OSINT #9: Geographic Information Systems (GIS) for OSINT Investigators

This is post #9 in our 10-part series on essential OSINT techniques.

Imagine you have a photo from an anonymous source showing a container being loaded onto a truck. In the background, you can just make out a specific type of crane and a bend in a river. Is it possible to find this location anywhere in the world? With Geographic Information Systems (GIS), the answer is a definitive yes.

GIS is the OSINT practitioner's superpower for turning scattered location clues into concrete, actionable intelligence. It connects the digital breadcrumbs from our previous techniques—social media posts, public records, metadata—to a physical place on the map. This post will show you how to leverage GIS to answer the "where" and, in doing so, unlock the "why."

What is GIS for OSINT? (The 101)

Forget academic definitions. Think of GIS as a stack of transparent sheets.

The bottom sheet is a base map of the world. On top of that, you can add a sheet showing property lines from public records. On top of that, a layer showing all recent social media posts geotagged to the area. Then another showing cell tower locations, and another showing real-time ship movements.

When you look through all the layers at once, you see connections and patterns you'd otherwise miss. GIS is about correlation and context.

Core GIS OSINT Techniques

Technique A: The Time Machine - Historical Imagery Analysis

Tool: Google Earth Pro (the free desktop version is essential).

Google Earth Pro's historical imagery slider is one of the most powerful yet simple OSINT tools. It allows you to travel back in time and see how a location has changed.

Actionable Examples:

• Track Construction: Watch a secure facility being built in a remote area over several years to understand its layout and purpose.
• Verify Claims: A subject claims their business has been at a location for 20 years. You can check if the building even existed back then.
• Discover Hidden Paths: Identify when a new, unofficial road was created leading to a sensitive location, or when an old one was covered up.

Technique B: The Virtual Walkthrough - Street-Level Intelligence

Tools: Google Street View, Yandex.Maps, Mapillary.

This is more than just a virtual look-around. It's about analyzing a location for operational details from the safety of your chair.

Actionable Examples:

• Physical Security Assessment: Map out CCTV camera locations, fence lines, blind spots, and potential surveillance points around a target building before a physical operation.
• Photo Verification (Geolocation): Match the view from a window in a hostage photo to a specific room in a building by virtually "standing" in different spots.
• Route Planning: Identify the most discreet entry and exit routes to a location, noting potential chokepoints or obstacles.

Technique C: The Data Query - Asking the Map Questions

Tool: Overpass Turbo

This is a game-changer. Overpass Turbo lets you directly query the massive OpenStreetMap (OSM) database, which is like a Wikipedia for maps, edited by millions of users. You can ask it incredibly specific questions.

Actionable Examples:

• "Show me all security cameras (amenity=surveillance) within a 200-meter radius of this intersection."
• "Find all pharmacies that have a public-facing backdoor (building=pharmacy AND entrance=service) in this city district."
• "Map all the [radio towers](/categories/network-and-infrastructure-security) (man_made=mast) on this mountain range."

Technique D: The Live Feed - Tracking Real-Time Movement

Tools: FlightRadar24 / ADS-B Exchange, MarineTraffic / AIShub.

The sky and seas are full of data. These services use public signals (like ADS-B for planes and AIS for ships) to track the real-time movement of vessels around the world.

Actionable Examples:

• Track a Person of Interest: Monitor a private jet's flight path to identify their destination or a pattern of travel.
• Monitor Suspicious Cargo: Check if a cargo ship suspected of smuggling deviates from its stated course or meets another vessel in open water.
• Historical Analysis: Use historical flight data to see how often a specific government aircraft visits a private or military airfield.

Technique E: Mapping the Invisible Spectrum - Wi-Fi and Cell Tower Analysis

Not all infrastructure is visible. Wireless signals form an invisible layer of data that can be mapped and analyzed to provide critical intelligence.

Tools: WiGLE.net (for Wi-Fi), CellMapper.net (for cell towers).

Actionable Examples:

• Wi-Fi Network Mapping: Use WiGLE's massive database of over 1 billion Wi-Fi networks to understand the wireless landscape of an area. You can identify network naming conventions (e.g., "Floor1-Guest," "Corporate-Secure"), discover rogue access points, or even track a device's movement by seeing which networks it has been near.
• Cell Tower Intelligence: Use CellMapper to identify the precise location, provider, and signal strength of cell towers in a given area. This is invaluable for:
  • Verifying a subject's location: If a subject's phone data shows them connected to a specific cell tower, you can pinpoint the likely area they were in.
  • Assessing mobile network coverage: Understand the mobile network quality and potential dead zones in an area of operations.
  • Identifying "Stingray" activity: Anomalies in cell tower data, like a new, unusually strong tower appearing, can sometimes indicate the presence of IMSI-catchers.

Case Study: Tying It All Together

An activist group releases a propaganda video. The speaker is in a non-descript room, but for three seconds, a window is visible showing a unique, arched bridge and a cell tower. The video's metadata has been stripped.

1. Visual Analysis: You use the bridge's distinct architecture to narrow the location down to a specific region in Europe.
2. Data Query (Overpass Turbo): You run a query to find all bridges of that type (bridge:structure=arch) that are within 300 meters of a cell tower (man_made=mast). This gives you a list of 8 potential locations.
3. Virtual Walkthrough (Street View): You "visit" each of the 8 locations. At the third location, you find the exact spot that matches the view from the window in the video, identifying the building.
4. Connect to Previous Technique: Now that you have the building, you can pivot. Using Public Records Analysis (Technique #6), you can query local property records to discover who owns it, potentially revealing the group's front company.

Limitations & Ethical Considerations

• The Map is Not the Territory: Data can be wrong or outdated. A satellite image might be a year old. A street name might have changed. Always seek confirmation.
• The Privacy Line: Geolocation can be incredibly invasive. Use these techniques legally and ethically, focusing on legitimate security and investigative purposes, not personal harassment.
• Avoid Confirmation Bias: Just because a subject's phone pinged near a location and a suspicious car was seen there doesn't automatically mean they were in that car. Correlate, but don't leap to conclusions.

Conclusion: The Power of "Where"

GIS provides the essential context that turns raw, disconnected data into a coherent intelligence picture. Mastering these techniques gives you incredible analytical power, allowing you to see the world in layers and uncover secrets hidden in plain sight.

But how can you scale your efforts to cover more ground, faster? In our final post, we'll explore Technique #10: Automated OSINT Tools, which will help you put your intelligence gathering on autopilot.