An investigation into Fraport AG and it’s ties to Pulkovo Airport (St. Petersburg) hits the bullseye by propelling Putin to kick foreign players out of Russia. Here is how the satellite investigation played a key role in the reporting. — The German company Fraport AG, a stock listed “Airport Services” firm and operator of Germany’s largest airport at Frankfurt-am-Main, closes business deals with whoever offers the most lucrative conditions.

As a journalist or researcher, you may be handed leak data. But how to be sure it's the real deal? This is a leak data verification checklist for investigators. — I come into the office every morning. I use the espresso machine. I make myself a double espresso with a bit of milk. The coffee comes from a local coffee roastery. The milk from the fridge. When I check the fridge, I often find a plain milk carton. It could…

Over months, we investigated a mine in Morocco, linked to the royal family. The open-source analysis shows the company behind it implemented no real changes to protect waste material in its tailing ponds from being flooded by heavy rain. Locals complain about severe arsenic pollution and make the mine responsible, which supplies BMW with cobalt. A guide on how #OSINT was used in the mix. — Heavy allegation are being raised this weekend against a suppler of cobalt to the German car manufacturer BMW. The firm, the Moroccan mining giant Managem, is one of the continent's largest mining powerhouses and since at least 2020 under contract with BMW.

#OSINT guide on how to use breach data more effectively — Part 1: Automate it! Lots of talk about how to use the full scale of breach data on the darkweb. Few open-source investigators really know how. “Pivoting” on data points opens entirely new avenues for investigations. Fairly new is “Datalake” by an inconspicuous US company. It offers #OSINT investigators the largest breach data collection on the planet. This is Part 1 of 2 on how investigative journalists can use it.

In the wake of a devastating terrorist attacks committed by Hamas against Israel, with open-source techniques exploring and investigating the terrorist tunnel system. — How could the terror organization Hamas and the Al-Quds Brigade, the military wing of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) build the over 7,000 rockets sent towards Israel alone in the past two weeks since the horrendous attack? Sure, terrorist organizations all over the world are able to plan and assemble…

Carbon Credits: It’s a subject that preoccupies governments, activists & journalists. In a month-long investigation, we took a look at bad carbon credits, how they come together, who creates, audits and trades them — and how some could slip through checks, breaching basic principles of environmental standards and human rights. — The voluntary carbon credit market has received a cascade of bad press and criticism recently. But exactly those project were meant to endow firms with the potential to show off how great they can chase their own offsetting goals, by simply buying them. The motto so far: Cash is green…

Modern open-source intelligence techniques can reveal who controls companies, who finances them, and those who don't want anyone to know. PDF LINK — Who earns the money? Who owns a business? Who’s responsible for crimes or dodgy business operations? Who signs off sanction-breaching deals? Who avoids paying taxes with opaque company constructs, costing the finance authorities gazillions? Well, who…?

Nun, da Wagner-Boss Jewgeni Prigoschins Tod als bestätigt gilt, soll sich der Geist rund um Wagner in Afrika aufgelöst haben? Dass dem nicht so ist, dass die Wunden in Afrikas Bevölkerung tief sitzen, weiter Sanktionen verhängt werden, und es lange dauern wird, russische Söldner aus dem Land zu bekommen, zeigt eine Analyse. — ((Stand Dezember 2022)): Viel weiß man nicht über die russischen Wagner Söldner. Sie sollen für die malische Putschregierung Handlanger der Gewalt spielen. Die Truppe passt höllisch auf, dass es so bleibt. Alles streng geheim. So soll es bleiben. Es gibt kaum Videos oder Bilder der Truppe im Land. Nach grauenhaften Menschenrechtsverletzungen lebt die Zivilbevölkerung seit genau einem Jahr in Angst. Nun sind es gerade die ökonomischen Interessen Russlands, die Wagners Strukturen in Mali ersichtlich machen.

Children’s pictures from Instagram accounts of so-called mommy influencers continue to end up on darknet pedo websites. An investigative analysis finds where these images originate. Sources confirm that the practice continues. — “To see the picture on the darknet when the child had to satisfy the father, and the mother just stands next to it. That almost broke my heart…” explains Andrea in an interview with me on the phone. …