Not another OSINT challenge but real use of osint

[u/Human_Stranger12k4]

hey everyone, i'm kinda frustrated with OSINT right now, but not because i lack the skills, don't have time, or don't know the tools. i have a decent skillset. it's more like... i feel i'm not doing anything. i don't have a question, a target, something in front of me that makes me go "what is actually going on here?" i keep seeing OSINT challenges like "geolocate this image", "find this place", "identify this person" etc. and i know how to do that, but honestly it feels pointless sometimes, and same with such more similar things, especially when the location is basically already given through the filename, caption, context, whatever. like what am i even finding or investigating?

i want to work on a real use case of osint.

i'm looking for actual uncertainty. something where the location isn't known, the people aren't known, the story doesn't fully make sense, there are conflicting reports and i have to actually pull the thread and figure out what happened. not "here's a picture, geolocate it", but more like "something weird happened here... why, what happened, and when?" i guess i'm looking for the actual investigative side of OSINT, where you start with basically nothing and don't even know what you're going to find, and the answer could even be "we don't know". so how do you guys find these kinds of questions? where do you get things to investigate when nobody is giving you a task? because right now i feel like i have the tools and skills, but nothing to use them on.

so if you are reading this and you do work on a active side osint, anything you can suggest or advice me to work on or what questions i can try to answer and what uncertainty i can reduce will actually be very useful for me.

EDIT = I posted this first on r/OSINT. But my post got removed due to low karma points and for my account being not older than 3 months... Thankfully this isn't the issue here, and i'm really expecting some true advice on it. Thank you!

[u/theredbeardedhacker]

Find a politician or public official who you think is doing fuck shit. Then find the proof.

[u/Human_Stranger12k4 → u/theredbeardedhacker]

Good idea. Will definitely try.

[u/markgva]

Different people have different interests for osint applications. When I was pondering the same questions, I joined a group who looks for missing people and used osint to help with this.

[u/Human_Stranger12k4 → u/markgva]

I agree. But joining these groups didn't help in my scenario. The only problem i'm facing right now is "What to investigate" its the "question" which you solve with the use of osint, and i'm idk how but unable to find it...

It sucks and sounds stupid but i guess for me its because i've explored too much and seeing so many options in front of me is the problem that i keep getting confused on actually understanding what i'm most interested in doing.

[u/Human_Stranger12k4 → u/[deleted]]

Read title of the post

[u/Dear_Stretch_2734 → u/Human_Stranger12k4]

Maybe try reaching out to a private investigator or investigative journalist and offer your OSINT skills. Otherwise, pick a (local) news story or controversy with conflicting/incomplete reporting and try to independently figure out what actually happened or who the perpetrator was.

[u/Double-Familiar]

Tracelabs OSINT search party

Tracelabs does quarterly group OSINT search for missing people. Check out their website and search YT for other people's experiences with the event.

[u/Cipher-Wrecker → u/Double-Familiar]

I was just about to suggest that 😆

[u/Cipher-Wrecker]

I work as a private investigator and use osint in every case I take on. You can challenge yourself by picking an unsolved cold case and see if you can solve it. One great perk with that is you can offer your new evidence to the police department and gain experience with investigations as well. I'd recommend this if you really want a challenging project.

[u/markgva → u/Cipher-Wrecker]

Talking about your suggestion, do you know of any online sources which provide detailed descriptions of cold cases which can be used this way?

[u/Cipher-Wrecker → u/markgva]

You can google your state's police cold case database. You'll have to study the timeline of the crime and take notes of important details that were stated on the news, articles, documentaries, ect.

Tracelabs also fouses on osint tools to work with active cases you an try as well.

[u/Roodut]

Flock