The Armchair Investigator
From the couch to the New York Times
Happy New Year Everyone! Edward here. Really excited to start off [Brackets] with the moment that was the impetus for it all — 13 months ago on 620 eighth avenue — the day I met a New York Times reporter now sagely guru role model friend. His name, Christiaan Triebert.
With long wavy hair, Triebert moved like a movie star. [Correction] He was a movie star, especially in the eyes of my college journalism class on a NYT field trip that had recently watched an Emmy award winning documentary titled Bellingcat Truth in a Post Truth World.
Starring? You guessed it. Triebert.
The meeting was life changing.
Not because I was ecstatic to talk to the class movie star (I was). But because Triebert, who at the time was investigating hospital bombings in Syria from the comfort of his office, was helping pioneer an entire new field of digital investigations. Through his work, Triebert introduced me to an exciting world where technology and journalism intersects.
In this newsletter, I hope to shine a light on some of the most innovative journalists living that intersection, their reporting process, and their tools. We’ll start with Triebert, who specializes in OSINT investigations.
What is OSINT?
OSINT stands for open-source intelligence, tools used in investigations to track events such as weapons, environmental damages, conflicts, and illegal goods. In 2014, Bellingcat had a breakthrough investigation on MH17 Malaysian Airlines (linking a Russia missile system to the downing of the plane) that arguably popularized the field.
Its core principle is that in today’s world most everything can be found online. Even a highly secretive Russian missile launcher might appear in the background of a selfie from a 20 something Russian cadet on their first field deployment, hoping to show off to friends back home.
In practice, the right tools, right techniques, and right places to search, make all the difference in OSINT investigations — like the difference between finding evidence of a wrongdoing in hours or in years. And there are MANY places to search for evidence online, whether it’s scavenging thousands of Facebook posts or dialing back time on Google Earth with historic satellite imagery.
How Can I Start Learning?
First, I would like to direct you to the most comprehensive collection of OSINT resources I know of — the Bellingcat online toolkit. This is a collection of OSINT techniques and tools curated by Triebert, and currently maintained by other awesome people at Bellingcat. Divided into sections, you can explore the list of resources from map/satellite, transportation, web archives, social media access points, and more.
Next, if you’re a hands on learner, then let’s start our OSINT journey by trying out reverse image searching — one of, if not, the most useful technique in OSINT, and much simpler than it sounds.
Take a photo you have of a landmark like a park or your high school. Then navigate to Google, and click “images.”
Then click the camera icon on the right side of the search bar. A “Search by Image” box should appear, providing the opportunity to upload an image. Upload your landmark photo.
Congratulations! You just conducted a reverse image search, using the database of a search engine to uncover more information on the origins of an image.
Like almost everything in OSINT, with Reverse Image Searching, the right tools make all the difference. For example, Yandex (a Russian search engine) will perform considerably better than Google for landmarks in East Europe. Other reverse image sources to keep in mind are Baidu, Bing, Yahoo, and chrome extensions like RevEye and Noobox that search multiple engines.
Lastly, practice truly makes better. OSINT experts like Triebert have spent uncountable hours scavenging corners of the internet, honing their practice, before diving into serious investigations.
For practicing these newfound OSINT skills, Triebert recommended Quiztime, a Twitter account that posts landmarks for the OSINT community to geolocate.
Have fun searching! (Tip: try starting with a screenshot of an interesting section of the landmark, reverse image search, then add on more OSINT tools and techniques as needed.)
Thanks for reading, and best wishes in the new year!!
Bonus Resources:
In addition to Bellingcat, another great collection of OSINT tools is available here: https://osint.link/.