vision is to create a thriving network that collaborates across sectors, promotes ethical practices, advances capabilities, and develops expertise to harness open-source intelligence responsibly.

To realize this vision, UK OSINT has identified five strategic focus areas:

1. Establish and Promote Standards and Best Practices: The community aims to set standards and best practices for ethical and responsible OSINT, ensuring that activities are conducted within legal and ethical boundaries.
2. Facilitate Knowledge Sharing and Collaboration: By bringing together professionals from various industries, they encourage knowledge exchange and collaboration to address common challenges and advance OSINT practices.
3. Promote OSINT Awareness and Advocacy: A key focus is raising awareness about OSINT's importance and potential. The community advocates for its integration into various sectors to enhance decision-making and operational efficiency across national strategic industries.
4. Enhance OSINT Capabilities and Resources: The community seeks to enhance the capabilities and resources available for OSINT practitioners in the UK, providing access to advanced tools, techniques, and training.
5. Develop OSINT Talent and Expertise: Recognizing the need for skilled professionals, the community is dedicated to developing talent and expertise through training programs, workshops, and other educational initiatives.

Membership and Benefits

Membership in the UK OSINT Community is open to individuals and organizations from various sectors, including government, law enforcement, legal, insurance, security, media, private investigation, technology, cybersecurity, and academia. By joining the community, members gain access to a wealth of resources, networking opportunities, and the chance to contribute to advancing OSINT practices within the UK. Members can participate in events, workshops, and training sessions designed to enhance their skills and knowledge in OSINT.

Members also have the opportunity to collaborate with other professionals, share insights, and stay updated on the latest developments in the field; OSINT UK is very much a social and professional group offering networking opportunities.

Addressing Challenges in OSINT

While OSINT offers numerous advantages, it also presents several challenges that the UK OSINT Community aims to address. The sheer volume of data available can be overwhelming, making it difficult to identify relevant and accurate information. To tackle this, the community promotes the use of advanced tools and techniques for data management and analysis, enabling practitioners to process and interpret large datasets efficiently and become better equipped to make a difference.

Another critical challenge is verifying the credibility and accuracy of information. The internet is rife with misinformation and disinformation, making it essential for OSINT practitioners to have robust verification processes in place. The community advocates for the adoption of rigorous verification methodologies and provides training on best practices for assessing the reliability of sources.

Ethical considerations are also paramount in OSINT. Practitioners must navigate privacy concerns and ensure their activities comply with legal standards. UK OSINT emphasizes the importance of ethical conduct and provides guidelines and resources to help members uphold high ethical standards in their work.

Advancing OSINT Capabilities

One of the primary goals of the UK OSINT Community is to advance OSINT capabilities and resources across the UK. This involves providing access to cutting-edge tools and technologies that enable practitioners to gather, analyze, and disseminate information effectively. The community also focuses on enhancing the skills and expertise of OSINT professionals through training programs and workshops, enabling members to constantly learn new skills and processes.

By fostering collaboration and knowledge sharing, the community aims to create a supportive environment where members can learn from each other and develop innovative solutions to common challenges. This collaborative approach strengthens individual capabilities and contributes to the overall advancement of the OSINT field in the United Kingdom, a worthy goal.

Promoting OSINT Awareness and Advocacy

The UK OSINT community's key focus is raising awareness about OSINT's potential and importance. By promoting OSINT awareness, the community aims to highlight the benefits of leveraging publicly available information for decision-making and operational efficiency. Advocacy efforts are directed towards encouraging the integration of OSINT in various sectors and demonstrating its value in addressing the complex challenges our country faces.

The community also engages in outreach activities to educate stakeholders about the ethical and responsible use of OSINT. By promoting a better understanding of OSINT, the community hopes to build trust and support for its practices among the public and key decision-makers in the United Kingdom.

Developing OSINT Talent and Expertise

The success of the UK OSINT Community hinges on the development of skilled professionals who can effectively harness the power of open-source intelligence.

To this end, the community is committed to developing talent and expertise through its educational initiatives. These include training programs, workshops, and seminars designed to equip practitioners with the knowledge and skills they need to excel in the field. By investing in talent development, the community ensures a steady pipeline of skilled OSINT professionals who can contribute to the field's advancement. This focus on education and training also helps elevate the overall standard of OSINT practices within the UK, contributing to its robustness.

My Final Thoughts

The work UK OSINT engages in is of vital strategic importance and helps to boost our sovereign intelligence capabilities in the face of increasingly aggressive adversaries. Volunteer groups of enthusiasts like UK OSINT are essential to nurturing the next generation of OSINT practitioners and plays a huge role in training enthusiastic young people who believe in the mission.

When we cynical old hacks retire, these young people will eventually work in and lead some of our most important intelligence agencies and organisations. The training, support, and fellowship they gain through membership in UK OSINT are vital to ensuring they follow the right path and receive the right advice.

By uniting experts, practitioners, and learners from diverse industries and sectors, the community fosters collaboration, knowledge sharing, and capability development in OSINT, the community acts as a nursery for emerging talent and connects them with people they will need to know in their future careers.

Together, we are building a thriving network that collaborates across sectors, promotes ethical practices, advances capabilities, and develops expertise in OSINT. Our goal is to enhance the UK's ability to leverage publicly available information for decision-making and operational efficiency and ultimately contribute to the nation's security and prosperity.

If you work in the UK infosec or OSINT sector, please consider joining forces with us and our community. The more experience and support the group can provide to its members, the more effective we will be at accomplishing our goals.

Please click here to see our mission strategy and operational goals, and click here to visit the UK OSINT Community website and apply for membership.

We look forward to seeing your application!

If you know nothing about cryptocurrencies, you can still investigate them with some basic background knowledge. This will be the first in a series of articles that will educate readers on how to investigate cryptocurrency.

Very Basic Background on Cryptocurrency

Cryptocurrencies exist only online. A person owning cryptocurrency will have an “address” that contains the currency. The address is generally a unique long series of numbers and letters. Each address has one owner. 

The owner can have a “wallet” containing several addresses. Crypto addresses, the amount of currencies held in them, and the financial transactions of cryptocurrencies are all publicly viewable. The name of the person or entity that owns the address is not public. 

Therefore, the available public information generally consists of the addresses and the amounts of currency passing between them. A “blockchain” can be understood as a kind of public list of cryptocurrency data (the addresses, how much they own, and every transaction). 

(Crypto experts will chafe at that reductive description; please let it go.)

There are thousands of different kinds of cryptocurrencies, but the two main currencies are Bitcoin and Ethereum. As of 2023, the cryptocurrency Bitcoin made up roughly half the market share of the entire crypto market and Ethereum roughly one-fifth (based on information from slickcharts.com). The next largest currencies’ market shares drop precipitously from there. Much of the information here focuses on these two currencies that are most of the market.

Basic Investigation of Crypto Addresses

It is possible to do a basic investigation into a cryptocurrency address by looking for information about the address itself (whereas a more advanced investigation can look into the address's activities and connections).

Blockchain Explorer Websites

Blockchain explorer websites can look up addresses and crypto transactions. You can use these sites to look up basic information about an address by simply copying and pasting the address into the website’s search bar.

Each explorer contains the following information about the crypto address: current balance, total number of received and spent cryptocurrencies, and dates of the first and last transactions.

These sites will sometimes identify if an address is known to belong to a financial organization, criminal group, or other known entity.

• blockchair.com
• etherscan.io
• oxt.me
• walletexplorer.com

General Internet Searches

Do a general internet search for the address. By default, the address should only be listed on blockchain explorer websites, so if the address is listed anywhere else, there might be interesting information there. Google the address number followed by “-block” (without the quotes) to filter out unnecessary results. If you search the address alone, you will get a lot of results that are simply blockchain explorer websites listing the address’s basic profile, which is not what we are looking for here.

A great search tool is:

https://inteltechniques.com/tools/Currencies.html

To search for a connection between two addresses:

https://learnmeabitcoin.com/tools/path/

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Crypto Address Databases

Several websites have databases of crypto addresses reportedly involved in scams. The sites’ main function is to let people search for an address that was changed in a scam, hack, or other suspicious activity. The scam reports are crowd-sourced; anyone can report an address and submit it to the database.

Many of the sites will broadly collect all sorts of identifying information on addresses. Therefore, it is worth using these sites to seek out additional address information.

The primary sites are:

• Bitcoin Who’s Who –https://www.bitcoinwhoswho.com/
  • A tool to identify cryptocurrency holders, associates, and financial histories.
  • Insights into address owners and known scams linked to specific addresses.
  • A directory of addresses was reported as being involved in scams.
• Bitcoin Abuse – https://www.bitcoinabuse.com/
  • A website with independent information on reported Bitcoin abuses.
  • Provides details about alleged scammers and fraudulent activities.
  • Reports often include an email address used by the scammer.
• ScamSearch – https://scamsearch.io/#anchorCeckNow
  • A crowd-sourced scam reports database linked to cryptocurrency.
  • Provides details about reported scams associated with search terms.
  • Lists known reported details associated with the search term

Additional sites include:

• https://checkbitcoinaddress.com/
• https://bitcoinais.com/
• https://ransomwhe.re/
• https://www.chainabuse.com/
• https://scam-alert.io/
• https://cryptscam.com/

Read the next part: How I Research a Bitcoin Wallet's Past

Pastebin, often referred to as the "clipboard of the web," has become a crucial platform for sharing plaintext documents, source codes, logs, and various data snippets online.

Pastebin has a unique position within the OSINT (Open Source Intelligence) community. It is frequently mentioned in OSINT guides and materials but often without detailed explanation.

This article aims to enlighten readers about Pastebin, its background, how to use it for OSINT, how to use it as it was originally intended, and some other fun asp of the tool.

Some Background

It's important to note that Pastebin itself is not an OSINT tool and was not designed for OSINT investigators to find information. Nevertheless, it does contain a substantial amount of data that can be useful for OSINT, albeit unintentionally.

Pastebin.com, originating in 2002, serves as a central hub for sharing text-based content online. While it facilitates collaboration and information sharing, it has also garnered attention for its darker applications, such as hosting leaked or stolen data. Despite efforts to moderate sensitive content, Pastebin’s vast user base presents ongoing challenges in maintaining a clean environment.

“pastebin” vs “Pastebin”

The term "Pastebin" (with a capital P) refers to pastebin.com.

But there are thousands of pastebins. A pastebin is, by definition, a content-hosting web application that allows users to store and share plain text online. Do “pastebin” refers to the pastebins in general.

Pastebin.com is the most prominent pastebin. For the remainder of this article Pastebin refers to pastebin.com.

Some More Historical Context

Before Pastebin.com, pastebins emerged in the late 1990s to address the need for sharing large blocks of computer data in IRC chatrooms. Over time, they became integral to online communities, prompting the development of specialized tools and bots. However, concerns over data breaches and illicit content led to the rise of alternative platforms like AnonPaste.

Pastebin continues to play a pivotal role in the digital landscape, offering both opportunities and challenges. With the aid of innovative search tools, users can navigate Pastebin’s vast repository with ease, unlocking valuable insights and information along the way. Whether for research, analysis, or curiosity, these tools empower users to harness the full potential of Pastebin’s extensive archive.

To make use of Pastebin as an OSINTer, it would be easy to reach straight for the search tools. Unfortunately, that will just create the illusion of searching Pastebin without finding as much as you could. It is often recommended by experts that anyone interested in searching Pastebin should first sign up for an account and see how Pastebin is meant to be used.

So what is Pastebin and how does it work?

Pastebin, as previously noted, is commonly used by programmers for distributing source code and configuration settings. However, pastebin.com is also open to anyone who wishes to share any type of text. The platform's primary function is to facilitate the sharing of large text blocks online, which can include code, notes, or any other information that can be textually represented.

How to actually use Pastebin (as it is intended)

Even if you are only using Pastebin for OSINT research, you will benefit from understanding it is designed to be used.

Pastebin users can create "pastes," which are text entries that can be shared publicly, privately, or as unlisted—allowing for different levels of accessibility.

The platform also includes organizational tools such as folders, which help users manage their pastes more efficiently. These folders are private and are only visible to the user who created them, although the pastes within can be public. You can go more in-depth into the available tools but for OSINT purposes that is not necessary.

When using Pastebin it is important to know that, in an effort to prevent misuse, Pastebin uses an automated spam protection system which can be annoying for OSINT researcher. That system can require users to complete a captchas while pasting or browsing.

The spam protection system is triggered by activities such as rapid paste creation, duplicate content, or suspicious links.

Pastebin also has an API that often plays a role in OSINT search tools. For those unfamiliar with APIs, (application programming interface), the API allows for programmatic access to Pastebin's services, enabling users to automate interactions with the site or integrate Pastebin's capabilities into other software applications.

To sum up, Pastebin serves as a tool for sharing and managing text online, and includes features supporting that purpose (as opposed to OSINT). Now, on to the OSINT tools.

OSINT Tools

Due to the extensive volume of information hosted on Pastebin, finding relevant content can be a challenge. To address this, several search tools have been developed, each with unique features aimed at simplifying the search process.

RedHunt Labs Online IDE Search (https://redhuntlabs.com/online-ide-search/) is a custom search tool specializes in scouring keywords and strings across various Online IDEs, code aggregators, and paste sites. It has a user-friendly search interface that facilitates efficient exploration of multiple platforms simultaneously.

Pasta (https://github.com/Kr0ff/Pasta) is a Python 3 tool designed for scraping Pastebin content without relying on Pastebin’s native scraping API. Its lightweight and straightforward approach makes it accessible to all users without requiring an account. While not as robust as the Pastebin scraping API, Pasta effectively retrieves usernames, passwords, emails, IP addresses, and more.

 Cipher387’s Pastebin Search Engines project (https://cipher387.github.io/pastebinsearchengines/) provides a comprehensive array of search options for uncovering private and sensitive data on Pastebin. From emails and passwords to API keys and SQL dumps, this tool covers an extensive range of search parameters.

Sniff Paste (https://github.com/gnebbia/sniff-paste) is a multithreaded pastebin scraper, scrapes to mysql database, then reads pastes for noteworthy information. You can sniff-paste.py to go through the entire process of collection, logging, and harvest automatically.

The Pastebin Bisque (https://github.com/bbbbbrie/pastebin-bisque) is a small Python utility that uses BeautifulSoup to scrape a user's Pastebin profile. All public pastes from that user are downloaded to disk.

Old Data Tools

There are several Pastebin search tools that are still functional but only provide access to dated information, typically at least several years old.

PSBDMP.cc (PSBDMP.cc) serves as an archive (all data is from before 2019) of paste dumps, regularly updated to provide users with a wealth of textual data. Although registration is necessary, the platform offers significant value for users seeking access to a diverse range of pastes. Its curated collection makes it a valuable resource for researchers, analysts, and enthusiasts alike.

Pastebin GA (https://search-pastebin.onrender.com/) searches 30+ paste websites that are listed out on the homepage. The list of websites has not been updated since 2021 and search results are typically from 2020 or ealiert.

More Than Just a Tool

In addition to these tools, Pastebin continues to be a source of intriguing posts, leaks, and developments, making it a platform worth monitoring beyond its practical OSINT applications.

For example, earlier this year a paste appeared that had the plot of a Warner Brothers' movie based on the old Coyote vs Roadrunner cartoon. The movie, that follows the Coyote suing the Acme Company, was originally "shelved" but now reportedly intended for distribution thanks in part to Pastebin.

Conclusion

Readers should now have the knowledge and tools to make use of Pastebin to its fullest OSINT potential.

Recently, I found myself in a bustling coffee shop, engrossed in my weekly ritual of crafting an endless to-do list. Across from me sat an elderly gentleman, drawn by the stickers adorning the back of my laptop. Curious about my line of work, he interrupted my thoughts with a question. When I mentioned that I train on identifying and disrupting criminal networks, particularly human trafficking, he interjected with a familiar phrase: "Ah, yes, follow the money, right?"

As I shook my head, eager to resume my musings, his words lingered in my mind. Was it truly that straightforward?

"I frequently remind myself to refrain from overanalyzing," I often muse, yet it seems that my natural inclination towards the term "analyst" resonates deeply within me for precisely this reason.

Let’s start with understanding the basic fundamentals of human trafficking, and then we can jump into the investigation side of things. Language is critical, especially when describing serious crimes and their weight. According to a report by the UNODC, human trafficking is a financially-motivated crime. A sex trafficker is seeking financial gain and will exploit their victims to gain a profit. While a predator is seeking sexual gratification and will exploit their victims to satisfy their sexual desires and fantasies. Amid efforts to combat human trafficking networks, simply "following the money” hides a web of complexities that law enforcement agencies, policymakers, and advocates grapple with in their pursuit of justice. The financial aspect of human trafficking investigations is integral, serving as both a means to dismantle criminal networks and a tool for prevention. By tracing the flow of money, authorities can uncover key players, identify victims, and disrupt the operations of traffickers. Nevertheless, the reality of following the money in these cases is far from simple.

One of the primary challenges stems from the clandestine nature of trafficking networks. Unlike other criminal enterprises, such as drug trafficking or money laundering, where financial transactions may leave digital footprints or paper trails, human traffickers may thrive and operate in cash-dominated economies. This cash-centric system makes it arduous to track illicit proceeds, as transactions occur off the radar of traditional financial institutions. Traffickers often employ sophisticated tactics to obscure their financial activities, including the use of shell companies, front businesses, and informal money transfer systems. Making human trafficking a nexus crime in many criminal networks, they exploit gaps in regulatory frameworks and exploit vulnerabilities in financial systems to evade detection. This complexity necessitates a multifaceted approach that combines financial intelligence, forensic accounting, and collaboration across jurisdictions. Globally, we have yet to fully understand or master any of these strategies.

Simply, this is not a one-size-fits-all knot of crime. Identifying and dissecting the financial flows within these sectors requires specialized knowledge and resources in that specific industry. This knot requires heavy demands from the active coordination between law enforcement agencies, financial institutions, countries/jurisdictions, policymakers, and industry stakeholders to gather information, compile actionable intelligence, and coordinate in order to disrupt the flow of illicit funds. In addition to the challenges posed by traffickers' tactics and the diversity of industries involved, there are legal and ethical considerations that further complicate financial investigations. Privacy laws, banking regulations, and international treaties impose constraints on the collection and sharing of financial data across borders. Balancing the imperative to combat trafficking with the protection of individuals' rights and financial privacy presents a delicate dilemma for investigators and policymakers alike.

Risk-based Strategy

Human trafficking intersects with various industries, complicating efforts to untangle the financial threads and solidify processes for detection. However, certain industries appear to be more vulnerable to human trafficking. Often, criminals engage in human trafficking due to the low risk and high profits of the trade, and that risk threshold really depends on the countries and industries they are exploiting. Therefore, using a risk-based process could enhance capabilities.  

Assessing Risk Levels

I'm not one to rely heavily on statistics unless I can see the raw data firsthand, but statistics are a great first step in identifying high-risk countries and industries when monitoring their data flows. Human trafficking is very innovative and constantly changing, so the statistics and classifications should be kept up to date to be useful in this approach.  

High-risk country and/or high-risk industry elements should lead to a designation of relevant clients. Based on their business and risk profile, financial institutions may decide that they only want to make such a designation if a client has links to both high-risk countries and high-risk industries. Alternatively, the isolated presence of a specific country or industry may be deemed sufficient for such a classification. With such a procedure, however, corresponding policies must be kept up to date, and responsible employees must be sufficiently trained so that human trafficking risks are identified. 

Comprehensive Integration Processes

The process of identifying high-risk clients involved in organized crime or, in this case, human trafficking should be seamlessly integrated into the customer due diligence or CDD protocol. This integration should trigger the application of rigorous enhanced due diligence measures. These measures should closely resemble those applied to high-risk clients, which typically include more frequent reviews of client data. As part of the specific EDD procedures aimed at combating human trafficking, compliance departments should conduct thorough open-source investigations. This entails conducting comprehensive online research to ascertain any potential connections between the client and illicit activities related to human trafficking. These investigators should have a firm understanding of the profile of a trafficker, their modus operandi, and the potential red flags in their activities. 

Expanding on this, the search for potential indicators of human trafficking involvement should not be limited to surface-level investigations. Rather, it should delve into various online platforms, including social media networks, forums, and online marketplaces, where evidence of exploitation or suspicious activities may surface. Additionally, compliance teams should remain vigilant for red flags such as unusual financial transactions, discrepancies in personal information, or unexplained wealth that could signify involvement in human trafficking networks. You can see where there will need to be coordination across specialties and disciplines. 

When a client is deemed high-risk for money laundering, the compliance employee assigned must clearly understand that the client under scrutiny is not solely being examined due to a flagged indicator suggesting potential money laundering activities. Alongside providing explanatory text for the indicator related to money laundering, it's imperative to explicitly reference possible implications for human trafficking and other forms of exploitation.

When a client is deemed high-risk for money laundering, the compliance employee assigned must clearly understand that the client under scrutiny is not solely being examined due to a flagged indicator suggesting potential money laundering activities. Alongside providing explanatory text for the indicator related to money laundering, it's imperative to explicitly reference possible implications for  human trafficking  and other forms of exploitation. 

Monitoring Transaction Behavior

Criminals are adept at adjusting their operations in response to changing circumstances. Short-term crises such as war, famine, natural disasters, or economic downturns can result in a surge in the number of victims originating from the affected areas. This increase may occur because victims, driven by desperation, are more susceptible to the promises made by perpetrators or find themselves vulnerable while attempting to flee the country. It is anticipated that regions experiencing a concentration of criminal activities during such crises will witness a corresponding rise in financial flows into and out of these areas, as well as neighboring regions. Consequently, customers whose transactional activities exhibit a significant increase in frequency or volume during a crisis should be identified and evaluated for potential involvement in modern slavery or human trafficking activities.

The rise of criminal networks and disparities in society have resulted in certain geographic areas being disproportionately targeted for human trafficking. In some cases, specific cities are identified as frequent points of origin or destination for victims of these crimes. It's beneficial to screen for these locations to leverage this understanding in transaction monitoring. Payment instructions accompanying transactions often contain data on the residence of both the sender and recipient. By analyzing this information, banks can monitor not only the transactions of their own account holders but also those involving customers of foreign banks. 

When implementing risk-based transaction monitoring, it's crucial to incorporate the screening of location data. But, it's important to understand that transaction monitoring primarily examines the financial transactions associated with trafficking activities, rather than the trafficking itself. Typically, payments move counter to the flow of goods traded. For instance, if individuals are trafficked from Country 1 to Country 2, closer scrutiny should be applied to the corresponding financial flows from 2 to 1.

In addressing the complexities of human trafficking, a scenario such as victims being trafficked from City X to City Y for forced labor underscores the importance of monitoring financial transactions closely. For example, let's consider a scenario where victims from City X are trafficked to City Y for forced labor. While the physical movement of victims may occur from City X to City Y, the financial transactions, such as payments made to recruitment agencies or traffickers, may flow from City Y back to City X. These financial transactions, if monitored closely, could reveal patterns indicative of trafficking activities, such as large sums of money being transferred to accounts in City X known for exploitation networks.

While physical movements may occur between these cities, the flow of financial transactions, such as payments to recruitment agencies or traffickers, often moves in the opposite direction. By scrutinizing these transactions, patterns indicative of trafficking activities, such as large sums of money being transferred to accounts in City X associated with exploitation networks, can be revealed. This necessitates a holistic approach that goes beyond traditional law enforcement tactics, emphasizing cross-sector collaboration, technological advancements, and enhanced data analytics. Engaging with financial institutions and private sector partners to strengthen anti-money laundering measures and transparency in supply chains is imperative. Recognizing that unraveling the financial intricacies of human trafficking is a dynamic and evolving endeavor marked by sustained commitment, collaboration, and innovation is essential in combating this grave violation of human rights and fostering a future free from exploitation and injustice. 

We are Only Skimming the Surface

The scope of financial investigations in the context of human trafficking extends far beyond simply following the money trail. In addition to tracing financial transactions, numerous additional strategies and aspects must be considered. Everything mentioned in this article only scratches the surface of the complexities involved in financial investigations related to human trafficking. The interplay between various factors, such as client behavior, regulatory compliance, and transaction classification, creates a web of intricacies that require careful navigation and expertise. This is without introducing the complexity of the psychological factors to consider from the client's angle and also the trafficked persons as well. The layers of obfuscation and lies that both have orchestrated only add to the difficulty of policing entities understanding the depths of these types of investigations.

Client profiling plays a crucial role in identifying suspicious activity and potential involvement in human trafficking networks. This involves analyzing various characteristics and behaviors of clients to detect patterns indicative of illicit activity. Furthermore, ensuring compliance with sanctions regimes is essential in preventing the flow of funds to individuals or entities associated with human trafficking. This requires thorough screening of clients and transactions against relevant sanction lists and regulatory requirements. Then there is the process of classification and identification is another integral component of financial investigations. This entails categorizing transactions based on their risk level and identifying indicators of human trafficking or related criminal activity. By classifying transactions effectively, investigators can prioritize resources and focus their efforts on high-risk areas.

I'll end this with one final thought: Financial investigations or just “following the money" only represent a singular complex angle of a poly-faceted sisasystem within the broader multidisciplinary approach to combating human trafficking. This highlights the need for collaboration and integration across different fields and sectors. Indeed, the complexity and interconnectedness of these issues underscore the importance of comprehensive strategies and concerted efforts in addressing the scourge of human trafficking more effectively.