OSINT Researcher & Digital Investigations

The session began with a welcome address from the CyberX Nashik team, followed by the introduction of Saad Sarraj, Founder & CEO of CyberSudo, an OSINT researcher, digital investigator, and cybersecurity enthusiast from Germany. He introduced the concept of Open-Source Intelligence (OSINT) as the process of gathering information from publicly available resources such as the internet, search engines, and social media platforms. Before beginning the live demonstration, he emphasized that OSINT is a skill that improves through practice and highlighted the importance of conducting investigations legally and ethically. He explained that while investigators may discover sensitive information, it should never be misused or used to gain unauthorized access to someone's accounts.

To demonstrate a real-world investigation, Saad started with nothing more than the name and location of a person and showed how investigators gradually gather information using publicly available sources. He introduced participants to Google search operators, including the use of quotation marks for exact searches, the site: operator to search within a specific website, and the minus (-) operator to exclude unwanted search results. He explained how these techniques help narrow thousands of search results into a manageable number and save significant investigation time. During the investigation, he searched for the individual's LinkedIn profile, GitHub account, news articles, and other publicly indexed information while documenting every useful finding.

As the investigation progressed, the session focused on expanding the target's digital footprint using people search engines and professional networking platforms. Saad demonstrated how investigators can discover additional social media profiles, retrieve email addresses associated with LinkedIn accounts using browser extensions, and identify alternative names or previously used identities through publicly available certificates and profile information. He also introduced facial recognition techniques to locate publicly available images and showed how username searches across hundreds of websites can reveal additional online accounts and digital activity. Throughout the demonstration, he repeatedly stressed that successful OSINT investigations rely not only on tools but also on an investigator's ability to connect small pieces of information and verify findings from multiple sources.

Towards the end of the session, Saad discussed how public breach databases can help investigators determine whether an email address has appeared in previous data breaches and how this information can provide additional context during an investigation. He clarified that the purpose of such searches is to understand a person's digital footprint rather than to misuse leaked information. The webinar concluded with an interactive question-and-answer session, where participants asked about career opportunities in OSINT, the role of artificial intelligence in digital investigations, ethical boundaries, dark web investigations, and practical advice for beginners entering cybersecurity. He encouraged attendees to continue learning through practice, build projects, and develop an investigative mindset, reminding them that OSINT is a skill that grows with continuous experience and real-world application.