How to Research Companies – Beginner OSINT Guide

Introducing OSINT techniques for researching companies, visualizing connections, and tracking information.

Before we begin:

Researching companies and the people connected to them is very time-consuming. For this reason, it's crucial to develop methods and routines that maximise your efficiency and don’t waste your time. It’s also important to be meticulous throughout the investigation, so I recommend thinking about how you'll store and visualise your data before you start. Company research can lead to a large number of data points, and keeping track of these is vital—chaos is the enemy of every researcher.

How to keep track of your research:

If your research focuses on companies, I recommend using tools that help visualise your findings. Mind maps have helped me spot key players in a company network or across a specific industry. While investigating the crypto space and the companies running exchanges, I realised that some individuals were linked to multiple exchanges or companies—something that wasn’t obvious until I visualised it.

Use a format that fits your style of research. Personally, mind maps have significantly increased my efficiency.

Safe and store the information you found

Throughout your research, use tools like Excel or mind maps to store your information, either locally or online. Websites like the Internet Archive are another highly useful tool that can be used in multiple ways:

It allows you to save a specific website you’ve encountered during your investigation. This ensures you (and other researchers) can access the website later, as it was when you saved it.
Many services frequently archive websites, giving you the option to go back in time and check, for example, whether a company once listed different employees. I highly recommend checking the evolution of certain websites, no matter what context you're investigating. Early on, projects tend to share more information about their team, contact details, or location, but this may get reduced or removed over time. This could be because a key person left the company or became involved in scams. Going back in time often reveals emails or addresses that are no longer visible on the current website.
You can also use the Internet Archive to search for specific blogs or personal homepages of individuals you're interested in. In the tech industry, many people once maintained personal websites, which can contain valuable information about their personal and professional lives.

Additionally, you can save web pages locally to ensure you’ll always have access to the data.

Names, Names, Names:

Whatever you're investigating, names will be central to your research. Make sure you obtain the full name of each person or company you are researching. Don’t just check first and last names (e.g., John Doe); seek out their full legal names, often found in official documents (e.g., John Henry Archer Doe). I’ve encountered people using different variations of their name in various documents or companies they were involved with—John H. Archer Doe, J. H. Archer Doe, and so on. While this isn’t very common, it does happen. After discovering this, I was able to identify additional companies linked to my research that I might have otherwise missed. I track name variations in an Excel sheet for reference.

Although many filings don’t include the date of birth, redacted birth dates can sometimes be found in documents, such as those related to British companies (Gov.uk Company Information). This helps to confirm the identity of a person, ensuring you don’t confuse them with someone else with the same name but a different birth date.

Websites you will have to use while researching companies:

There are different types of websites you'll need during your investigation:

Official government websites like the aforementioned Gov.uk Company Information for the UK or the EU company register. In addition, you can use country-specific websites, such as the Unternehmensregister for Germany or the INPI database for France.
The quality and quantity of information vary by country, even within the EU. When looking into official filings, it’s always worth investigating company ownership. The UK database is especially useful as it displays former owners. Similarly, the New Zealand company register (Companies Office) includes this information, whereas it’s missing from the Australian Business Register (ABR).
Data providers that aggregate information from official websites: Several companies collect and share data from official websites. I’ve used multiple of these to get an overview of a company’s structure, while cross-checking the official documents provided. Examples include:some text

In addition, I highly recommend searching names of people and companies in the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists' (ICIJ) Offshore Leaks database, which has led me to many interesting discoveries.

While these websites are quick and useful, always verify the information against original filings to ensure you have the most accurate and up-to-date data. Keep in mind that companies frequently change their names, making it more difficult to track them. Be sure to write down all company names you come across, as some filings may be outdated.

Last but not least: Surf safe.

No matter the topic you're investigating, make sure to surf safely. Although I’m not an expert on this, I use a VPN combined with the Tor browser for most of my investigations. A VPN can also provide access to geo-restricted content, though some websites may block access when using VPN or Tor. Educate yourself on these topics before beginning your research. Ideally, you should use a dedicated device just for research, which doesn’t contain any personal information.

Researching companies and their connections is a very time-consuming task, and you’ll need endurance to build out your mind map over time. Visualising connections between companies and people will help you spot important players in your investigations, and these players often unlock further leads. A well-done mind map can also make it easier for journalists or fellow researchers to collaborate with you.

Seal you Soon – Anni The Seal (@Annihil4tionGod)

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