Benjamin Strick

Thank you 🙏

Bendobrown I make videos on maps, data & OSINT :] Hi, I'm Benjamin Strick, or just Ben. My aim is to provide helpful content on Open Source Intelligence (OSINT), satellite imagery, geolocation, maps, data, digi...

Prefer step-by-step walkthroughs?
@bendobrown.bsky.social’s YouTube channel breaks down open source research skills one by one:
www.youtube.com/@Bendobrown

Want to investigate something using open sources but not sure where to start? 🧵
We’ve gathered some of our go-to resources for learning, practicing, and collaborating on open source research - whether you’re brand new or sharpening your skills...

OSINT Field Notes #5 Ships stealing names from the unbuilt, whale highways mapped like roads, a three-layer satellite stack and the $34 billion company arming Russia's airwaves.

Read it all here. osintfieldnotes.substack.com/p/osint-fiel...

Plus: Lloyd's List on the first known case of newbuild IMO fraud, the site tracking Russia's shadow fleet, and migratory whale highways.

Ubiquiti: The U.S. Tech Enabling Russia's Drone War Based on Hunterbrook Media’s reporting, Hunterbrook Capital is short $UI and long a basket of comparable securities at the time of publication. Positions may change at any time. See full disclosures b...

This month's case file studies @truth.bsky.social's Ubiquiti investigation methods: trade data + TG monitoring + corporate data + procurement + networks.
hntrbrk.com/ubiquiti/

The toolkit section has been expanded to 12 geospatial platforms based on community recommendations: everything from Copernicus Browser to SkyfiApp, SoarAtlas, NASA Worldview and more.

The Technical Teardown walks through stacking satellite sources for defensible timelines.

Google Earth Pro for rough dates, Copernicus for change signals, Esri Wayback for clean before/after.

OSINT Field Notes #5 is out: satellites, sanctions-evasion, and stacking evidence.

This month: newbuild identity theft in the shadow fleet, satellite methodologies stacked and how Ubiquiti networking gear ended up powering Russia's drone war.

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Wow. 100,000 subs on YouTube. For maps, metadata and the occasional weaponised Hilux.

Since Feb 2021, my channel has been about breaking down imagery, tools, tracking world events and sharing methods to democratise OSINT.

Thanks for watching, sharing and nerding out with me 🤓

YouTube video by Bendobrown 6 Free Satellite Imagery Tools for OSINT That Actually Matter

Full walkthrough with more tips, tricks and some very interesting locations in my YouTube video on 6 top free satellite imagery sources.

If you're only using one tool for satellite imagery, this will show you how they work together.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0RQ...

The real trick: use them together.

My workflow would be something like:
1. Google Earth (history)

2. Copernicus (spectral/radar)

3. Wayback/ArcGIS (hi-res compare)

4. Apple/Bing (alt angles)

6. Bing Maps = another independent angle + sometimes detailed aerial.

Best for: cross-checking what you’re seeing, and getting the aerial imagery (when it is available).

5. Apple Maps = alternative perspective (sometimes different imagery than Google and much more clear like these cars driving through Libya's desert).

Best for: sanity-checking a location, and (in some cities) using strong 3D building models for context.

4. ArcGIS Map Viewer (World Imagery) = clean, recent high-res + extra layers.

Best for: getting the clearest freely viewable basemap, and then adding layers (lots of hidden gems like this NZ aerial imagery).

3. Esri World Imagery Wayback = high-res comparisons.

Always click for the actual capture date, basemap dates can mislead you.

2. Copernicus Browser = more than an image.

Best for: fires/burn scars, floods, drought, vegetation stress, smoke/haze context. Switch presets like SWIR, false colour, NDVI to reveal patterns you won’t see in normal colour imagery..

1. Google Earth Pro = historical context.

Best for: “What did this place look like before?”

Use the historical imagery slider to spot change over time (damage, new builds, movement, land use).

Satellite imagery helps you understand what’s happening on the ground, from above.

There are loads of free tools out there. Here are 6 I actually use (and what each is best for).

Thread 👇🛰️

YouTube video by Benn Jordan This Flock Camera Leak is like Netflix For Stalkers

11. Flock Cameras

An impactful investigation by @404media.co and others showed how misconfigured surveillance feeds can end up exposed in the open internet. A brilliant YouTube video from @bennjordan.bsky.social covers this really well. www.youtube.com/watch?v=vU1-...

A Guide to Satellite Imagery Analysis for the Nuclear Age - Assessing China’s CFR-600 Reactor Facility - Federation of American Scientists Satellite imagery has long served as a tool for observing on-the-ground activity worldwide, and offers especially valuable insights into the operation, development, and physical features related to nu...

10. FAS - A Guide to Satellite Imagery for the Nuclear Age

FAS' guide walks through disciplined imagery analysis using nuclear facilities. No tricks, just good thinking that scales.
fas.org/publication/...

Russia wants to drain Europe's security resources with sabotage campaign, officials say | AP News The Associated Press has tracked 145 cases of sabotage and disruption that Western officials blame on Russia since its 2022 invasion of Ukraine. They say Moscow wants to drain Europe’s investigative r...

9. AP - Hybrid War Map of Russian Sabotage

AP’s sabotage map linked to Russia shows why patterns matter more than single attributions. Clusters tell the story.
apnews.com/projects/rus...

8. Image Whisperer to Check AI Images

Another “is this AI?” tool. Useful for triage, not truth. Flags first, human checks always. imagewhisperer.org/about

How Non-Coding Journalists Can Build Web Scrapers With AI — Examples and Prompts Included With basic web knowledge, guidance, and examples, even non-coding journalists can build a scraper with large language models.

7. No-Code Webscrapers for Journalists

GIJN's scraper guide shows scraping isn’t magic. It’s collect, clean, export. No Python required, just verification.
gijn.org/stories/how-...

6. WW2 War Map

Project ’44 maps 70,000+ WW2 unit locations. A serious campaign analysis tool, not just a history curiosity.

map.project44.ca

Historic Film Locations | "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade" (Indiana Jones y la última cruzada) | Facebook "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade" (Indiana Jones y la última cruzada). Llano de Trujillo/Gádor (Almería).

5. Film locations: “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade”

A Last Crusade scene geolocated to Almería, Spain. A reminder that old film stills can be remain a ripe group to test feature spotting and matching in geolocations. tinyurl.com/ms3adf47

The Red Zone Map: documenting Russian drone attacks in Kherson Since early 2024, pro-Russian channels and occupying authorities in Kherson Oblast have declared a 60 km² “red zone,” placing civilians and civilian infrastructure at extreme risk. Since July 2024, CI...

4. The Red Zone Map: drone attacks in Kherson, logged and filterable

@cen4infores.bsky.social' Red Zone map logs 300+ verified Russian drone attacks in Kherson. Filterable, transparent, and built for pattern-spotting, not headlines.
www.info-res.org/eyes-on-russ...

YouTube video by Bloomberg Originals How North Korea Hid an IT Workforce Inside US Companies | Bloomberg Investigates

3. North Korea IT workers in US companies

Bloomberg shows how DPRK IT workers infiltrate US firms via “laptop farms.” One giveaway: the same office, same gear, visible daily on social media. Backgrounds matter. youtube.com/watch?v=-gjn...

2. Hacker Takes Down Far-Right Dating Website Live

A researcher infiltrated a neo-Nazi dating site, used automation to scrape profiles, identified the operator, mapped the data, then shut it down (media.ccc.de/v/39c3-the-h...)
H/T @intcyberdigest.bsky.social & @martharoot.bsky.social

1. Geolocating footage from Venezuela

Footage coming out of Venezuela is overwhelming. Here's two resources that might help from
@geoconfirmed.org (geoconfirmed.org/ven) and LoLManya (google.com/maps/d/u/2/v...)