Open source intelligence "OSINT"

Open source intelligence (OSINT) refers to intelligence that has been derived from publicly available sources. In this photostory, we cover the most popular and important OSINT tools for a security researcher. Basically, OSINT tools are used in the reconnaissance phase to gather as much information about the target as possible. These open source intelligence tools utilize artificial intelligence features to mine data from the Web about all possible matches to the desired target.

With OSINT tools, the reconnaissance process gets streamlined, enabling a more efficient narrowing-down to the target. Using open source intelligence tools drastically reduces the number of permutations and combinations to be dealt with, in respect of information gathered. This leads to an effective combination of classical social engineering attacks on the target, which in turn can be used to harvest more information. OSINT can also be used for effective target discovery and subsequent phishing attacks.

http://www.computerweekly.com/photostory/2240160102/Nine-must-have-OSINT-tools/1/Nine-OSINT-tools-every-security-researcher-must-have