Investigator | Human Rights | Hybrid Wars
- Makes videos on maps, data & #OSINT
- Director of Investigations at @cen4infores.bsky.social
- Prev at BBC Africa Eye. Bellingcat contributor.
Benjamin Strick
OSINT Field Notes 9 :
- A YouTube channel recruiting women into a Russian drone factory ticked the box "made for kids"
- A cartel checkpoint sat on Google Street View
- A border wall that glows at night
- And what your WiFi name gives away
And more 👇
osintfieldnotes.substack.com/p/osint-fiel...
Great #OSINT read! Fascinating about the #Sentinal-2 satellite imagery showing a huge mass of dead red #shrimp off #Oman (caused by sudden changes in water temperature/oxygen levels.) Und great guide on protecting yourself from #adtech #surveillance 👍 Adding the CIG Blood Money report to my list...
Recent border wall construction in southern Arizona is visible not only in daytime satellite imagery, but also at night
I made this timelapse w/ NASA Black Marble nighttime lights data, showing light signatures along the border next to Coronado National Forest b/w Jan + Mar 2026
A cartel checkpoint frozen in Street View, metadata showing a drone-factory recruiter's "made for kids" flag, WiFi Exposures and web certificate Fingerprinting.
What's your OSINT idea? Tell us and submit it for the OSINT+ Investigation Competition 2026! Up to 3 projects will be selected by our jury members:
@bendobrown.bsky.social , Celine Nauer, Dongpo Deng and
@raebaker.net baker.net !
Submission Deadline: May 6, 2026, at 12:00 noon (Taipei Time).
Meet our jury member: Benjamin Strick
@bendobrown.bsky.social is a digital investigator, trainer, and educator specialising in open-source intelligence (OSINT), information warfare, and conflict documentation.
More info: www.freiheit.org/global-innov...
Anyways, this observation originally came onto my radar while playing around with @bendobrown.bsky.social's great Darklight Viewer tool in GEE, which makes it easy to explore changes nighttime satellite data.
Worth checking out!
gee-night-lights-474517.projects.earthengine.app/view/darklig...
Video
Benjamin Strick
Phone Data Mercenaries, Stolen Wheat, Hormuz Traffic, and How To Shut Down AdTech Surveillance
A single Strava run once gave away the position of an aircraft carrier.
With 195M+ users, Strava is one of the largest public location datasets online.
So here's a new tutorial on how to find locations on Strava, and the settings that keep your own profile private. 👇
A device in Darfur connected to a Wi-Fi network named "DRONES".
A map automates destruction detection across Iran.
An investigation tracked stolen Ukrainian grain to Haifa.
And: location data and how to shut it down.
OSINT Field Notes 8. Out today.
osintfieldnotes.substack.com/p/osint-fiel...
Really good use of open source reporting, despite commercial satellite imagery limitations from the The New York Times team looking at what damage U.S. military sites incurred during the conflict with Iran.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=JRno...
Ali
Video
A device in Darfur connected to a Wi-Fi network named "DRONES".
A map automates destruction detection across Iran.
An investigation tracked stolen Ukrainian grain to Haifa.
And: location data and how to shut it down.
OSINT Field Notes 8. Out today.
osintfieldnotes.substack.com/p/osint-fiel...
Walkthrough on using Strava, covers:
- Using the heatmap
- Exploring segments
- Profiles
- How to stay private on Strava
youtube.com/watch?v=Rb84...
