Resources
Resources and Tools for Investigative Journalists and Civil Activists
In today’s era, where technology is playing an increasingly vital role in shaping the landscape of investigative journalism, it is essential for journalists and individuals engaged in anti-corruption efforts to acquaint themselves with advanced tools and techniques. That’s why we have compiled a curated list of resources designed to assist researchers, activists, and journalists worldwide. This toolkit serves as a complementary resource alongside our video series titled “Tracking Corruption,” available on our YouTube Channel (Link).
Crowdsourcing Opportunity
Did we miss a database? If so, please let us know!
Do you know of a website or database not included in this resource? If so, please email abawer@unishka.com with a copy to admin@unishka.com
Together we can make a difference!
Business Registries
Cyber Security
- Signal
- Session
- Wire
- Wickr
- Mega
- ProtonEmail
- Tails
- Virus Total – URL/File Scan
- Check if your email address is in a data breach
- DeHASHED – Breach Checker
- LastPass – Password Manager
- 1Password – Password Manager
- Dashlane – Password Manager
- Website Scan for Virus
- GIJN Digital Security
- Secure Drop – Share and accept documents securely
- Cover Your Tracks – See how trackers view your browser
- Hushed – Temporary & Second Phone Number App
- Google Voice – Virtual Phone Number
- VeraCrypt – File Encryption Tool
Websites
- Osint-tool.com – gives you access to a suite of OSINT utilities directly on any webpage you visit
- VisualPing – Website Change Tracker
- Tackly.io – Website Change Tracker
- Klexon – Website Change Tracker
- Carbon Dating The Web
- DNS Cyrillic Check – Check if malicious or Cyrillic domains are registered
- Geo IP Tools – Check if your VPN is working
- Moz Link Explorer – Analyse URLs.
- Shodan – Internet of things search engine.
- SpyOnWeb – Check if websites belong to the same owner.
- Whatcms.org – What content-management system is this website using?
- _IntelligenceX – Advanced Search Engine
- Who.is – Domain Lookup
- Toby – Bookmark Manager
Maps & Satellites
- Google Street View
- Google Earth Pro
- Bing Maps
- Yendex Maps
- Open Street Map
- Moriwo – Map of Nigeria
- WikiMapia
- LiveUAMap – Timeline of news and zones of control in conflict
- GeoVisual Search
- HERE WeGo – More recent satellite imagery from places like Afghanistan and Iran than Google has.
- Kakao Map – Mapping service for South Korea
- Mapa.sk – Mapping service for Slovakia
- Mapillary – Street View
- F4 Map Demo – 3D Buildings
- Dual Maps – 3D Buildings
- Earth Explorer
- MapCarta
- Qwant – Shops/Places Tags
- Image Hunter (Apollo Mapping)
- Military Grid System
- Newspaper Map
Databases and Leaks
- Global Organized Crime Index
- The ENACT Organized Crime Index
- Retraction Watch – Tracking retractions as a window into the scientific process
- The Subnational Corruption Database
- Distributed Denial of Secrets
- WikiLeaks
- Global Leaks
- ICIJ Offshore Leaks Database
- ORRCP Aleph – 442 million public records
- Open Corporates
- Catalogue of Research Databases
- OpenSanctions
- Sanctions Explorer
- OSINT Tools Map
- Public Records (Various)
- Corporations Search (Corporation Records by State)
- County Search (All County Records by State & County)
- Citizen Audit (Nonprofit Tax Audit)
Data Tools
- Google Pinpoint – Explore and analyze large collections of documents
- Tesseract – Data extraction tool
- Tabula – Extracts data from pdf files
- DataBasic – Easy-to-use web tools for beginners
- DataWrapper – Charts, maps, and tables
- WorkFlowy
Social Media
- NodeXL (For mapping crowds around certain topics.)
- CrowdTangle (Usefull for analizing and tracking Facebook accounts.)
- 4CAT (Analyse and process data from multiple online social platforms.)
- CrowdTangle – Usefull for analizing and tracking Facebook accounts.
- IntelTechniques
- IntelligenceX
- PhantomBuster
- Snscrape
- Social-searcher
- SMAT (Disinformation tracker)
- TweetDeck
- Twitter Operands List
- Twitter List Copy
- Twitter – Twint
- Twitter Advanced Search
- DiscordLeaks
- Skopenow
- HaveBeenZuckered
- Search For Telegram Groups Based on Location
- Thread Reader
Tutorials/Resouces
- What is Open Source Intelligence (OSINT)?
- The Kit – Tutorial into investigative process
- Tutorial: TOR + VPN
- Bellingcat Guides
- Security in a Box – how to use social media and mobile phones more safely.
- Data Journalism Handbook
- Security Planner
- Surveillance Self-Defense
- Tech Solidarity – Do and Don’ts for basic security
- Sexual Exploitation, Abuse and Harassment (SEAH) Investigation Guide
- An activists guide to archiving videos
- OS Skills List
- Sector035 – Week in OSINT
- YouTube: OSINT at Home
- The OSINT Curious Project (TOCP)
- Techopedia
- OSINT Tutorials
- How do we work together to detect AI-manipulated media?
- IntelTechniques – Course
- Verifying Online Information – PDF Book
- Academic Literature on Open Source Research & Methods
- Berkeley Protocol on Digital Open Source Investigations
- Setting Your Moral Compass: A Workbook for Applied Ethics in OSINT
- A definitive guide to verifying digital content for emergency coverage
- Video as Evidence: Verifying Eyewitness Video
- How to Maintain Mental Hygiene as an Open Source Researcher
Image & Video
- InVID Verification Plugin
- Google Lens – Reverse Image Search
- TinEye
- Metadata2Go – Get All Metadata Info of Your Files
- Compare Images
- Forensically
- Youtube DataViewer
- Shadow Analysis – Make an approximation of the time of the day using shadow direction.
- Image Verification Assistant
- EXIF Purge – Remove metadata
- Foto Forensics – Photo Forensic Analysis
- PimEyes – Face Search Engine & Reverse Image Search
- Search4Faces
- Amazon Rekognition
- Practical face restoration for *old photos*
- PureRef – Arrange images in groups
- Cleanup.Pictures – remove objects from an image
- ThisPersonDoesNotExist – Generate Fake Images of People
- Am I Real? – Detects if faces were generated by ThisPersonDoesNotExist
- Mattw.io – Search YouTube Videos by Coordinates
Transport
- Marine Trafic
- Vessel Finder
- My Ship Tracking
- MariTime Database – Ship Company Details
- Military Ship Tracking
- Vessel Registry EU
- Vindecoderz – Detailed information about a vehicle’s history.
- Thats Them VIN Search
- Flight Aware – Flight Tracker
Crime Data
- Criminal Search (Criminal Records by State & County)
- Inmate Search-Nationwide (Past & Present Inmates)
- CrimeMapping
- Public Records Search
- Nationwide County Court Records (By State & County)
- Pigeonly – Search and find your inmate in over 4,000 facilities in USA
People Search
- _IntelligenceX – Email Searcher
- hunter – Email Searcher
- PeekYou – People Search
- ThatsThem – People Search
- ZebaSearch – People Search
- Foller.me – People Search
- Spokeo – People Search
- TrueCaller
- GetContact
- Whats My Number
- Epieos – Tool for email and phone reverse lookup
- Watools – the WhatsApp Online Tracker
- Search Systems
- Nigeria Phonebook
- Hitta – phone numbers/names (Sweden)
- Person Lookup – South Africa
- 192.com – Finding someone’s address in UK
- Check Usernames on 160 Social Networks
- Blackbird – Usernames on 500+ websites and social networks
- Radris – People Search
- URLscan – Scan a URL to check it’s safe
- Malicious URL Tester
- Tella App – encrypting data on your phone and for securely transfering files
- Phone Search
Archiving
- Archive.org
- Way Back Machine
- Auto Archiver – Archiving Tool
- TV Archive
- Hunch.ly
- Pinpoint
- Archive.is
- Arweave – Decentralized (blockchain) archiving.
- Wayback Machine Downloader
- Perma.cc
- Fact Check Archive
Academic Research
- Google Scholar
- Core
- Talk To Books
- Text Analyzer JSTOR
- The Library of Congress
- Open Knowledge Maps
- UK Research and Innovation
- Directory of Open Access Journals
- BASE – Academic Search Engine
- NATO Library
- Project MUSE
- World Bank Open Data
- Open archive of the social sciences
- ArXiv – archive for nearly 2.4 million scholarly articles
- AnswerThePublic – Keyword Research Tool
Other
- Dumpster Diver – Tool to search for secrets in various file types.
- Bitcoin block explorer
- Google Journalism Studio
Other Toolkits
- OSINT Dojo
- Top OSINT & Infosec Resources
- Bellingcat’s Online Investigation Toolkit
- The BBC Africa Eye Forensics Dashboard
- Marc Kranat OSINT Dashboard
- OSINT Essentials
- Terrorism & Radicalisation Research Dashboard
- OSINT China – French-oriented
- OSINT Framework
- Digital Investigative Journalism in Africa Toolkit
- Open Source Intelligence Network
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