Bellingcat. We Are Bellingcat - Eliot Higgins

Bellingcat: We Are Bellingcat is an interesting book that tells the story of a man who, using the methods of open-source intelligence (OSINT) and investigative journalism, solves the greatest mysteries of our times. Using a computer, Google search or Twitter, the independent investigative outlet Bellingcat.com publishes the names of the people responsible for shooting down the Malaysian passenger plane over Ukraine.

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Although it sounds incredible, Bellingcat has more stories of this kind to its name. One of them is naming the eight officers of the Federal Security Service (FSB) involved in the poisoning of Alexei Navalny. How is all this possible using only a laptop?

The author describes various kinds of tools that investigative journalists use to gather and analyse data. In the book we find detailed descriptions of analysing photos uploaded to the web, e.g. to social networking sites, and the attempt to establish where they were taken using Google Maps or Google Earth.

From random recordings, photos, tweets or forum posts, a coherent story is assembled.

Bellingcat fights Vladimir Putin and those like him with computers and smartphones, attacking the Kremlin from behind a desk.

I can recommend the book to anyone interested in information security, investigative techniques and open-source intelligence. In my opinion, the book is a very important read and should be read, especially in the age of fake news. Perhaps thanks to it, you'll learn to analyse and store data yourself in order to uncover the truth.

You'll also learn how Russian troll farms work, sowing disinformation on social media, distorting facts and creating a reality based on fake news. On top of that there's also Deepfake.

If, however, you don't want to read the book, you can watch the Dutch film with the same title as the book.

How did Bellingcat track down the Russian missile system in Ukraine?

Finding truth in a post-truth world | Elliot Higgins | TEDxAmsterdam

The book's author, Elliot Higgins, shows during his talk at TEDxAmsterdam how they analyse photos using tools available on the internet.