Can everybody do OSINT ?
Well this is a tricky question to ask in the first place. Things are usually blurry at first but it gets clearer as we ponder on this question little bit deep.
When talking about osint many get confused with normal reconnaissance. But both are different in many ways. For easy understanding you may consider osint as an advance form of reconnaissance. In osint we usually go very deep on the topic we are osinting upon.
Coming back to the question ,Can everybody do osint ?
Well it depends upon how clear and controlled you are psychologically.
The biggest enemy of a person who wants to do osint is his/her own cognitive bias.
So what is this “Cognitive Bias”?
Googlish definition : “A cognitive bias is a systematic error in thinking that affects the decisions and judgments that people make. Some of these biases are related to memory. The way you remember an event may be biased for a number of reasons and that in turn can lead to biased thinking and decision-making.”
My version : “Hardcore rules set by you based up on ur experiences throughout life which makes u think or analyse a situation in a certain way.”
And coginitive bias is something that is hardwired into us all because of various reasons. It is caused due to the society we live in, things we like, things we dislike etc etc.
In normal recon its not much of a concern, but when it comes to osint your cognitive bias will affect your analytic capabilty. Psychological equillibrium very much important as it will help you get satisfactory results.
There are plenty of tools and websites out there for doing osint, not tools or websites can help you are not psychologically unbiased. You will keep on knocking the wrong doors .
I would highly recommend you to read this post as well https://medium.com/secjuice/osint-as-a-mindset-7d42ad72113d
How to remove cognitive bias ?
We can remove the cognitive bias, I’m talking about mental rewiring. So it takes time. First thing is to identifying your cognitive bias. Once you do that then you can move on to rewire that bias and remove it completely.
I’m planning to write more on osint so stay tuned.
