Julia bayer
The number of stories that have come to light despite the inability of journalists in places like Ukraine, Iran, China and many others to report freely or on the ground, largely through the use of OSINT.
What was your OSINT highlight of 2021?
One of many OSINT publication highlights 2021 was the 40-min doc “Day of rage” by the Visual Investigations team of NYTimes. It’s a great combination of investigative journalism, visual storytelling and OSINT.
My personal OSINT highlight 2021 was a story I published about the burmese military chief Min Aung Hlaing and his children’s business affairs.
In Myanmar, military matters are a lucrative family affair
We analyzed a public data leak of Myanmar business financials. It was my first time working with such an amount of data. I had no idea what to do with that but my gut feeling told me to take it, and together with knowledge of friends of the OSINT community we were able to publish an investigation based on this data.
Read the story
https://www.dw.com/en/in-myanmar-military-matters-are-a-lucrative-family-affair/a-57132879
What emerging (good or bad) trends did you notice over the past year?
Good
More visible impacts of OSINT technics and methodology in journalism. Increase of interest in learning OSINT and
verification techniques.
Bad
There is a gap of what digital verification is and that sharing public information can do harm to people’s privacy.
There is also an increase on online threats against journalists.
Any favorite tool or technique that you tried in 2021?
The amazing guide by @Sector035 on “Chronolocation on Media”
Chronolocation on Media by Sector035
https://sector035.nl/articles/chronolocation-of-media
How do you see the OSINT landscape changing in 2022?
The interest in learning techniques and using OSINT in different fields will increase even more. There will be more users who will voluntarily e.g. geolocate incidents in (breaking) news events. But, it is important to understand that OSINT is more than just geolocation and that this is one part of many in the whole verification process.
Do you have a blog / Twitter account / Company that you’d like to share with the community?
- Twitter: @bayer_julia
- Twitter: @Quiztime
- Sharpen your senses: https://digger-project.com/sharpen-your-senses/
Anything else you’d like to add about The State of OSINT?
Digital verification is not just about tools. Essential are our human senses. Sharpen them, trust them and if you are not sure do not share the content.
