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GEOINT: Identifying an Exact Location from Open Sources

PreviousDiscovery of information about a phisher through OSINTNextCyber threat intelligence

Last updated 16 hours ago

What if a single photo could reveal the exact location of a place? That’s the essence of geospatial intelligence, or GEOINT, which relies on analyzing images and open-source data. In this article, we take you on a fascinating investigation where every visual clue—from building architecture to light reflections—brings us closer to our goal: precisely identifying the location of a mysterious photo. Get ready to explore the tools, methods, and reasoning that transform an image into a true geographic compass.

Our starting point will be this photograph:

First of all, we can conduct a visual analysis of what can be observed in the different planes.

Plane 1: We appear to be in what seems to be a hotel. Plane 2: We are located near a wide river. Plane 3: We are in or near a large city.

A simple reverse image search on Google highlights one city more than the others: Hong Kong.

Based on this result, we search for nighttime images of Hong Kong, hoping to find a match with these red and yellow lights.

After using the query "Hong Kong night", we find this image on a dedicated site, and we are convinced.

On this image, we can see the letters "AIA", which appear to be the initials of a company. These letters are illuminated with red and yellow lights, similar to those in the original image.

By searching for "AIA", we find five locations in Hong Kong.

By focusing the search on buildings near the Pearl River, two potential locations emerge.

  • First building: A satellite view analysis reveals that it does not match the original image, mainly due to barriers and a lack of visual correspondences.

  • Second building: Examining the area via satellite, we identify a dock on the river, which aligns with the original image.

By scanning the river via satellite toward the second building, we identify a small dock that matches the one in the image.

We decide to explore this area on Google Maps.

We find a very busy area with an obstructed view, so we decide to move to a different location.

By moving laterally to the right, towards the road, we get an interesting view of the area. We can observe the AIA building in the distance, as well as the dock on the left, consistent with the original image.

Turning around, we notice a hotel with the sign "Continental." It is the only establishment nearby that offers a view matching that of the image.

To verify this hypothesis, we check the official website of the hotel. By comparing the furniture and the room views, the elements perfectly match our starting photograph.

Thank you for reading! :)

Julien

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