In this video we're going to be talking about what is O.S. and why it's important to well everyone.
So first off Olson is define from Wikipedia as open source intelligence or Ozen is data collected from
publicly available sources to be used in an intelligence context in the intelligence community.
The term open refers to overt publicly available sources as opposed to covert or clandestine sources.
It is not really a to open source software or public intelligence in this course we are going to be
using free software.
There is actually paid software that could help with those in searches.
But our focus here is going to be all free software both open source and otherwise.
So to me it is a little bit like being a detective and a little bit like a forensic scientist.
It's going out investigating people or places or things generally people or businesses analyzing the
data and compiling your on your findings.
So why is OSen important.
So for hackers and this is going to be for both the malicious type and for the white hackers and penetration
testers.
So no matter which side of the fence you're on if you're a good guy or a bad guy hacker is always going
to be the first phase of hacking.
And I'm not going to get into all the phases of hacking but there are five phases and the first one
is reconned instance which OSen falls under.
So in this phase hackers are going to try to gather as much information about a target without actually
directly interacting with it without calling them without actually running scans against a network.
Things like this are going to be going online and doing Google searches and checking out forums and
blogs and the company web site if they have one or a personal web site things like that so.
Another reason why why this is actually the first phase and hacking is so hackers don't get caught up
in something like this.
So in this case a hacker tried to scam the police by pretending they were the IRS.
So obviously if this person person actually did their research did their reconnaissance before hand
the Luby OSen work ahead of time before they try to be the IRS.
They would have realized that the recall in the police department
OK.
Next so on network security teams.
Olson is very important also.
So for network security teams it can be used for things like finding viruses find out what they are
finding out what the signatures are ways around it.
Hackers finding hackers people that try to get on a network people.
I got on their network insider attacks doing research more into who is actually trying to do damage
or did to damage their network other things like investigating scams.
E-mails coming in.
Phishing which is basically a phone version of phishing that's where someone will try to call you directly
and say that maybe they're your H-back person or an new employee and try to get information out from
your company.
So it can be used to help investigate those things find out if it's legitimate or not.
And if it did do damage you evade if it actually got got through you could potentially find out who
it was and and track them down.
So employers employers OSen can be a really useful tool.
So one thing can be for finding out who your potential employees are going to be.
You could do O.S. work into applicants find do a little background searching and find out who you're
going.
You may hire before you actually do.
It's not too uncommon for businesses now to actually look at people's social media accounts to get a
better idea because sometimes when people go into air view or offer the resume it doesn't quite match
up with who they really are outside of that.
So that's where OSen comes in handy.
Other things that businesses can use OSen for is find out if instead of information's being leaked both
intentionally or unintentionally unintentionally might be if you're an I.T. person who spent the last
three months sending up your new secure server room you have you know your biometric lock you've got
your cameras and all of this you know high tech security keeping people from physically accessing that
room.
But what happens if they get proud and you know they start taking photos or selfies in the server room
because they're proud that it's finally finally set up and they're really proud of the security they
post on their Twitter Facebook account.
Well now that information is out there.
So if a potential robber or hacker or whatnot sites to check that out they potentially see what type
of lock there are or what type of servers switches are used and then on that network and makes it that
much easier to figure out how to get in or maybe someone snaps a shot of your prototype hardware like
a phone manufacturer and it gets leaked online.
Doing so will help potentially find those things and stop it before it gets too far hopefully in other
things like this where a KFC worker was fired on after a Facebook photo shows or licking potatoes which
I'm sure a KFC would have loved to found this out before it actually got into the mainstream news.
So that's where some of the areas so it can really come in handy for businesses.
So for everyday computer users why is this important.
Well take a look.
So things like help wanted if you're looking for a job and it's a company that you're really not sure
about you could do a search on them.
Nothing illegal it's like again all publicly available sources so you could take a look you could find
out who they are.
Get more information and really find out how that companies work and if it's going to be good fit for
you.
Things like online dating.
Online dating is huge.
But another problem especially for women are a lot of times people misrepresent themselves.
Either they use someone else's photo or it's a really old photo or some of the information is completely
bogus.
So in order to protect themselves you could use it to do searches on people that you were potentially
interested in find out.
You know if that photo really is that person or if this information really matches up to who they are
and you know possibly find out some information that they didn't mentioned before.
It's great for scammers finding out if you are being scammed.
If someone calls you up and say you know hey this is your nephew you know I'm in jail and in this other
country you know I need you to send me money in that.
Or if you get in the way I'm in this place Prince and I I need to transfer money and this and that.
You know it's the old Nigerian scam.
Does it seem kind of funny but it's been around for a long time and it's still alive and well in one
form or another.
But with O.S. you could actually do your research and find out help find out if it's legitimate.
If you're trying to be scammed and what's going on.
Well it's also great for tracking down people.
So maybe an old friend that you haven't talked to in a long time or a relative that you're trying to
track down and can actually come in handy for finding those people and reuniting yourself with them.
Another great thing about O.S. for everyone is see what information of your own is being leaked online.
So some people actually Google themselves so they'll Google their own name.
Well this is better than not doing this at all.
After this course you're going to have so many wonderful tools absolutely amazing tools to use that.
You know it's going to go way beyond just Googling her name.
So and the reason behind that is you want to find out and you should know what information of yours
is out there and what can be used against you.
That way you could reduce what's called reducing your attack surface.
So these scammers and other dangers employees find out if your insider information is being leaked.
And find out who your target is.
These are all reasons why OSen is porn.
So I'll see you on the next line.