I started this blog site because I love to learn, share, and collaborate on all things related to open source investigating, or digital investigations if you’re one of those anti-INT people (not that there’s anything wrong with that). I hope to continually share interesting and relevant content that requires a bit more space than what my good old Twitter offers, you know, for times I feel like being verbose. I sprinkle in stupid jokes and dated pop culture references in all my writing because, quite frankly, that’s just my style. If you enjoy something here, please let me know. If you don’t, well you can keep that to your damn self… 😀
I have been working in an investigative capacity for more than 20 years now, and before I get too far along I have to say… all content, incoherent ramblings, and loosely thought-out opinions on this website are entirely my own.
Open source investigative work is something I did for many years before I really even knew what it was called. I was formally introduced to the wide world of OSINT years ago by a small-town cop who was just getting started doing some teaching on the side named Michael Bazzell, now of Intel Techniques fame.
After organizing and attending a multi-day training of his I felt absolutely blown away by what was out there and possible to learn. So began my life-long love affair with all things “INT”. To this day, I wake up every morning excited to learn something new, and in recent years started keeping track of the best OSINT content on my startme page, which you can find here: https://start.me/p/DPYPMz/the-ultimate-osint-collection.
I’ve become very involved with the #OSINTforgood community, a collection of like-minded and kind-hearted people with a wide variety of backgrounds, who either possess or want to possess these skills and use them for the greater good. As I’ve come to learn, the greater good we speak of often means missing and exploited children. Many agencies and organizations are doing incredible work in this space, and I am proud to say I am employed by one of them, the National Child Protection Task Force (NCPTF), where I serve as their Chief Investigations Officer (formerly their Director of Intelligence). I have the distinct honor to work with some of the most talented people in the world, doing work that truly matters, and helping the most vulnerable.
Through my work with NCPTF as well as my personal company, Hatless Investigations Group, I have had the honor and privilege of participating in a number of conferences, events, podcasts, and written publications on OSINT related topics for audiences around the world. My passion is for teaching OSINT, and I’ve been fortunate to share some knowledge with countless investigators across the public and private sector through various events and custom trainings.
Nowadays, I do most of my private training through a company called https://myosint.training that provides both in-person and video on demand OSINT training from world class instructors. One of my favorite ways to connect with people is through teaching and seeing them light up with the same excitement I have for conducting online investigations. So many of us have that “bug”. Being a part of My OSINT Training allows me to reach larger audiences and provide more affordable and accessible training than what can be achieved with in-person events. It also allows me to collaborate with some of the industry’s leading trainers and practitioners to help bring this amazing genre of work to the ever-growing masses!
Additionally, Webbreacher and I run https://OSINT.games Capture The Flag, and have been providing hundreds of investigators the opportunity to test their skills and learn new OSINT techniques by practicing with real-life challenges in a CTF style format that is designed to help them learn, rather than compete. We will occasionally make public CTFs, but these days our business has been heavily focused on making private events for private companies and public agencies.
As if I don’t have enough going on already, I am also proud to represent https://clicksafeintelligence.com as their Vice President. Clicksafe was founded by https://twitter.com/scarlettsleuth, and is focused on providing the world better understanding about how predators target and groom children for exploitation, and researching how language and writing analysis can help identify offenders across different online platforms. Necessary and cutting-edge stuff!
If you are a person who likes to do good in the world, and you love open source intelligence, please feel free to connect with me on Twitter or LinkedIn!