Introduction Occasionally you may come across a photo that you need to geolocate but there are no distinct landmarks or features that can guide you. You might think that there is nothing to be done. Sometimes, even in those cases, geolocation is still possible, you just need to take a slightly longer route. This blog... Continue Reading →
Geolocating IDPs in South Sudan by tracking down a Facebook user’s movements
Introduction Every so often people approach me to help them with something OSINT related, either finding data, analysing something, or geolocating images or footage of an event. These type of requests have previously led me to go down some amazing rabbit holes so I am always happy to help. Occasionally, if the information is not... Continue Reading →
How to geolocate remote villages in Afghanistan using reference maps
Introduction Occasionally you will come across videos that will tell you exactly where they were filmed. You'll get excited thinking that geolocating it will be extremely fast and easy. You jump to Google Maps, write the name of the village and nothing. Google has no idea what you mean. You try another similar word. Maybe... Continue Reading →
Geolocation of a torture chamber in Balakliya, Ukraine
(Click here to watch and listen to the video version of this blog entry) Warning: Please be aware that, as the title indicate, this blog entry will cover the topic of torture. The focus will be on the geolocation of the building but I felt a warning was necessary. I will share a photo of... Continue Reading →
Geolocating school girls in Paktia, Afghanistan
(Click here to watch and listen to the video version of this blog entry) Introduction So far I have been focused on writing about geolocations in Ukraine, which tend to not be too hard. I wanted to show how different things can be when there is no recent satellite imagery, google streetview, or local business... Continue Reading →
Geolocation of an old ISIS execution video in Iraq
(Click here to watch and listen to the video version of this blog entry) Introduction Every so often people reach out to me online and ask for help with something OSINT/GEOINT related. I am always happy to help, especially because it often ends up with me learning something new along the way. Recently I was... Continue Reading →
Geolocation of hidden footage of a Russian filtration camp
(Click here to watch and listen to the video version of this blog entry) One of my OSINT reports entitled "Deported Civilians: How civilians are illegally deported to Russia" was published at the Centre for Information Resilience website amongst many other brilliant pieces of work from my colleagues. I spent weeks (months!) collecting and analysing... Continue Reading →
Geolocating a small town school in Kukhari, Kyiv Oblast
(Click here to watch and listen to the video version of this blog entry) Introduction Every so often you'll come across a town so small that Google doesn't know where anything is. Or does it? Sometimes the information is there but we need to trick Google into giving us what we are looking for. That... Continue Reading →
Geolocating an Oil Refinery in Ukraine using NASA Fire Map
(Click here to watch and listen to the video version of this blog entry) Introduction A few days ago I came across a video on twitter that at first seemed fairly easy to geolocate. The tweet mentioned the name of the city where the incident was happening and the type of infrastructure affected. The footage... Continue Reading →