Introduction to open-source information: your organisation’s online footprint
You learn what an organisation leaves public on the internet, the difference between passive and active discovery, build a first profile from search engines and domain data, and suggest how to shrink the footprint.
Level 101 · 13 lessons · 15 practice labs
Lessons
Basics of open-source information
- What public information is and why it matters
- The digital footprint: everything visible from outside a building
- Passive and active discovery: looking without touching
- The rules: only your own organisation and authorised targets
- Short task: sort an organisation’s externally visible information into categories
First tools
- Searching for your organisation with search-engine operators
- A first look at domains, subdomains and DNS
- Too much on the company site: contacts, job ads, documents
- How visible company and staff information is on social media
- Short task: find needlessly shared information on a fictional organisation’s site
Notes and report
- Recording findings with source and date
- Shrinking the footprint: removal and a sharing policy
- Capstone: prepare a fictional organisation’s first open-source profile and footprint-reduction advice
Practice labs
- Sort a company's publicly visible information into categories: Sort twenty pieces of information collected from Tarçınlı Fırın's lab site into people, technology, location and business-process categories.
- Write a recon plan that separates passive and active steps: Prepare a plan for Gelincik Okulları showing which steps are done without touching the target and which need written permission.
- Rate the risk of the visible information: Rate Kumsal Turizm's publicly visible information by likelihood of misuse and write the top three risks with reasons.
- Find your company's public documents with search operators: List the public documents under tarcinli.lab using site and file-type operators in the lab search engine.
- Find forgotten pages that remain in search results: Find Ayçiçeği Gıda's pages thought to be removed but still in the search index and prepare the de-indexing request.
- Find an internal page that was indexed by mistake and close it: Find the internal staff page visible in the search index, close access on the server, block indexing and verify the removal.
- Find unnecessarily shared information on the company site: Flag the unnecessarily shared information on the contact, job-ad and document pages of Karaçam Mobilya's lab site.
- Reduce the technology detail leaked by job ads: Find the versions and internal system names mentioned in job ads and write a more general ad text that does the same job.
- Find and remove forgotten backup and old files on the site: Find the backup archive and old page versions left public on Narçiçeği Eczaneleri's site, remove them and verify they are unreachable.
- Compile role information visible from staff profiles: Tabulate the job-role details Sedirli Hukuk Bürosu staff share in the lab's fictional social-profile dump.
- Find sensitive details in shared photos: Find screens, badges and whiteboard details visible in office photos shared on the corporate account and write a takedown recommendation.
- Write a social media sharing guideline for staff: Drawing on five visibility issues you found at Mavikaya Lojistik, prepare a short, practical sharing guideline.
- Record findings with source and date: Move ten findings into the findings template with source address, date and screenshot name.
- Prepare a removal list to shrink the footprint: Classify which of Pusulaya Sigorta's findings will be removed and which will stay, with reasons, and assign owners.
- Prepare a fictional company's first open-source profile: Build Lodoskaya Denizcilik's open-source profile, rank the risks and write a two-page report with reduction recommendations.
About this course
You learn what an organisation leaves public on the internet, the difference between passive and active discovery, build a first profile from search engines and domain data, and suggest how to shrink the footprint.
What you will learn
- Basics of open-source information
- First tools
- Notes and report
Prerequisites
No prior knowledge is needed; the course starts from zero.
Lab environment
Lessons run in your own Kali Linux terminal that opens in the browser. Nothing to install; the lab starts clean in every lesson.
Frequently asked questions
- Is this course right for my level?
- The course is at beginner level; every term is explained where it first appears.
- Is there anything to install?
- No. Every lesson runs in your own lab environment that opens in the browser.
- How do lessons work?
- Each lesson has 8 to 10 steps and a short quiz. Early steps show the command to type, later steps give less help; if two attempts fail, the solution opens.
- Can I try it for free?
- Yes. The first three lessons of every course are free.