Investigating Social Media, what are the possibilities with Social Network Harvester?
An open sources investigation within various social media channels; many investigators deal with it on a regular basis. The number of different channels is still increasing, and resources, budget and policy do not always allow for a quick response when needed. Added to this is the challenge that the data in open sources is highly dynamic. Quick action and flexibility are therefore necessary. Knowledge of a social media channel, as well as the creation and updating of investigation tools, is also essential for conducting an investigation.
Social Network Harvester
The employees of our partner Freezingdata from Germany have a background in detection and therefore know better than anyone else what is needed to carry out an OSINT investigation and how software can best support this. Several years ago, they turned this knowledge into the OSINT tool Social Network Harvester (SNH).
Social Network Harvester is an automated investigation solution for investigative agencies, business consulting firms, law firms, private investigation firms or other organisations collecting and analysing social network data. SNH offers comprehensive analysis and visualisation capabilities of friendships, followers, posts, images, videos, comments and likes in a user-friendly interface. Relevant investigation results can be easily compiled into a clear report.
Because the SNH software is constantly being developed, an impressive number of social media sources are now available:
- VKontakte
- Odnoklasniki
- YouTube
- Telegram
- User module - TikTok
What is unique about this is that not only the most popular sources can be investigated, but the lesser-known sources are also given due attention. Furthermore, data collection is performed through an ingenious profile rotating system, which drastically reduces the likelihood of investigation accounts being disabled.
The collected data is then made searchable via a clear dashboard, after which the investigator determines what data is eligible for further analysis.
New features in SNH 1.25
Recently, Freezingdata released a major release of Social Network Harvester. Below is a brief overview of the main changes:
- It is now possible within SNH to collect individual posts instead of scraping the entire social media profile.
- The Twitter module has been extended allowing:
- the collection of liked content.
- the original posts (for retweets and quotes) to be saved.
- The dashboard is further enhanced with chat messages visualised in a timeline (day and week).
- AES 256 encryption capabilities of a database (e.g. the profile manager) have been added.
- Within the report builder, it is now possible to:
- create individual reports.
- display comments and notes.
- apply your own classification structure.
- The code is now open source available. This makes it possible to add self-developed modules in Python.
In short, Social Network Harvester has a lot to offer:
- You save a lot of time investigating specific social media accounts;
- Results and interconnections within these accounts become immediately visible;
- The software is developed and maintained within the EU;
- You can stay abreast of the possibilities and future innovations where you have the opportunity to indicate your own requirements;
- Training and support are provided within the Benelux by DataExpert.
Would you like more information about Social Network Harvester or to schedule a free demo of the software directly? Then please contact us.