GOSI sample questions

Question 1

Which Google search operator would an analyst use to find Excel spreadsheets containing the word 'budget' located specifically on government websites ending in .gov?

Accepted Answer

site:gov filetype:xls budget

Answer

source:.gov type:spreadsheet budget

Answer

inurl:gov ext:excel budget

Answer

domain:gov format:xls budget

Question 2

An OSINT investigator is analyzing a target's presence on a specific social media platform. The investigator needs to determine the exact date and time a user account was created to correlate it with known events. The platform does not display this information on the profile page. Which technique would most reliably provide this data without interacting with the target?

Accepted Answer

Extract the unique numeric User ID from the profile source code or URL and use a known ID-to-date conversion tool or formula specific to that platform

Answer

Send a connection request to see if the platform displays 'Member since' in the pending request notification

Answer

Analyze the EXIF data of the profile picture to find the digitization date

Answer

Review the 'Wayback Machine' for the earliest capture of the profile page

Question 3

You are investigating a shell company suspected of money laundering. You have identified a website purportedly belonging to the company. Which of the following records would be MOST valuable for identifying the underlying infrastructure provider and potentially the real geographic location of the server, even if the domain uses a privacy protection service?

Accepted Answer

SOA (Start of Authority) record

Answer

Robots.txt file

Answer

TXT record for SPF

Answer

CNAME record for 'www'

Question 4

Select TWO primary reasons why an OSINT investigator would use a 'sock puppet' account during a social media investigation. (Select TWO)

Accepted Answer

To protect the investigator's real identity and organization from being discovered by the target

Accepted Answer

To access information that is restricted to registered users or specific network connections (e.g., 2nd degree connections)

Answer

To legally hack into the target's private messages

Answer

To manipulate the target into committing a crime

Question 5

A multinational corporation has suffered a data breach. An OSINT analyst is tasked with determining if any executive credentials have been exposed on the dark web. The analyst decides to use an automated tool to search multiple paste sites and marketplaces. Which of the following is the MOST critical technical constraint the analyst must configure to avoid being blocked by these services?

Accepted Answer

Request Rate Limiting / Throttling

Answer

Database Schema Normalization

Answer

XML Parsing Strictness

Answer

SSL Certificate Validation

Question 6

True or False: When conducting a 'passive' OSINT investigation on a target organization's network infrastructure, sending packets directly to the target's firewall to banner grab is considered an acceptable passive technique.

Accepted Answer

False

Answer

True

Question 7

Case Study:

Scenario:
You are an OSINT analyst for a financial institution. You are investigating 'TechVibe Solutions', a startup requesting a large loan. They claim to be a 5-year-old company with 50+ employees and a robust proprietary technology stack. You need to verify their claims using only public data.

Findings:
1. Domain 'techvibe-solutions.com' was registered 3 months ago via a privacy service.
2. The 'Team' page lists 5 people with stock photos that reverse image search to multiple other sites.
3. LinkedIn shows only 2 employees, both created last month.
4. BuiltWith scan of their site shows a generic WordPress template with no custom applications.

Based on these findings, what is the MOST likely conclusion regarding TechVibe Solutions' legitimacy?

Accepted Answer

The company is likely a shell entity or synthetic identity fraud operation, as the digital footprint contradicts their claims of longevity and size.

Answer

The company recently rebranded, necessitating a new domain and website.

Answer

The analysis is inconclusive because private companies are not required to have a LinkedIn presence.

Answer

The company is legitimate but operates in stealth mode, explaining the lack of public footprint.

Question 8

Which of the following browser fingerprinting attributes provides the highest entropy (uniqueness) for identifying a specific device, making it a critical factor to mask during an OSINT investigation?

Accepted Answer

HTML5 Canvas element rendering data

Answer

Time zone offset

Answer

Browser User-Agent string

Answer

Accept-Language header

Free GOSI sample questions

Which Google search operator would an analyst use to find Excel spreadsheets containing the word 'budget' located specifically on government websites ending in .gov?

Select TWO primary reasons why an OSINT investigator would use a 'sock puppet' account during a social media investigation. (Select TWO)

True or False: When conducting a 'passive' OSINT investigation on a target organization's network infrastructure, sending packets directly to the target's firewall to banner grab is considered an acceptable passive technique.

Which of the following browser fingerprinting attributes provides the highest entropy (uniqueness) for identifying a specific device, making it a critical factor to mask during an OSINT investigation?

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