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Mastering Osint: How to Find Information on Anyone

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Re: Mastering Osint: How to Find Information on Anyone

#3
SWIM's recommendation for anyone wanting to learn is to sign up for Breachforum and read up on all of the contents in their OSINT subforum [1] where you can ask questions too. If you're willing to boogey on into the grey area, you can even download leaked datasets from BreachForum, Leakbase.io, etc. to make your job a lot easier if it involves identifying people online - for example a few databases like AT&T customers and the NationalPublicData database were leaked recently which is kind of like having a private LexisNexis Accurint at your fingertips.

[1] https://breachforums.st/Forum-OSINT

Re: Mastering Osint: How to Find Information on Anyone

#6

I never liked this term. Why is the term "Open Source" used to refer to publicly available information? Something like "PAT" would have been a better acronym: Public Available Information. Do we refer to street dogs as open source dogs?

Or PINT: Public INT.

Re: Mastering Osint: How to Find Information on Anyone

#7

I never liked this term. Why is the term "Open Source" used to refer to publicly available information? Something like "PAT" would have been a better acronym: Public Available Information. Do we refer to street dogs as open source dogs?

> Why is the term "Open Source" used to refer to publicly available information?

Well, why not?

"Source" has long referred to available information. In fact, you probably won't have to read HN long before you encounter a "source plz"-type meme, intended to mean something akin to: "Please point me to the available information that supports your claim."

"Open" has long referred to available information that is accessible to users. "Open source[code]" uses "open" in the same way.

PAT works too but I'm not sure it communicates anything meaningfully different. As far as I can tell, they are trying to communicate the very same thing. Is your reaction, perhaps, because you are accustomed to "open source" being used in the software sense?

> Do we refer to street dogs as open source dogs?

Dogs haven't typically been seen as information, so, for all practical purposes, probably not. But if we want to change that, sure, why not? Language doesn't have feelings. It doesn't care.

Re: Mastering Osint: How to Find Information on Anyone

#8

I never liked this term. Why is the term "Open Source" used to refer to publicly available information? Something like "PAT" would have been a better acronym: Public Available Information. Do we refer to street dogs as open source dogs?

> "PAT" would have been a better acronym: Public Available Information.

informaTion?

> Do we refer to street dogs as open source dogs?

No, but we don't call them Public Available Dogs either.

Re: Mastering Osint: How to Find Information on Anyone

#9

I never liked this term. Why is the term "Open Source" used to refer to publicly available information? Something like "PAT" would have been a better acronym: Public Available Information. Do we refer to street dogs as open source dogs?

> "PAT" would have been a better acronym: Public Available Information. informaTion? > Do we refer to street dogs as open source dogs? No, but we don't call them Public Available Dogs either.

“Stray information” sounds good, though.
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