This guide is intended for early career practitioners or those wanting to transition to an OSINT job. It lays out fundamental building blocks that you should know about when learning OSINT. It’s important to highlight that this is not the only way to become an OSINT practitioner. Nor is it a guaranteed way of finding an OSINT job quickly. It’s best to view this guide as a reference point that you can use throughout your learning journey. It will be a living document with regular updates.

There are three main parts, covering the following aspects:

1) Theoretical concepts and other important basics – an often underestimated but critical part. It will lay the foundation for your OSINT knowledge. Here you’ll learn about essential concepts and definitions like what is intelligence and what is OSINT? How does it differ from data and information? What’s the difference between the internet and the world wide web? And many other important issues.

2) Practical skills at a basic to advanced level. This will equip you with commonly used techniques and tools as well as make you aware of when and in which context they can be used most effectively.

3) How to stay up to date in the world of OSINT.