By Technical Manoj
Imagine a thief trying to break into a house. Before they even touch the door, they’d probably watch the house for a few days. They’d learn when you leave for work, if you have a dog, or whether that back window is always left open.
Now imagine that same thief could do all that watching without ever leaving their couch. They could learn your routine, your friends’ names, even what alarm system you own—all from their phone.
That’s what OSINT (Open-Source Intelligence) is in the cybersecurity world. And the scary part? It’s not just spies and government agents using it. Regular criminals—the ones after your money and data—have become experts at it too.
In this post, we’ll look at how real hackers use OSINT to break into companies, and more importantly, what you can do about it.
What Exactly Is OSINT?
Let’s keep this simple. OSINT is just information you can find about anyone or any company from public sources . Think of it as high-tech people-watching.
This includes:
- Social media posts (LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter)
- Company websites and job postings
- Public government records
- News articles and blog posts
- Even data from previous security breaches that’s floating around online
The key word here is “public.” None of this requires hacking. No breaking in. No passwords stolen. It’s all already out there, just waiting to be found.
A Real-World Example
Let me tell you about a ransomware group called Black Basta. Earlier this year, their internal chat logs got leaked, and security researchers got a rare peek into how they actually work .
Their approach wasn’t flashy. They didn’t start with some genius hacking trick. Instead, they started with something boring: research.
Here’s how they’d pick a target:
Step 1: They’d use business data tools (the same ones sales teams use) to find companies with the right size and revenue. They wanted victims who could actually pay a ransom .
Step 2: They’d hit LinkedIn. By looking at employee profiles and job postings, they could figure out exactly what technology the company used. A job posting asking for “someone to manage our Cisco firewalls” tells a hacker exactly what equipment you have .
Step 3: They’d gather email addresses using contact-finding tools. Again, these are the same tools real estate agents and salespeople use every day .
Step 4: Then came the technical scan. Using search engines for internet-connected devices (like Shodan), they’d look for exposed VPN portals, old vulnerable equipment, or cloud services left open to the public .
Notice something? At no point did they actually “hack” anything. They just looked at what was already public.
The Three Big Mistakes Hackers Pray You’ll Make
Security expert Joshua Richards points out three mindset traps that get people in trouble. I want to share these because they explain why OSINT works so well .
“I’m Not Important Enough to Target”
Most people think hackers only go after big companies or rich people. The truth is different.
Hackers use automated scripts that scan millions of accounts at once. You don’t get “chosen” because you’re special. You get “discovered” because a script found an opening . It’s like a fisherman casting a huge net—they’re not looking for one specific fish, just whatever they catch.
“I’m Not on Social Media, So I’m Invisible”
You might not have a Facebook or Twitter account. But there’s still a digital footprint out there about you.
Public birth records. Property tax records. Old data breaches from companies you used years ago. This “shadow data” creates a profile of you that you never built yourself .
“I Have Strong Passwords and 2FA, So I’m Safe”
Two-factor authentication (2FA) is great. But it’s not magic.
There’s a type of malware called “infostealers” that steals something called session tokens—basically, cookies that keep you logged into websites. With those, a hacker can become “you” in their browser without ever needing your password or 2FA code .
How Hackers Turn Points into Profit
Here’s a story that sounds almost funny until you realize how clever it is.
Security researchers investigated something called the “Hamburglars” operation. An Italian food service company noticed weird activity—someone was trying to log into customer accounts .
Turns out, criminals had set up shop on Telegram (a messaging app). They were buying and selling login credentials for loyalty programs. Think about that for a second .
People had accumulated thousands of points at fast food chains, shoe stores, and delivery apps. The hackers would:
- Buy stolen username/password combinations from previous data breaches
- Use automated tools to test which ones still worked
- Only keep accounts with high point balances
- Sell access to those accounts or use the points themselves
One compromised account meant free hamburgers, discounted shoes, or paid-for deliveries. This wasn’t sophisticated nation-state hacking. This was criminals turning loyalty points into cash .
And here’s the wild part: when researchers started digging into who was behind it, they found the guy by looking at his dog.
Really.
The hacker used the same profile picture—his dog—on his criminal Telegram account that he used on his personal social media. From there, researchers found vacation photos, location tags, even a hotel sign in the background of a video. They identified his real name and where he lived .
Criminals make mistakes too.
How to Protect Yourself and Your Company
So what do we do about all this? Security experts suggest a few practical steps .
For Regular People
Check your exposure. Go to a site like ‘HaveIBeenPwned’ and see if your email has shown up in any data breaches . If it has, change those passwords immediately.
Lock down social media. Make your profiles private. Think twice before posting your location, your birthday, or your mother’s maiden name (hello, security question answers).
Use a password manager. If every site has a different, complex password, one breach doesn’t compromise all your accounts.
For Companies
Watch your job postings. Be careful what technology you name in job descriptions. That “seeking expert in Version 7.2” tells attackers exactly what version you run .
Train employees. People need to know that posting “First day at the new job!” with a photo of their badge is basically handing criminals their access code.
Monitor your footprint. Set up alerts for when your company name appears with words like “breach” or “leak” .
When OSINT Catches the Bad Guys
Here’s some good news to balance things out.
The same techniques criminals use are also used by security professionals to catch them. In fact, there’s a whole field called “threat intelligence” where defenders use OSINT to track hackers.
One security company, Resecurity, set up something called a “honeypot”—a fake system designed to look like a real company . They filled it with fake but realistic data: customer records, payment transactions, internal chat logs.
Then they sat back and watched.
Hackers found the system and thought they’d hit the jackpot. They spent weeks inside, scraping data they thought was real. But every move they made gave the defenders information about their techniques, their tools, and even their real IP addresses when their VPNs slipped up .
In one case, a well-known hacking group called ShinyHunters bragged on Telegram about breaching the system. They had no idea they were inside a trap, giving away their methods for free .
Sometimes the hunters become the hunted.
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