The Power of Community and OSINT4Good |
Abstract
The practice of open source intelligence (or OSINT) gathering has been used by different researchers and intelligence analysts for decades. In 2019, it became a buzzword in Australia’s local infosec community due to the launch of the first national missing persons CTF event that ran during the Australian Cyber Security Week. In 2021, right after the United States Capitol attack and upon the request of the FBI, netizens started gathering SOCMINT (social media intelligence, which is an aspect of OSINT) to help identify the perpetrators. In early 2022, the use of OSINT techniques in the Russian invasion of Ukraine is potentially changing the dynamics of old-school war. If you ever wondered what OSINT involves, how it can be leveraged to do good in your community or how you can use your skills and knowledge to help find missing people, listen to this presentation. Speaker Bio: KatnissMelb is the online handle of one of the volunteers for Trace Labs who started volunteering for this non-profit group in 2019 and has been involved in various capacities as a judge during missing persons online search parties/virtual CTFs, as an analyst writing the intel reports provided to the law enforcement agencies, and as a scribe documenting various processes and activities. She believes that building communities to support infosec people is important and that community-organised events like BSides conferences help people connect with one another. In her day job, she works as an incident responder, utilising her DFIR skills and knowledge to help her clients protect and defend themselves. |