OSINT Basics

Open-Source Intelligence (OSINT) is now a core capability across investigations, intelligence development, safeguarding, corporate security, and threat assessment. But the difference between “having a look online” and conducting OSINT properly is huge — especially when decisions, casework, or organisational risk sit on the other side of it.

OSINT Basics (Foundations Course) is built to help practitioners develop strong fundamentals and good tradecraft. It’s practical, structured, and focused on producing findings that are repeatable, defensible, and suitable for investigative or intelligence contexts.

This is not a theory-heavy lecture. Delegates learn how to work systematically: how to plan what they’re doing, gather information safely and ethically, validate what they find, and present outputs in a way that stands up to scrutiny.

Who the course is for

This course is designed for:

• Practitioners new to OSINT, who want a clear and structured starting point

• Investigators, analysts, and intelligence staff who already use OSINT informally, but want to formalise their approach

• Safeguarding / harm-reduction roles, where online information supports prevention and risk decisions

• Supervisors and team leads who want a shared baseline method and a consistent standard across their teams

• Corporate security / investigations teams needing better tradecraft and confidence in online findings

You don’t need a technical background. What you do need is an interest in becoming more methodical, more accurate, and more confident in the quality of your OSINT outputs.

What the course covers

1) Core OSINT principles, ethics, and legal considerations

Delegates build a clear understanding of what OSINT is (and isn’t), why governance matters, and how to avoid common pitfalls that create risk for organisations and individuals.

Topics include:

• What “open source” really means in practice

• Ethical boundaries, proportionality, and professional judgement

• Defensibility: being able to explain how and why you reached a conclusion

• Practical ways to reduce risk and avoid overreach

2) Search methodology and advanced operators

Search is a skill — and most people haven’t been taught it properly. This module helps delegates move from ad-hoc Googling to purposeful discovery.

Topics include:

• Building structured search plans and hypotheses

• Advanced operators and query construction

• Using search engines efficiently (and knowing their limitations)

• Finding the “second layer” of information (cached content, document trails, references, and re-shares)

3) Social media and online platform reconnaissance

Delegates learn how to explore social platforms and online communities methodically — without making assumptions, and without relying on a single screenshot as “proof”.

Topics include:

• Platform-led reconnaissance techniques

• Identifying patterns, connections, and supporting indicators

• Recognising impersonation, satire, and misleading signals

• Capturing context and avoiding confirmation bias

4) Source evaluation, validation, and evidential considerations

This is where OSINT becomes genuinely useful: separating signal from noise and assessing what is reliable.

Topics include:

• Assessing credibility, provenance, and recency

• Corroboration and confidence levels

• Recognising manipulated content, recycled narratives, and misattribution

• Recording findings in a way that’s transparent and reviewable

5) Structuring and presenting findings for investigative and intelligence use

If you can’t explain your findings clearly, they won’t survive challenge — internally or externally. Delegates learn simple, practical structures for reporting.

Topics include:

• Writing clear OSINT summaries and intelligence-style outputs

• Separating fact, assessment, and assumption

• Presenting confidence and limitations honestly

• Producing outputs that others can action and review

Learning objectives (what delegates will be able to do afterwards)

By the end of the course, delegates will be able to:

• Apply a structured OSINT workflow rather than relying on ad-hoc searching

• Use advanced search operators and effective query strategies to locate relevant material faster

• Conduct basic platform reconnaissance in a consistent and methodical way

• Evaluate sources and content using credibility and validation techniques

• Record and present findings with clear confidence levels, limitations, and defensibility

• Produce OSINT outputs that are suitable for investigative and intelligence decision-making

Outcomes and takeaways

Delegates leave with:

• A repeatable OSINT method they can use immediately

• Improved confidence in what is reliable vs what is assumption or weak inference

• Better-quality outputs: clearer notes, clearer summaries, and stronger reasoning

• A more defensible approach that’s easier to justify to supervisors, stakeholders, or decision-makers

Delivery style

This is a live, instructor-led remote course with practical demonstrations and structured exercises throughout the day. Delegates will be guided through techniques step-by-step and shown how to apply them in real working contexts.