theinfopunk.com-hugo/content/OSINT/osint_on_usenet.md

---
title: "OSINT On Usenet"
date: 2022-11-17T21:37:55+01:00
draft: false
---
# OSINT on Usenet

This document is a work in progress.

## Introduction

The purpose of this guide is to give a general introduction to what is
Usenet, why is it important, and how to perform OSINT on it.

## What is Usenet?

Usenet is a decentralized, worldwide, peer-to-peer system for circulating messages between users.

### A little terminology:

* Usenet: A worldwide distributed discussion system that operates on a
    purely peer-to-peer basis.
* Newsgroups: Discussions forums on Usenet. Newsgroups can either be
    moderated or unmoderated. An example of a newsgroup would be the
    alt.fan.usenetnewsgroup.
* Binary Newsgroups Many newsgroups in the alt.\* hierarchy are binary
    groups and are very active for filesharing. In the past, this
    caused a major disruption to Usenet as many providers dropped
    Usenet as a service. Not onlywere copyrighted materials being
    shared but so was child pornography. ManyUsenet servers will not
    carry binary newsgroups, though most paid servicesstill do.
* Text Newsgroups The overwhelming majority of discussions take place
    on text newsgroups. Text newsgroups are just plain text. If you
    download a news article from a text newsgroup, it will only
    contain plain text which makes it very useful for searching and
    organizing.
* Articles: Messages or posts on newsgroups are known as articles.
* Hierarchies: Groups of newsgroups. These may be unmanaged such as
    the alt.\* and free.\* hierarchies or they may be managed by
    volunteer organizations. Many hierarchies are geographically
    specific. In the past, many hierarchies were run by corporations
    such as Microsoft and Novell, but those have become disused over
    time.
* The Big-8: The Big-8 is a collection of hierarchies that are the
    decedents of the original hierarchies that have been with Usenet
    since the very beginning. Many newsgroups still have active
    communities.
* Servers: Usenet servers are what make up the Usenet. They are run by
    hobbyists and non-profit organizations or by companies that sell
    access. Hobbyists and non-profits typically do not carry binary
    newsgroups. While they do not outwardly advertise this fact,
    Usenet access companies focus on providing access as a means for
    filesharing.

## Why is Usenet Important?

While Usenet was originally developed in the late 1970s and early
1980s,it is still an active network with hundreds of servers worldwide
that operate in a purely peer-to-peer manner. Usenet does not have any
kind of top-down structure. Server administrators decide for
themselves what newsgroups they want to carry on their servers. Many
newsgroups and entire hierarchieshave been dormant for years. That
doesn't mean that there isn't any activity there, it
just means that it is far less than it was in its heyday.

One of the purposes of this guide is to demonstrate how to perform
historical research on Usenet. What was said 20 years ago on a Usenet
newsgroup may have real value to investigations today.

### A little history:

Usenet began as a project between the University of North Carolina and
Duke University in 1979. The grad students who began the project
presented it the following year at the annual USENIX conference and
after that, it exploded in popularity at universities and corporations
that did not have access to the predecessor of the Internet, the
ARPAnet.

In the late 1980s, Usenet servers starting being available on the new
Internet. In the 1990's, Usenet was the message board of the
Internet. Early online services like AOL and Compuserv had their own
message boardsand chat rooms, but many of the best conversations were
happening on Usenet. Much of today's online culture originated
on Usenet. This where we get concepts such as trolling and spam. It is
where Linux and IMDB had their starts. Activists like Julian Assange
got their start on Usenet and the seeds for Bitcoin were discussed
years before it was originally published. In the 90s and early 2000s,
Usenet was the 4chan, Reddit, Twitter, and Slashdot, of the Internet.

### Usenet today:

Usenet isn't what it used to be, but that doesn't mean
that it is completely dead. For the OSINT investigator, it is probably
not atop-tier location for investigations today. However, due to its
historic importance and the fact that it is still alive, albeit much
smaller, it should not be ignored.

Because Usenet is based on sending plain text messages, much if it has
been archived to this day and can be continually archives easily. That
isn't something that can be said about the proprietary systems
of the online services or even about modern services like Reddit or
Twitter where messages must be manually archived and are subject to
deletion by moderators at any time.

## How to perform OSINT on Usenet