The OSINT Recap: July 2026

What's up in OSINT?

Here's what you shouldn't miss this month in OSINT: exposing influence campaigns, following hidden digital trails, investigating AI-generated evidence, exploring new investigation tools and gearing up for an OSINT CTF this September!

News

Inside Iran's Operational Personas

From hacktivist groups to recruitment channels, Iranian intelligence reportedly operates a network of interconnected personas supporting cyber operations, influence campaigns and physical threats. Read more...

How Disinformation Spreads Across Platforms

A coordinated influence campaign is exploiting Mastodon, Bluesky and automated cross-posting to amplify pro-Russian narratives while taking advantage of decentralized moderation. Read more...

Hiding Ships in Plain Sight

From forged ship identities to manipulated tracking data, sanctioned vessels use increasingly sophisticated techniques to evade detection. Read more...

Methods & Write up

Following the Money Behind Websites

The best investigative lead isn't always in the DNS records. Advertising identifiers can reveal hidden links between websites that traditional OSINT often overlooks. Read more...

Looks Real. Doesn't Exist.

A fictional Amsterdam street becomes the perfect lesson in modern OSINT, showing why visual plausibility should never replace evidence and verification. Read more...

What Can Satellite Images Really Tell You?

A hotspot is only the beginning. Learn how investigators use open-source imagery to measure wildfire damage, assess its severity and uncover long-term patterns. Read more...

Tools

check-if-email-exists

Is this email address real?

Verify whether an email address exists without sending a single message. A handy open-source tool for investigations, recon and data validation. Try now...

Events

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