Public OSINT resource directory
Public OSINT resource directory
A working directory of public, lawful sources investigators actually open. Organized by what you are looking at, not by vendor brand.
This is not a people-finder, not a scrape cookbook, and not a substitute for Umbra collectors. Use these when you need a map, a tracker, a filing, or an archive that Umbra does not (and should not) bulk-ingest.
Rules
- Prefer the official portal. Paid assessors, PACER full-text, and login walls stay out of Umbra collectors; you can still visit them in a browser when your authorization basis allows.
- A hit on a map or tracker is an observation, not identity, ownership, or guilt.
- Do not scrape JS map UIs (WiGLE, Deflock, NSOPW, MarineTraffic). Query, screenshot, or export what the site offers you.
- Lawful use only. See Umbra
docs/ETHICS.md.
Umbra already wraps some of this (DNSBL, CT, OFAC, CourtListener name search, OSM cameras). Those rows say in Umbra.
Land, minerals, cadastral (US)
| Resource | What you get | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| BLM MLRS | Mining claims, mineral patents, land status on federal surface/minerals | Replaced LR2000. Serial numbers, claimants, township/range. Account may be required for some reports. |
| BLM GLO Records | Historic land patents, surveys, homesteads | Best for original federal conveyance, not current ownership. |
| BLM GeoHub / GIS | Surface management, grazing, wildfire, PLSS layers | Downloadable ArcGIS layers. PLSS is how western parcels are described. |
| The National Map | USGS topo, hydro, structures, geographic names | Authoritative US basemap. Pair with GNIS names. |
| USGS EarthExplorer | Landsat, Sentinel (via USGS), aerial, DEMs | Free after a USGS login. Scene IDs are citable. |
| USGS Mineral Resources / USMIN | Deposit locations, commodity stats | Geology, not claim validity. |
| BOEM | Offshore leases, oil/gas, wind | Outer Continental Shelf, not onshore BLM. |
| PAD-US | Protected areas inventory | Who manages the polygon (NPS, USFS, state, easement). |
| FEMA MSC | Flood maps (FIRM) | Insurance/floodplain, not a title search. |
| USFS MVUM | Motor Vehicle Use Maps | Roads that exist on the ground vs GIS fantasy. |
| County GIS / assessor | Situs, APN, owner-of-record as published | Varies by county. Name on an assessor page ≠ identity. Umbra county_records only GET allowlisted portals. |
Canada / other: NRCAN geospatial (topo, claims by province — e.g. British Columbia Mineral Titles Online). Do not assume BLM-like coverage worldwide.
Imagery and maps
| Resource | What you get | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| OpenStreetMap | Crowdsourced map + Overpass | Umbra RF cameras use Overpass (man_made=surveillance). out body, not out tags. |
| Overpass Turbo | Ad-hoc OSM queries | Keep bounding boxes small. World dumps OOMs the VPS. |
| Copernicus Browser | Sentinel-1/2/3, recent EU imagery | Free. Cloud cover and revisit matter. |
| NASA FIRMS | Near-real-time fire detections | MODIS/VIIRS thermal, not a “wildfire perimeter” product. |
| NOAA GOES | Geostationary weather/imagery | Americas. Good for event timelines. |
| Mapillary | Street-level photos (OSM-friendly) | Better ToS than scraping Google Street View. |
| OpenAerialMap | Open ortho imagery | Disaster and NGO collections. |
| ESRI Wayback | Dated World Imagery | When “that building wasn’t there in 2018” matters. |
| Google Earth Pro | Historical imagery slider | Free desktop. Export is on you; do not bulk-scrape. |
Aviation
| Resource | What you get | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| OpenSky Network | ADS-B / Mode S research data | Academic ToS. Historical API is the grown-up source. |
| ADS-B Exchange | Unfiltered ADS-B globe | Fewer blocked military/privacy airframes than some commercial globes. Still not “secret flights.” |
| FlightAware | Flight status, routes, FAA SWIM-derived | Free tier is thin; ident and tail still useful. |
| Flightradar24 | Consumer tracker | Same caveat: blocked tracks, MLAT estimates. |
| FAA aircraft registry | N-number, owner, airworthiness | US civil only. Trust but verify addresses. |
| OurAirports | Airport/runway database | Good join key with ICAO/IATA. |
| AirNav | US airport facilities, frequencies | Pilot-facing, still public. |
Live tracks are last-seen radio, not a passenger list. Do not treat a hex code as a person.
Maritime
| Resource | What you get | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| NOAA Marine Cadastre AIS | US AIS archives | The lawful bulk source. Prefer this over scraping commercial globes. |
| MarineTraffic | Live AIS globe | Portal only. |
| VesselFinder | Live AIS, particulars | Portal only. |
| Equasis | IMO ship particulars, management, inspections | Free account. Quality above globes for who manages the ship. |
| USCG PSIX | US vessel inspections, deficiencies | Flag-state view. |
| IMO GISIS | IMO numbers, company, casualties | Some modules need registration. |
| Marine Cadastre National Viewer | Offshore planning, AIS density | BOEM/NOAA. |
AIS can be spoofed or dark. Absence of a track is not “the ship vanished.”
Radio, towers, spectrum
| Resource | What you get | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| FCC ULS | US wireless licenses, coordinates, callsigns | Land mobile, microwave, amateur, cellular licenses — not live RF. |
| FCC ASR | Antenna structure registration | Towers, lighting, height. |
| FCC Geographic Search / LMS | Broadcast FM/AM/TV | Facility IDs. |
| RadioReference | Trunked system wikis, frequencies | Crowdsourced. Good lead, cite the FCC record when it matters. |
| KiwiSDR map | Web SDRs | Listen; do not treat a waterfall as geolocation of a target phone. |
| APRS.fi | Amateur radio positions | Opt-in beacons. |
| OpenCelliD | Cell tower crowdsource | MCC/MNC/LAC/CID. Messy in dense cities. |
| WiGLE | Wi-Fi / Bluetooth maps | Umbra: portal + optional one BSSID API. No world dump, no map scrape. |
Umbra wifi_maps + umbra rf sync cover OSM cameras near packed cities. Last-seen Wi-Fi ≠ residence.
Weather, hazards, environment
| Resource | What you get | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| NWS | Forecasts, warnings, radar | Event timelines. |
| USGS earthquakes | Quake catalog | Magnitude, depth, felt reports. |
| NIFC / InciWeb | Incident status | Wildfire ops, not FIRMS pixels. |
| AirNow | AQI | Smoke/plume context. |
| EPA ECHO | Facility enforcement/compliance | US environmental records. |
| Envirofacts | Superfund, TRI, water | Facility IDs join to orgs. |
Companies, filings, money
| Resource | What you get | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| SEC EDGAR | US public company filings | Umbra edgar_search. 10-K, 8-K, beneficial ownership. |
| SAM.gov | US federal awards, exclusions | Entity registration. |
| FEC | Campaign finance | Umbra hits FEC name API in county/person packs (DEMO_KEY limits). |
| OpenCorporates | Company register aggregator | Often captcha. Prefer jurisdiction primary (Companies House, Sunbiz, …). |
| UK Companies House | UK officers, PSCs, accounts | Gold standard among company portals. |
| OpenSecrets | US lobbying / donor context | Derived, not the FEC raw file. |
| OpenSanctions | Sanctions/PEP datasets | Joins OFAC and others. Umbra crypto screen uses an owned OFAC lake. |
| OFAC SDN | US sanctions search | Names and vessels. Miss ≠ clean. |
Courts and public records
| Resource | What you get | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| CourtListener | Opinions, RECAP dockets | Umbra court_records. Candidates, identity_confirmed: False. |
| RECAP | PACER documents people already paid for | Do not scrape PACER. |
| PACER | Federal docket PDFs | Paid. Out of Umbra collectors. |
| State e-courts / SOS | Business filings, UCC, courts | Umbra L1 = 50-state SOS/courts/SOR homepages. |
| FOIA.gov / agency reading rooms | Released records | Slow. Search existing reading rooms before filing. |
A docket hit on a common name is a lead. Acquittals and homonyms exist.
Archives and web history
| Resource | What you get | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Wayback Machine | Archived pages | Umbra wayback_cdx (CDX). Capture ≠ the live site. |
| archive.today | On-demand snapshot | Different crawler than IA. |
| Library of Congress | Newspapers, maps, photos | Rights vary by item. |
| Chronicling America | Historic US newspapers | OCR errors. |
| Wikidata / Wikipedia | Structured claims, bios | Umbra wikidata. Cite the claim id. |
Domain, IP, certificates, routing
| Resource | What you get | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| crt.sh | Certificate Transparency | Umbra crtsh + owned ct_lake. crt.sh is flaky; lake first. |
| RIPE Stat | Prefix, ASN, abuse contacts | Routing, not geolocation of a person. |
| Hurricane Electric BGP | ASN, prefixes, whois | Fast triage. |
| PeeringDB | IX and network interconnection | Infra, not users. |
| RDAP | Registration data | Umbra rdap_domain / rdap_ip. |
| SSL Labs | TLS config of a host you may test | Same authorization as a probe. |
| urlscan.io | Public URL scans | Other people’s submissions. |
| MXToolbox | MX, SPF, blacklist views | Complementary to Umbra DNSBL (Unbound-only). |
| Censys / Shodan search | Banner indexes | Accounts/quotas. Do not confuse with Umbra http_probe on an authorized host. |
Umbra /reputation is the first-party check for domain/IP/phone. Wiki blocklists: tool/dns-blocklist.
Space and orbital
| Resource | What you get | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| CelesTrak | TLEs, satcat | Public TLEs. |
| N2YO | Pass predictions | Derived from TLEs. |
| space-track.org | Official SATCAT (US) | Free account, ToS. |
| NASA FIRMS | (also imagery) | Thermal, listed above. |
Leak and journalism databases (public)
| Resource | What you get | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| ICIJ Offshore Leaks | Published leak graphs | Already in the news. Not a stolen-data marketplace. |
| OCCRP Aleph | Investigative collections | Access rules per dataset. |
| LittleSis | US power mapping | Crowdsourced edges. |
Never buy stolen dumps. Never run crimeware-primary tools. If a “source” is a forum selling access, it is out.
How to add a source here
Official or clearly licensed public portal, citable URL, one-line honesty about limits. No people-search vendors, no PACER scrapers, no map-UI harvest. Open a PR on umbra-wiki under curated/tools/.
See all 2 pages under Tools & how-to →
Browse by topic
Every page in the corpus, grouped. Search finds one page; this shows what else is here.