Utilizing Criminal IP for Cyber Threat Hunting
Are you ready to protect your digital world from the growing dangers online? With cyber threats becoming more sophisticated every day, keeping your data safe has never been more important.
In this article, we’re going to explore how Criminal IP, an OSINT search engine, can help you stay one step ahead of cybercriminals. We’ll explain what Criminal IP is, how it works, and why using open-source intelligence (OSINT) is a game-changer for spotting and stopping threats.
Whether you’re deep into cybersecurity or just want to make sure your online presence is secure, understanding how to use tools like Criminal IP could make all the difference.
Getting to Know Criminal IP
Criminal IP is an OSINT search engine designed for cybersecurity tasks, such as assessing attack surfaces and identifying potential threats.
It continuously gathers and updates data in real-time, using AI technology to pinpoint dangerous IP addresses and domains. The risk is then rated on a 5-level scale. The data is organized with filters and tags to make searching easy. Additionally, it can be integrated with other tools and systems (e.g., Cisco, AWS Marketplace, WordPress, Zabbix) using an API for seamless integration.
Understanding OSINT Search Engines
To truly understand what Criminal IP can do, one must first know what an OSINT search engine is.
OSINT stands for Open Source Intelligence, which involves gathering and analyzing data from open sources like the internet, social media, and public records.
An OSINT search engine is a tool specifically designed to help users find and analyze information that is publicly available across various online sources.
These search engines are commonly used by cybersecurity experts, investigators, journalists, and researchers to uncover crucial information, identify potential threats, or reveal hidden details.
They often come with advanced features that allow users to search multiple platforms at once, apply specific filters, and even keep track of ongoing activities.
10 Reasons Why OSINT Matters in Cybersecurity
The importance of Open Source Intelligence (OSINT) in cybersecurity cannot be overstated, as it plays a vital role in helping organizations and professionals identify and manage threats, improve situational awareness, and make informed decisions.
Here’s why it is so crucial…
1. Identifying and Monitoring Threats
By monitoring publicly available data—such as social media, forums, and websites—cybersecurity teams can spot early signs of potential attacks, such as discussions about vulnerabilities or planned actions. This allows them to take proactive defensive measures.
2. Assessing Vulnerabilities
Tools that analyze open-source information are key in uncovering weaknesses in an organization’s digital infrastructure. This includes finding exposed servers, unsecured databases, and misconfigured systems that could be exploited by attackers. Addressing these issues promptly can prevent breaches.
3. Responding to Incidents
In the event of a cybersecurity incident, gathering intelligence from publicly available sources helps understand the attacker’s methods, tools, and motivations. This information is crucial for assessing the attack’s scope, identifying compromised systems, and crafting an effective response strategy.
4. Supporting Penetration Testing
During the reconnaissance phase of penetration testing, gathering open-source data about a target helps simulate real-world attacks. This allows penetration testers to identify potential weaknesses in defenses and suggest improvements.
5. Managing Brand and Reputation
Monitoring public mentions of a brand, products, or employees can alert organizations to potential threats like phishing sites, fake social media profiles, or leaked data. This early warning helps protect and manage the organization’s reputation.
6. Ensuring Compliance and Due Diligence
Open-source intelligence is also valuable for ensuring regulatory compliance. Monitoring for data leaks, unauthorized disclosures, or any public information that might indicate non-compliance is essential. It is equally useful in due diligence during mergers, acquisitions, or partnerships, providing insight into the cybersecurity posture of potential partners.
7. Enhancing Situational Awareness
By collecting and analyzing data from various sources, organizations gain a broader view of the cybersecurity landscape. This improved situational awareness helps them stay ahead of emerging threats, industry trends, and cybercriminal activities.
8. Gathering Intelligence Cost-Effectively
Since the information comes from public sources, it is often more cost-effective than other intelligence methods. Organizations can gather valuable insights without needing expensive resources or access to restricted data.
9. Supporting Law Enforcement and Investigations
Publicly available intelligence is widely used by law enforcement agencies to gather evidence and track criminal activities. In cybersecurity, it helps trace attack origins, identify perpetrators, and support legal actions against cybercriminals.
10. Managing Supply Chain Risks
Monitoring the supply chain for vulnerabilities or threats is another critical application. Identifying risks associated with third-party vendors or partners helps protect the organization from potential exploits.
What Criminal IP Can Do?
Now, back to Criminal IP, the OSINT search engine. Criminal IP offers powerful tools for exploring vulnerabilities and tracking all types of devices connected to the internet, including IP addresses, domains, IoT devices, and industrial control systems (ICS).
Here’s a quick look at what they all do:
Search Functions:
| Asset Search | Provides risk scoring, linked asset information, abuse history, and associated vulnerability information to determine the threat of a searched IP address. Alternatively, you can search directly for the service name with a keyword, or search for the CVE number to find the associated IP address. |
| Domain Search | Scans domain information in real-time to provide information, including whether it is a phishing link, malicious link, and certificate validity, along with risk scoring. |
| Image Search | Provides image information for assets vulnerable to cyber threats when searched under various conditions such as RDP, Phishing, Webcam, VNC, and RTSP. |
| Exploit Search | Analyzes common vulnerabilities and exposures (CVE) and provides detailed information, including actual hijacking codes, per service. |
Intelligence Features:
| Banner Explorer | Provides categorized threat intelligence on products and services such as cryptocurrency, databases, and IoT devices. |
| Vulnerability Intelligence | Offers details on exposed vulnerabilities, categorized by CVE ID and product name, aiding in proactive monitoring and management. |
| Statistics | Provides statistical graphs of VPN, Proxy, Tor, scanner, and malicious IPs over the past 7 days, visualizing the status of suspicious anonymous IPs and offering sample data. |
| Element Analysis | When performing a keyword search, filters can be applied for country, service, ASN, product name, port number, and favicon hash, allowing you to view statistics for each category. |
| Maps | Visualizes data geographically, showing the locations of IPs, domains, or assets, helping to assess the scope of potential attacks. |
Using Criminal IP in Real-World Scenarios
Criminal IP is a tool that you can access through its API to gather threat intelligence on any device, server, or domain connected to the internet. It is useful in various areas of cybersecurity, such as managing attack surfaces, penetration testing, vulnerability and malware analysis, as well as investigation and research.
For example, when a new vulnerability or ransomware is discovered, Criminal IP helps you determine how many PCs or servers are at risk or already infected. You can also check if the IP addresses or domains you are using are vulnerable.
Additionally, Criminal IP scans for malicious and phishing URLs generated by hackers in real time, allowing you to analyze threats without needing to interact with them directly.
How the API Works
The Criminal IP API makes it easy to integrate these capabilities into your own systems. By using an API key for authentication, you can access various endpoints to analyze IP addresses, domains, and URLs for potential threats. These endpoints provide key information like risk scores, geolocation, and a history of malicious activities, all returned in JSON format for smooth integration.
The API uses simple HTTP requests and allows you to automate threat detection, helping you stay on top of cybersecurity risks.
To learn more about integrating Criminal IP’s API, check out their GitHub Reference page or their Best Practice page.
Criminal IP’s Pricing
Last but not least, let’s take a look at the plans Criminal IP offers and how much they cost:
- Free: Get up to 50 IP lookups and 100 search query results per month.
- Lite: S$85/month, offering 100,000 IP lookups and 1,000,000 search query results.
- Medium: S$454/month, providing 1,000,000 IP lookups and 20,000,000 search query results.
- Pro: S$1,416/month, with unlimited IP lookups and search query results, plus premium support.
For more details, check out the pricing page.