“Getting Started In Open Source Research” with Sofia Santos

Stage Talks with Bellingcat

In this week's Stage Talk we were joined by Centre For Information Resilience's Sofia Santos. Sofia also runs a website called Gralhix.com which provides exercises and guides for those needing to practice their open source research skillsets. The discussion on stage was all about how to get into our industry, Sofia provided invaluable tips and resources for beginners.

The links we shared during the talk can be found here:

Centre for information resilience https://www.info-res.org/

Eyes of Russia Project: https://www.bellingcat.com/news/2023/07/24/over-500-days-of-the-russia-ukraine-monitor-map/

When starting to write up your conclusions its also worth checking your work against this list too: https://www.bellingcat.com/resources/2024/04/25/oshit-seven-deadly-sins-of-bad-open-source-research/

Bellingcat's video guide to working with OSINT tools without coding knowledge: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ymCMy8OffHM&list=PLq6cQ--4f90icDJUwiGcPrFFLLguuZ0ht

Bellingcat's mental health hygiene guide: https://www.bellingcat.com/resources/2022/11/23/how-to-maintain-mental-hygiene-as-an-open-source-researcher/

Sofia's colleague Ben Strick's OSINT YouTube 'Bendobrown': https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLrFPX1Vfqk3ehZKSFeb9pVIHqxqrNW8Sy

This talk was recorded on June 5th 2024 in the Bellingcat Discord Server. To join the server, download discord and visit www.discord.gg/bellingcat . Music courtesy of Artlist.