Nico Dekens

@Dutch_OsintGuy | dutchosintguy.com

What was your OSINT highlight of 2022?

Being able to be even more in contact with the OSINT community more in for example the OSINTcurious discord if one of my highlights of 2022. Also seeing OSINT becoming more adopted and accepted within governments and by journalists all around in the world is a big win and highlight.

What emerging (good or bad) trends did you notice over the past year?

Bad OSINT trends: see more people mistaking finding information online (OSINF) and making claims without proper context and analysis. This is not OSINT. That is just sharing what you found without proper analysis methodology.

Good OSINT trends: Utilizing OSINT collection and analysis for accountability and legal steps in for example conflict zones. There are some very active (global) groups that are doing a marvelous jobs that will help holding certain targets accountable for their wrongdoing.

Any favorite tool or technique that you tried in 2022?

The favorite tool I have been using for most of my OSINT tasks have been and will be critical thinking. Never underestimate the power of the brain.

How do you see the OSINT landscape changing in 2023?

We will slowly see more scattered nice (decentralized) platforms appear. Which will make it a bit more challenging to find the information that might lead to actionable intelligence in issues and questions raised in OSINT cases. We will need to adapt and adopt to more locations that may contain valuable information that we need in our OSINT collection.

Promote yourself! Do you have a blog / Twitter account / Company / Tool / Course that you’d like to share with the community?

You can find me on many social media platforms under my alias dutch_osintguy or visit my webpage at dutchosintguy.com

Anything else you’d like to add about The State of OSINT?

Work hard and be kind.