Published On Nov 6, 2023
This tutorial is part 21 of the OSINT At Home series. The tutorial covers a relatively new tool by Google called 'Find Image Source' that allows you to trace back the source of an image uploaded online.
The tutorial focusses on using the Find Image Source tool to identify the origin of images, as well as their context, to answer questions about images posted on social media such as “where did it come from”, “when was it taken”, “where was it taken”, and “who might have taken the image/who is in it”. While the Find Image Source tool through Google Image Search might not be able to definitively answer all of those questions, it is an extremely useful tool for making steps towards answering those core questions.
For the case study in the presentation, I use two examples: first a tweet from the US Air Force about a B-21 aerial asset, then a tweet from US Deputy Secretary of Defense on autonomous systems. Both of these tweets are located below, should you wish to follow along:
- https://x.com/usairforce/status/17016...
- https://x.com/DepSecDef/status/169614...
This session also covers a wider concept of looking at images in part of an investigation or research, where that image may provide more details, or context, about an issue, event or subject that you might be looking at.
The OSINT At Home series is useful for those looking to find digital breadcrumbs and pick up some methods of open source intelligence (OSINT), digital investigations and good old plain research. No matter who you are, or where you are in the world, you can follow these tutorials from home with publicly available information to answer questions such as who, what, where and when.
TOOLS
The Find Image Source tool can be found within the Google Lens toolkit when searching for an image. Google Lens: https://lens.google.com/
DATA SOURCES
- https://x.com/usairforce/status/17016...
- https://x.com/DepSecDef/status/169614...
CREDITS FOR THIS TUTORIAL
Music Intro: World’s Fair – God Mode
Music Title and End: Dhaka by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/...
Source: http://incompetech.com/music/royalty-...
Artist: http://incompetech.com/