u/Present_Plenty

[supprimé]

A really great and poignant piece about vibe-coded tools.

This article drives at so much at what others in this field are feeling about some of the vibe-coded tools. I also respect that Dutch called these tools a "risk" rather than a "threat". Not all are inherently bad and a few are really cool and could be very impactful.

Remember, in our world, the A.I. can't speak to a legal authority about its analysis or collection methods. That means you will.

If you don't know anything about the methodology or analytical framework or process, your tool will leave you in a worse situation than before you had the information it collected and the analysis it conducted.

Be smart.

Most importantly, the tool does not do OSINT - YOU do. It can collect data but you transform it into something actionable.

Don't let the temptation to take the easy route to tool creation and kill your case.

Yes.

You don't have to be a cop, PI, or be in government or the military doing intelligence.

OSINT is a methodology within an intelligence discipline.

That's it.

If you can find a use for the skills, knowledge, and experience acquired while doing that, you won't have an issue with employment.

That said, you have to be creative in your job searches and not be afraid to ask questions than you have answers to. If you don't understand what I mean by that, then this field is simply not for you and you won't have to worry about how to make money in OSINT because.....you won't be making money in OSINT.

If you're using tools to get recognition and get you a gig, you may be surprised to know that's not the gateway you imagine it to be, especially if you're super defensive about your work here and don't like peer review or scrutiny.

A few skills you need to have:

1. Be able to communicate effectively. You don't have to be a Nobel Laureate but you do need to know how to get your point across well enough that you won't have to worry about that as much as others. That said, you WILL worry constantly about that.

2. Be curious to the point of being almost feloniously nosey. Keep looking for more answers to questions you didn't know you should be asking. If you don't, someone else will. Be open-minded to new ideas and approaches. Be open-minded to how the information may say one thing but mean several other things if looked at differently. Be sure to ask what else the information is saying and where you can either prove, disprove, or conclude you don't have enough corroborativel evidence to saying anything definitive.

3. Be able to critical think about not just the information, but your sources and even your own reporting. It's not just the target you're working against that sucks - sometimes, it's you, your work, your agency, your analysis, etc.

4. Pay attention to details but don't get lost in them. If, as some practitioners claim, you have to like solving problems to make it in this space, you have to be able to work a case like you would a puzzle - look at the pieces but see the picture.

5. Be a great networker. Believe it or not, while this work can attract and acquire people who are introverts, you can't do anything truly alone in this field.

6. Self-starter. Don't expect the assignments to come to you always - you may have to seek them out a lot, especially in your early days.

7. Move in silence and violence. Don't blab about the work and when you work, do so decisively.

8. Be a great record keeper or have a system to document everything. If you didn't write it down, it didn't happen. If it didn't happen, you don't have the data. Without the data, you don't have the intelligence.

9. Be a risk-taking rule-follower. Take chances that your livelihood, the mission, and your liberty can tolerate.

10. Be a professional. If you know, you know. If you don't, it's acceptable and often, necessary to admit that you don't. We're colleagues and if you network well within our community, you're never without resources to help you. Get certified and licensed to do this work. Trust me. Just because you're really good at finding information will mean nothing to a future employer who may be writing checks to pay his bills off of your work. Then, show everyone how great your skill is after you've been hired. Also, NEVER stop learning and seeking further challenges. Remember that challenges are nothing but opportunities to be great.

All in all, remember you're only as good as your last case - so act with that intention when seeking to make money in OSINT.

We have seen, commented on, and tried to banish all dashboards from this subreddit.

I even talked about it at great length.

But I'm not exactly sure I have explained why they suck, other than they're often unoriginal and lack real depth.

What I believe is the overall issue with them and a lot of tools I see presented here is a lack of understanding of what intelligence and evidence are and what they're not.

I'll explain super briefly and this should give some further insight into why the dashboards are really gross.

Let's clarify what intelligence is not.

It's not raw data. Just because you have information doesn't make it intelligence.

It's not entirely the analysis especially if the analysis is faulty.

It's not intelligence just because you're doing it using some OSINT methodology or tools.

So what is intelligence?

It's information that is deemed actionable because it answers questions stakeholders have in order to take action. How it answers those questions isn't just the data either - it's the analysis which doesn't merely confirm the information is valid but that what we believe it is telling us is as well.

Just because you have video footage of every coffee shop in Tehran doesn't make that intelligence unless it does more than simply show what those cafes look like during the war or some other time of interest. What would make it intelligence would be if it were to answer a question those cameras could specifically answer along with other corrobative data and it then be analyzed in such a way that something actionable could be done about it.

Something else to consider is oftentimes we use AI favorited phraseology to explain what our tools have as features. One of my least favorites is "court defensible".

A great many of recent OSINT dashboard developers will proclaim because some part of the information is recorded and stored cryptographically that makes it defensible for chain of custody. I won't argue that. What I will say is that is something someone will have testify in court to explain. Is your end-user trained well enough to be able to do so?

Does your tool do analysis? That's also problematic and not necessarily a slam dunk with respect to declaring it admissible evidence. I love analytical tools. AI can't testify in court to the analysis it did, which concerns me to see tools use it without acknowledging that inherent drawback and ensuring the process which drives that analysis is understood and implemented systematically throughout the workflow because the only person who can testify and help secure it's admissibility is the person who tasked it to do the analysis. Does your end user know how to replicate what your AI does? I don't need a tool to solve crimes, I need a tool that helps me do my job in a way that it helps more than it hurts my case.

Much of what I'm saying is what I implore developers in our space to not only consider but to implement as a part of their workflow. These are the kinds of questions you should always be asking.

If you've come to an OSINT subreddit looking for advice but you don't do OSINT as a hobby or as a profession, I want to share some advice with you.

1. Asking us to do crimes for you, no matter how awesome and righteous your cause, is a huge no-no. Don't ask because if you do, someone will tell. And I don't mean to infer that we're all snitches but that a lot of us have jobs that come with badges, credentials, clearances, licenses, bonding, and insurance which require us to stay clear of getting involved in crime except to solve the ones we may be actively assigned to. And just because we may not have any of those special accouterments does not mean we will still entertain something like that. You may also be putting a ton of attention on yourself for asking for something many of us are tasked with investigating.

2. No matter how familiar or innocuous your backstory may appear, we have no way of knowing if fulfilling your request won't do others harm. This places them, you, and us in legal and physical jeopardy. In the best case scenario, we could just get fired from our jobs. However; that's not the only likely consequence we could suffer for an unauthorized disclosure.

3. Trust us when we tell you something can't be done or isn't worth your time. We may see pitfalls to what you're doing and how it could place you in peril. Many of us have been doing this since before many of you have heard of the Internet.

4. No. This is the answer you will get each and every time you ask if we can help you get a phone number, find your ex, lost parents, or even your dog. If you truly have a need to find someone to do that for you, look for a private investigator or consult an AI.

5. We won't be able to give you the name of a tool or an application that is your magic pill cure for getting that one piece of information you assume is so easy to get if you just had that one tool or app. Let me be honest - it doesn't exist. Breach data is cool but it can be dated which means it's only as good for as long as you don't change your information. People search sites can also have gaps. You get the idea, right.

6. No matter how you phrase your request, it will always be viewed as suspicious, especially when the request involves an ex and your inability to reach them. However; it's not limited to just that.

7. Patience does more to reach your goal than any instant phone number search ever could, in most of the circumstances I've seen here and in other places online.

8. Use the search function on this app. Look for requests like yours and how they were received. You'll notice some immediate commonalities.

9. READ the rules. Don't FAFO around with the mods. Trust me when I tell you they'd rather save this sub than allow it to be banned because someone's lovestruck ex wants to be able to call them "one last time". I'm not a mod but I have been around long enough to know "Homie don't play that".

10. If you don't want to be seen as weird, try to imagine how you appear hiring a PI or asking an OSINT subreddit to find your ex

I hope this helps and this is not directed at any particular person or account.

What are you guys using to determine pattern of life for subjects or persons of interest?

I'm seeing a lot of tools aka dashboards which seem to be focused on data stream presentation and very few address a truly missed area for growth in this field - pivots.

I am thinking of creating a free course based on what pivots are, where they can take you, what's needed to parse through that new information to find relevance, mitigation against distraction, and how to stop looking at a task as a single data point to say you found and look at a task as a way of asking and answering "What else does this information tell me?"

When you embrace the pivot, you begin to see the value of not just the data but understanding why linear thinking kills more investigations than it resolves.

My objective is to answer less questions and hopefully, get students to do what most of us as professionals are already doing which is to ask more questions than you answer.

Again, feel free to share your thoughts and ideas. I'm welcome to collaborate as well.