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A fancy camera.

One of the greatest technological demands today is to have the most recent cell phone in the market. The “Why?” Is a question that will always create controversy. The truth is that the biggest point of concentration in the news of the new smartphones is the camera. It is very rare who says they do not enjoy a photo taken with a good camera. A camera that allows to capture all the details of the moment and at the same time, thanks to the technology of the device itself, eliminate the common impurities of a photo, resulting in an almost perfect image.

Well, then, why such a creepy publication title ?

Before moving to the heart of this curious but alarming situation, I am going to tell you very quickly about a term that perhaps for some is new despite having existed for a long time and that certainly deserves a separate publication: OSINT, which for its Acronym means Open Source Intelligence. Ok, but what is it for? Who can use it and how?

What is it for?

As its meaning indicates, they are open and public sources of information (it has no relation to open source software) that serve to collect data by extracting it from different media such as: images, videos, locations, etc.

Who can use it and how?

It is public and open. That is, anyone who knows the basics of “internet browsing” could have access to use any of these sources of information for data extraction since many of the OSINT tools are now online, ready to be used. Simply enter the search engine of your choice and put: osint tools online.

Beginning lesson.

There are many issues where observation in detail and the use of OSINT tools have yielded positive results. Cases such as the time that through fingerprints on WhatsApp allowed the capture of criminals. But all is not rosy. It is worth mentioning that these types of tools also have a dark side in the wrong hands. Such is the case of this post. When Ena matsuoka the K-Pop singer, member of Japanese Idiol who was sexually assaulted by an obsessed fan who, using OSINT tools, was able to locate where he lived, through the reflection in her eyes, and then assault her.

Through the reflection in the eyes

The aggressor is Hibiki Sato, a 21-year-old who is a fan obsessed with singer Ena Matsuoka. The aggressor used nothing less than the reflection in the singer’s eyes to be able to locate her .

The singer and influencer published “selfies” for her fans and this was enough for Hibiki Sato to manage to locate her.

As I mentioned, the technology in smartphones is getting better every day and its high quality cameras do not let any detail pass. Ena’s aggressor, used the reflection in the eyes of the singer, of the selfies she shared, enlarged the images, improved it with OSINT tools such as Forensic magnifying and after analyzing them, he was able to triangulate, using Google Street View and Google Maps, the train stations she often used. He had managed to establish even in which street and building she lived analyzingc the position of the shadows in the photos.

I do not think that the term “alarm” should be used, but in some way, alert to prevent cases such as Ena’s. It is important to be aware and not forget that everything we make public, for example on social networks such as: facebook, twitter, instagram, etc, is exposed to someone who could use it for good but also for evil. Not taking selfies with official IDs to avoid impersonation or avoid taking photos with everything and the actual location are some of the tips that must be taken into account to reduce the risk of someone misusing what is shared.

Now you know!

When you take the classic “fancy selfie” with your 4k camera, do not forget to check the reflections that appear, including the eyes, so as not to leave any window open to toxic stalkers and “fans.”