This is a 2 part course in which we will dive into the world of OSINT and the Dark Web, learning how to gather intelligence from public sources and explore hidden corners of the internet safely. This course is designed for all users, and we’ll be working hands-on with a variety of free and open-source tools.
In Part 1 (OSINT), you’ll learn the art of finding information that is publicly available yet often overlooked. We’ll set up a macOS OSINT toolkit and use it to uncover data like emails, subdomains, documents, and metadata. You’ll get familiar with tools such as Maltego CE for visual link analysis, theHarvester for gathering emails and hosts ? ?, Shodan for discovering internet-connected devices, SpiderFoot and Recon-ng for automating recon tasks, and more. Through guided demos, you’ll see how to transform raw data into actionable insights.
In Part 2 (Dark Web Exploration), we’ll venture into the dark web – the part of the internet not indexed by normal search engines and accessible only via Tor. You’ll learn how to set up the Tor Browser on macOS and best practices to stay safe and anonymous. We’ll use search engines like Ahmia (a Tor search engine) to find hidden services, and we’ll look at how tools like Intelligence X can help uncover leaked data across dark web sites . We’ll also discuss how to navigate dark web content responsibly and what pitfalls to avoid.
By the end of this course, you will have practical experience with OSINT techniques and dark web exploration, enabling you to conduct your own investigations. We’ll conclude each section with short assignments (with answers provided) to test your knowledge, and finally, you’ll tackle a capstone project that brings everything together in a realistic scenario