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Application & OT Security · Foundational

Open-Source Intelligence (OSINT)

Intelligence collected from publicly available sources such as websites, social media, public records and search engines.

Definition

OSINT supports reconnaissance by revealing employees, email formats, technologies, leaked credentials and physical locations. Common tools include Maltego, theHarvester, SpiderFoot, Recon-ng and Shodan. OSINT is also used defensively to understand an organization's exposure.

Example

Using job postings that mention 'Palo Alto firewalls and Splunk' to infer the target's security stack.

Exam tip

OSINT is passive by nature; the exam often pairs it with tools like theHarvester and Maltego.

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