Law enforcement must rely heavily on volunteer search crews. Often times, these search crews are only searching on the ground and do not think to search online, or are too short staffed to even consider it. By sifting through the massive amounts of information available on the internet, it is possible to uncover valuable information that law enforcement does not have time to find. People can be located and recovered, or crews can be reallocated to locate those that are still living if the unfortunate circumstance arises.
Open Source INTelligence is the collection and analyzing of information from publicly available sources, such as social media, blogs, search engines, court documents, and more. By correlating obscure but valuable bits of information, we can often uncover an unnerving amount of information on someone.
To start locating a missing person via OSINT, you have to start by uncovering their online life. Everyone uses the internet differently, and as an online investigator, it is your job to discover how your target individual uses it. Once you understand how your target goes about their online life, you can begin analyzing their online activities and social life.
Your average person has a poor grasp on what is private and what is public when it comes to online privacy. Most people rely on obscurity (such as using an old email address to register for an embarrassing site) to keep themselves private. Even if your target keeps their online life well protected, their associates, acquaintances, and enemies may not.
The list below is a good starting point. Once you have a missing person you would like to locate, start with the Missing Persons report and begin filling in as much information as you can. Search for your person on various search engines and social media platforms. Look through my previous posts for more resources on OSINT.
