Git'ing Users for OSINT: Analysis of All GitHub Users | SANS@MIC Talk

Within the world of OSINT, many people solely focus on what data they can retrieve from a web browser. Others, like me, know the power and potential of using Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) to harvest huge amounts of data from platforms and incredible speeds. In this case, in 2019, by making thousands of API requests to github.com using the official GitHub API, I retrieved over 38,000,000 user profiles from their systems.

Speaker Bio

Micah Hoffman has been active in the information technology field since 1998, working with federal government, commercial, and internal customers to discover and quantify cybersecurity weaknesses within their organizations. As a highly active member of the cybersecurity and OSINT communities, Micah uses his real-world Open-Source Intelligence (OSINT), penetration testing, and incident response experience to provide customized solutions to his customers and comprehensive instruction to his students.

Over the years, Micah has conducted cyber-related tasks like penetration testing, OSINT investigations, APT hunting, and risk assessments for government, internal, and commercial customers. Micah's SANS coursework, cybersecurity expertise, and inherent love of teaching eventually pulled him toward an instructional role, and he's been a SANS Certified Instructor since 2013. He's the author of the SANS course SEC487: Open Source Intelligence Gathering and Analysis, and also teaches both SEC542: Web App Penetration Testing and Ethical Hacking and SEC567: Social Engineering for Penetration Testers.


About SANS
SANS is the most trusted and by far the largest source for information security training and security certification in the world. It also develops, maintains, and makes available at no cost, the largest collection of research documents about various aspects of information security, and it operates the Internet's early warning system - the Internet Storm Center.